Where so you find nice affordable art for the walls

[tostaky]

And by affordable i mean cheap like max £200 a piece
i would like a nice anstract painting for the wall behind me in my small office.
but alao something for the staircase leading to the loft
i mean all my walls are empty and i want to add charactoor fun or style or atmosphere though art.
i do not want slogan or bintage posters
i did go to “the affordable art fair” but the cheapest piece was around &600!!!
any advice appreciated
thanks

I’ve never been to the Affordable Art show, but I do regularly go to local art exhibitions and craft fairs and £200 would certainly be enough to get something unique, interesting and well made at those.

Holidays are my main source of art, though. I’ve bought many prints, collages, textiles, ceramics and traditional paintings over the years and I don’t think I’ve ever hit the £200 mark. Even postcards from museums or galleries can make an impact if displayed as a set.

Thank you - lots of ideas to explore!

It's worth googling and looking out for Open Studios in your area, local artists often do these in run up to Christmas and will include original prints and drawings for that kind of money.
Having said that my OH found a fabulous framed print in a skip near his work many years ago, hangs on our wall to this day!

ours are a mix of good quality prints (one of Hockney’s dachshund series, bought at Salts Mill, and a couple of big Audubon bird illustrations we got when we lived in the USA) and paintings from local art shows, some bought while on holiday in a part of the U.K. we love.

I would say explore open studios, and auctions. I also buy from Print Club London who are great and very reasonably priced

I've used bridgeman images to buy a personal copyright license for a couple of artists works I'm really keen on. They then send a high quality image file which I then send to a printer to have printed on really decent paper. The framing has been the most expensive bit, so recently I've bought the frames first, cheap from IKEA, then made sure the printer prints to the right size for the frame.

We've picked up original art on eBay and at fleamarkets/car boot sales for anything from under £20 to £2000 (just one very special piece at the higher price).

When we lived in Wales, DH briefly worked at a local auction house where he picked up a few paintings for £5 or less. Occasionally these were items that had been through three times and didn't sell. The seller no longer wanted them back so they would otherwise have been binned!

Additionally I've copied a few things when I found something I liked but considered the asking price too high - in one case it cost me nothing as we'd been given a canvas with a horrible painting which I had no reservations about painting over.

We also have museum quality prints that I've sourced vintage/interesting frames for.

Usually the art finds me though - if I set out to look for something specific, I rarely have success, so it's a waiting game for a piece I love to come along 😉

Whilst I do have 'proper' art I have bought large frames with an included mount with different size/style holes. I then place, as suggested above, cards and postcards that mean something to me. E.g. where I have family links or holiday memories I might search for an artist's work showing that place. It does keep the price down and you can easily change them by say season. I also have a large wire card holder which is another idea. The pictures have to 'talk' to you though!

Local art clubs will often have 'shows' in local halls. You can pick up some lovely original pieces for very little as the artists aren't professionals - but I'd rather buy art from someone I know than a soulless piece of mass produced stuff.

But I'm lucky in that my DD1s MIL is an artist, so I pop round to her house and buy something off the wall! She's brilliant.

Another vote for King and McGaw