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?

Definitely get into the habit of searching out galleries wherever you go. We do this and have bought some really lovely things. We buy pictures as well as ceramics and glass. We use Instagram a lot too. Find one or two artists you like and then look to see who they follow. That way you find out about exhibitions and art fairs too.

Places to start:

• Open Studios
• Visit an exhibition at a museum/art gallery/town hall/library and buy from there
• Visit a shop which is dedicated to selling art (eg: Primavera in Cambridge). Or an art market.
• Auctions (including EBay!)
• Etsy/DeviantArt etc, especially if you want low-run prints.

I would suggest a middle ground of numbered works by printmakers - lithograph prints, linocut prints or etchings. Completely different to an ‘art print’ Royal Academy artists such as Norman Ackroyd create beautiful work which is still reasonable. Try the Zillah Bell gallery too.

Is there something that like this near you?

www.thehearth.co.uk/

Thank you so much,!!!

Have you tried the affordable art fair in Hampstead?

affordableartfair.com/

Or art republic?

Some great suggestions here. Keep your eye out for fundraisers too. I bought a beautiful painting at a fundraising event for a zoo once. I also got lucky one time when dragged into a junk shop by a friend. I found a nice watercolour which was on sale for $20. Turned out to be by a fairly prominent local artist whose work usually sells for a few thousand. I love it though and wouldn’t part with it.

Go into your local Whitewall to start with, with an idea of the space you'd like to fill. They have lots of books and will invite you to exhibitions so you can work out the styles you like and don't. They are good at explaining things to beginners too. They work with De Montfort artists.

Contact local art colleges or 6th forms and ask if anyone has anything available to sell, that way you get first pick of up coming artists and different ideas to what is normally available.

My husband paints. Search on the book of face for Ross Main art.

I follow artists I like on Facebook and then jump if I see something I like.

What is Whitewall @kenadams ? (off to google)

My favourite at the moment is Mary Shaw. I also like Phillip Gray and The Rocks brothers. They are twins but I can't remember their first names. All do landscapes but are amazing with light.

Personally I would not use whitewalls. I know someone who worked there.
I won’t say more. But I would seriously advise against it.

I mean you could buy a good David Hockney for under 5k
Or peter Blake!
Or basically any famous artist, as long as you go for a ltd edition original print.
Heck even a Picasso or miro

www.christies.com/features/Prints-Collecting-Guide-7471-1.aspx

A good guide. I collect original prints. They hold their value. They’re by artists that you already love. They are a great investment.

I've bought quite a bit from the Affordable Art Fair before. I've only been to London but I think there's a few other UK ones now.

affordableartfair.com

I've bought paintings from a couple of local art galleries and also from a local art festival:

pittenweemartsfestival.co.uk/ARTISTS/artists-a-e.html

Latest painting I bought was from by this artist:

www.greengallery.com/artists/lex-mcfadyen/

I really wouldn't use whitewalls, vastly over priced, very little goes to the artist and the quality isn't great. The ethics of the way they get an artist to do a "version" of what someone else does are very questionable too.

Pmk for tomorrow

Dp has a friend who is a great artist (mostly does graffitii style stuff, but can really paint as well) so we send him photos of what we'd like, and he puts his spin on it on canvas. Not too expensive, but fantastic.

Thanks @justbreathing
I have so much to learn. I feel like one of the Beverly hillbillies rocking up asking for "that there art".

(I used to have limited edition dali print but my sister now has it, damn)

there is a huge art event locally every year with hundreds of small linked exhibitions. I got interested in one artist three years ago, and last year I bought one of his prints (he does linocut which I love). it was £145 which is a lot for me. I absolutely love it.

My brother ! Julian Sutherland-Beatson.....he's brilliant !

Try thesaleroom.com which has details of loads of auctions all over the country.
If say you like paintings of farmyards you can put ‘ farmyard’ in an alert on the website and it will email you every time a painting of a farmyard is coming up for sale.
You can put in any artists you like and get alerts when their work is coming up.
My dh and I like Victorian paintings which are unfashionable at the moment (not the the really famous artists obviously) and we’ve picked up some real bargains.
If you’ve got time Go to viewings of auctions at local sale rooms.