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art in your home

80 replies

puppydavies · 10/11/2007 20:20

does anyone buy art? commission paintings? collect sculpture? i'm curious who - if anyone - buys art for their home, and what draws them to choose what they do.

i just ordered some photographic prints from an online contact i've long admired. i have very little money and even less space so it's not something i do often but sometimes i can't help myself. you can pick up prints (photographic or screen) for just a few £ from someone just starting out and i like the idea that i'm giving more than just verbal appreciation and support for people's work.

tell me what's on your walls (or plinths ) and how it came to be there.

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puppydavies · 10/11/2007 21:35

ooh woodcuts mas - that's reminded me - can you recommend anyone? i have a couple of marimekko-style screen prints (i'm a thwarted textile artist at heart) in my back room, from ebay of all places. but i seem to remember buying those when i got sidetracked whilst searching for a lovely woodcut or linocut.

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janeite · 10/11/2007 21:42

Love that Bee photograph!

southeastastra · 10/11/2007 21:44

i have a good friend who paints the most bizarre things, she has had a few exhibitions. i have one of her works on the wall. she's a good artist (if slightly mad)

fireflyfairy2 · 10/11/2007 21:45

I have a couple of Martin Laverty oils on canvas, bought in a gallery not that far from my home town. They are very small but plain & simplistic, they're the only splashes of colour in my otherwise plain livingroom.

By far the nicest & my favourite thing adorning my wall at the minute is a hand carving of a St. Brigid's cross. It is dark mahogany wood & we won it at an auction at a gala night we went to last March.

I loved it when we went in at the start of the night & when it came up for auction dh bid for it. He got it for £700 & the proceeds went to the Hurling club.

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puppydavies · 10/11/2007 21:50

lol sea surely "slightly mad" is one of the basic requirements (no disrespect to anyone on this thread )

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MerlinsBeard · 10/11/2007 21:51

Thank you

Acually, this thread has given me the kick up the arse to get the others online so thank you again

MaryAnnSingleton · 10/11/2007 21:51

puppy, don't know a lot about woodcuts or know of any artists who do them - this was a student selling on the streets in Edinburgh.

MaryAnnSingleton · 10/11/2007 21:54

mumofmonsters - the lily one is very lovely !

southeastastra · 10/11/2007 21:54

i love her art. she is from taiwan and her pictures feature men in stipey shirts with buckets for heads.

it's a recurrent theme with her!

MaryAnnSingleton · 10/11/2007 21:56

do you think that people are generally afraid to put art up on their walls, maybe in case it's not 'good' art or because they don't know what they like ?

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puppydavies · 10/11/2007 21:56

great pics mom, very graphic and striking and i love your use of colour.

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Nightynight · 10/11/2007 21:56

this thread is really interesting. I am another ex art student, and my house is full of paintings, prints and a few woodcarvings.

Some are done by me, and the rest were bought at car boot sales and junk shops. The oldest is more than 200 years old.

The "cheapest" is a naive painting done on cardboard and framed very cheaply, bought in Plymouth and signed "G Allen" in backwards sloping capitals. It is absolutely perfect in composition and colouring (lots of yellow), and I think it is a jazzed up view of a Plymouth street. I would LOVE to know more about this artist.

I have almost no modern art apart from my own stuff, which is only because you don't find much of it in boot sales. I have got some ideas for a series of contemporary paintings that I'd like to do when I have time, and the tone of my house would certainly change!

If you like buying art on holiday, I can certainly recommend visiting Bavaria! It is far commoner to have art in the house here than in the UK, consequently there is a lot of it for sale, both new and second hand.

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puppydavies · 10/11/2007 21:58

aah no heads . my brother is a painter and a lot of his pictures have the heads and/or hands obscured. i tease him it's because they're too difficult to draw

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Nightynight · 10/11/2007 21:58

maryann, I think people in the UK just dont have the disposable income. It isn't in the culture.
It's my impression that people in Devon are more likely to own art than in teh rest of the UK, but maybe I am wrong about that.

southeastastra · 10/11/2007 21:59

if you like something you'll put it up.

i don't think many people get art

MaryAnnSingleton · 10/11/2007 22:00

possibly...but some people don't have anything at all, not even a print from a poster shop..I couldn't bear not to have things on my walls

MaryAnnSingleton · 10/11/2007 22:01

actually, I do know some quite well off people that don't have art on the walls,come to think of it

yurt1 · 10/11/2007 22:02

snigger nightynight. I'm in Devon and we have quite a few prints (can't afford the originals). A Rolf Harris (!) a Beryl Cook, a large print of my great uncle who was an early black football player, another local artist (Pollard) that no-one will have heard of, a print we bought from an artist in Lyme Regis that reminded us of ds1. I want to buy a Lee Woods original (cows) but never have enough cash.

Nightnight- if you can email me the piccy of the street I might recognise it.

Nightynight · 10/11/2007 22:04

maybe they are just not very visual?

I have very few cds, and I almost never listen to them. I am just not musical.

School doesn't teach people to be artistic, I think.

MaryAnnSingleton · 10/11/2007 22:06

I suppose I'm just lucky to have been brought up in an arty house !

Nightynight · 10/11/2007 22:07

thank you yurt, I'll send you a message when I have time to take a picture! (I am just off to do my monthly tax return now, it has to be filed by midnight, lol thats 55 minutes time and I havent started it yet)

Katymac · 10/11/2007 22:08

I always have music on
I have pictures everywhere - posters, prints a few originals, photos, DD's stuff
I commission stuff left right & centre (which I only realised when I made that post before)

But I do not consider myself artistic or visual & I certainly don't get art

It's odd isn't it - peoples reaction to art/pictures and how a picture can be considered "art" or "not art" (iyswim)

southeastastra · 10/11/2007 22:08

my friend also does alot of frog pictures, she's obsessed! i think you would like her maryann

mazzystar · 10/11/2007 22:11

we have a few nice things - a couple from artist/photographer friends and two contemporary fine art photographs which i bought for dh in the days pre kids when i had a bit more money. we're going to buy a couple more limited edition prints for each other for xmas.

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puppydavies · 10/11/2007 22:11

i remember mirrors, plates, needlework (done by my mum) but no pictures on my parents' walls. although they did commission a large batik from friends. we were odd too that we had no family photos on display anywhere.

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