Do you have art in your house and can you tell me about it please?

[ohfook]

I was at a friend’s house for the first time this week and they had loads of lovely art (original pieces) up on their wall and it just looked so good that it made me realise that I want to do the same.

My friend’s art was all centred around the same theme and colour scheme. I would say well over half were by the same local artist too.

I do not have an eye for colour at all so I suppose my question is, if you have a lot of art in your house, does it look better if you pick a colour scheme and go with it or can a mish-mash approach work just as well? Also do prints look a bit shit compared to the real thing or can prints look good too?

Last question where do you actually buy your stuff from and roughly how much do you spend? I have a very small budget!!

We have lots of art. I wouldn’t dream of getting it to match a colour scheme, though. That’s very weird.

Bar one painting which was a 40th birthday present to myself, all my artwork, including ceramics, is from charity shops. Many originals, watercolours, lithographs, some prints.

I haven't found anything decent for at least a couple of years now though ☹️, I think all the good stuff is ending up on charity websites and eBay.

Yes lots. All originals - some runs eg 1/20 or 1/200 all signed. Each room typically colour themed, some collections of a similar theme by the same artist or some in a colour scheme.

we got all of our art and the framing from Nelly Duff or Jealous London.

Funny story. Nelly Duff posted a piece on their social media for sale once and it was beautifully and unusually framed too. We rushed down to purchase it and whilst getting it packaged Gary Barlow called to try and buy it. 😂😂

I have art in all rooms: a few prints, but mostly originals I’ve chosen over the years, plus some good oil copies of my favourite artist. I have planned room designs around a couple of my favourite art works, generally creating the perfect space to show something off or sometimes picking out a colour from the picture to use in the room.

My favourite is Bernard louedin French artist, I bought some from a gallery then picked up some earlier stuff from ebay of some of his etchings.

Each room has a different type of art predominantly. Our sitting room has pencil sketches of people (although we have a little bit of wall with images of places). Dining Room has original fashion plates from 1800s, mostly inherited. Front bedroom has quirky and brightly coloured artwork in what used to be son's bedroom so he chose quite a bit of it. Also animal pics.

We have quite a lot of original art and also framed posters from art exhibitions we have been too. No rules, if we like it and can afford it we buy it then work out where to hang it.

My step mum is a potter and her family and friends are artists so over the years she’s given me quite a few paintings/prints or I’ve bought them at their exhibitions. DH has a friend at work who is a painter and we’ve bought three of his paintings- I also have a few exhibition posters and two of book covers. I love them.

Look for local art societies or galleries holding shows. Also some areas hold open studios - one near me is every weekend for a.month, with artists showing their work in their homes or studios.

We have 2 Simon Kenny originals which are just so beautiful. I love the bright colours in them. We also have some Mr Brainwash pieces. A couple of originals and a couple of prints. We have a Queen Elizabeth print and my recent one is No 10 being run by monkeys. It makes me chuckle every time I look at it.

We have bought loads over the years. The best of all is a piece of original art we bought at the London Affordable Art Fair. This was about 30 years ago now and it was much more expensive than anything else we ever bought ( about £900). But it is stunning and everyone comments on it (and there is a queue of people wanting to inherit it!).

Thank you for all of your replies. Now that owning art in my house has been my dream for at least 48 hours I guess now I need to figure out what I like. I went to a local market at the weekend and all of the art on sale was images linked to our city in one way or another. Now I love where I’m from but I don’t think pictures of Newcastle is all I want. I loved the advice earlier of letting the art find me so I think for now I’m just going to make sure I can see a lot of art and figure out what it is I’m into.

Thank you you again - it’s been lovely reading all of your thoughts on something which I hadn’t really considered up until a week ago. It’s so interesting the different things people collect and enjoy.

we have an art wall with an eclectic mix of styles and they all mean something or we just liked them. Most are prints but we have a couple of small original pieces as well. Each piece is totally different but we tie them together with matching dark frames. We have found some lovely prints in charity shops. One bargain was a tapestry of the alphabet which we thoroughly love.

I've got some original artwork- paintings and ceramic figures bought in Devon / Cornwall when we used to go on hols there.
Also bought a painting from House of Fraser.
And some prints.
Do tend to pick out colours that will fit with the colour scheme of the room.

Need a couple more to replace faded prints in the lounge , but struggling to find them.

I certainly don't have loads but I've picked up a few pieces from different countries/places which also make for a nice memory.. including a textile piece I had framed. I also have a print I spotted in a charity shop, and a painting my grandfather did. I also had a lino print I did at a workshop but that got damaged. So a real mish mash and id love more but would pick what I like, not really thinking about what it will go with.

All my art is either by or of people I’ve met.

Mostly friends & family, but I fell in love with a painting at an exhibition by a local hobby group. It wasn’t marked as for sale but they put me in touch with the artist, who was delighted.

We met in a local cafe after the exhibition was over, made the transaction and had a lovely long chat about the painting 😀.

Look in charity shops. Theres always some nice art. It’s low risk as you only need to spend a few quid and you can donate them back until you find the right ones.

Look for Lino cuts on Etsy. These are original prints, not reproductions. A print will be numbered e.g. 5/25, if the artist has made 25 prints. There is plenty of choice and it's a reasonably prices way to collect original art.

I've a fair bit of inherited original art work - the most valuable is worth about £10k - my favourite turned out to be a forgery but I still love it. My most expensive purchase was £5k by an artist friend whose work I love and I recently bought a signed Lizzie Riches screen print which makes me very happy.

An inherited 19th century Welsh landscape.
Various watercolours by Granny. A mirror with the frame carved by my great grandmother. Aunt's pencil sketch of me as a baby. Various prints and photos of places I've lived or visited. A couple of 19th century samplers. A couple of exhibition posters. Various pots, a few glass pieces. A couple of seascapes n oils I bought as birthday presents to myself. A Victorian oleograph of "After Culloden."

My husband loves art. He is a good artist himself so we have some of his original pieces on our walls. The rest is prints. Our favourite and most expensive is a large print of Jim Moir (vic reaves) bird colour wheel. I love it.

It’s worth going to open studio events and college/ uni end of year shows.

We have a fair bit. One very expensive piece from my favourite ‘famous’ artist (portrait), three pieces from a local artist (mix of still life and nature) and several limited edition artist-produced prints.

I buy whatever strikes me rather than forming any interior cohesion. I was trained in Fine Art.

Frieze and the Affordable Art Fair are good places to go, as are local galleries in UK market towns.

I have a mix of prints and originals, definitely no theme, its mostly pieces I picked up over the years in charity shops because they looked beautiful to me, plus some prints I nicked from my parents house after they moved and hadn't found anywhere to hang them yet. Also have some of my children's artwork up, of course.