To ask where to get good art?

[doesthiseemright]

Not many people I know, in person, have much art in their homes and so I am asking here. Seems a reasonable place to ask?

Anyway, for those into art, where do you find your pieces for your home/collection?

Yes, definitely sculptures. I haven't found any galleries near me, sadly. I will have to go further afield.

Investigate local open art studios. We have specific weekends of the year when dozens of local artists display and sell their work usually in private homes but also in commercial studios. It’s fascinating to see so much talent and a great way to buy original works.

Sorry I forgot to add that if you buy direct you avoid the massive markups that galleries charge.

@matildathecat where do you find these? We don't seem to have anything like that around here. Only those little farm animal style pictures on coffee shop walls for sale.

What sort of art are you in to, OP?
We have some wonderful, colourful abstract stuff. However, the artist is my MIL so it was fairly easy for us to purchase

Ours are quite a big event and I happen to be friends with an artist. I can only suggest googling ‘open art studios in x area’ to see what comes up. Likely to be in the summer.

I would add that buying from unknown artists is very unlikely to be an investment as most will never become ‘known’ or collectible’. On the other hand Van Gogh didn’t sell a single piece during his lifetime so you never know.

In which part of the country are you, OP? Perhaps you could contact your nearest tourist information office, they should be able to tell you if there are any local open art studio days etc. where you live. Or check with your nearest art college. They are likely to have that kind of information.

Deffo the affordable art fair. They have a few in London and around the country.

Or art fairs in general. If you’re not in London there are lots of smaller ones.

www.saatchiart.com/theotherartfair

Saatchi art fairs are fun, would highly recommend

And if you want to buy decent art. Then a decent professional artist will usually have a gallery. And the prices are pretty set.
A bit to the person who said galleries have massive mark ups! It’s probably one of the toughest industries to make any profit.

The overheads are massive compared to the rate of return. Most galleries don’t make a profit yearly.

But I guess all gallery owners are just greedy people who want to rip off artists and buyers.

We have bought some lovely paintings on holiday in Cornwall and we have also bought some paintings by favorite contemporary artists by auction.

I have registered with "the saleroom" website which allows you to bid online for paintings, you can also set alerts so that when artists you like come up you are alerted.

I also second The affordable art fair" its great, and lots of reasonable prices.

What kind of budget are you thinking? Under £100 smaller pieces? A couple of hundred? A couple of grand?

Are you looking for a head or heart purchase?

What style do you like? Modern, abstract, landscape etc etc.

I like a mixture of things. After art for the home so I think it would be a heart purchase. The rooms in the house are quite different, so I guess a range of modern and abstract. Not a big fan of poster prints or portraits. Under £5000.

This is the type of paintings I love to look at, I see something different in it every time.

www.artfinder.com/product/space-31c8/#/

Under 5000 for how many?
Look at
tagfineart
Or jealous gallery
I think they do great contemporary original prints. You can get a shrigley for a couple of K. If you like him that is.
But they have a good range. They both do the affordable are fair. Brilliant to deal with.

Auction houses? Try www.the-saleroom.com

I prefer to buy original art from local artists. I’ve bought several pieces from a small dealer in NI who owns and runs a website called Irish Art Plus. He has a small gallery at home which you can make an appointment to visit .
Paula McKinney is my current favourite artist atm. Liam has quite a few of her paintings listed on his website atm .

Two other artists I’m familiar with are David Sweet and Derek Melville . Both localish to me and very talented and collectible .

Studio73art.com

Partnership editions

I like Livvy Donald Art too

davidsweet.co.uk/

Another favourite
www.kathryncallaghan.co.uk/animals/

A bit hmm to the person who said galleries have massive mark ups!

Yeah, because commercial galleries don’t charge 40-60% commission, do they?

There has just been an open studios weekend locally - around 200 local artists took part, so all types of sculpture, jewellery, textiles, paintings, prints, photographs etc to fit all budgets (£25k to a few pounds).

I recommend local open studios. There will be a trail somewhere near you at some point in the year. They usually run for one or two weeks. It gives you a chance to view a lot of work and talk to the artists you are thinking of buying from.

Artists sell direct at the same price they would sell in a gallery. The galleries do a lot of work promoting the artist and it would upset the relationship if the artists sold their work at different prices in different locations.

Have a look at My Dog Sighs (strange name but amazing art) and Laura Rich. Alternatively phone That Art Gallery who are based in Bristol and speak to the owner. He's hugely knowledgeable, very friendly and runs a service where you pay him a percentage of your budget and he will go and find works that suit your taste. He spends a lot of his time researching artists, visiting studios and graduate shows and has judged at the RWA. I've bought a lot of stuff from him because he is very good at finding stuff I love.

We tend to buy at Art Fairs or Festivals mainly. Either locally, or while travelling in the uk. You can meet the artist and see the art up close and there is often a better range than in a gallery.

If you have a particular interest then there are all manner of specialist societies for certain types of art, things like the society of watercolour artists, the guild of railway artists, the society of equestrian artists and so on. They will have websites listing their members and normally annual exhibitions where you cam see their work.

Also keep an eye out for events at your local public museum and art gallery. They often have an annual "open exhibition" where much of the work will be for sale.