Hi All. Okay I started a new Hobby. I am collecting ART work. I always wanted to collect ART ..but really never got around to it. Well I started. I am starting with some signed and numbered prints and some other original art work. I buy what I like..not really into any style or medium. If I like it I buy it. Also I don't spend crazy money. I always though art work was tremendous expensive. But if you look around you can find some great work at a very, very fair price.

Anyone else collect art? Any tips on framing and matting. Can I frame and mat the prints myself. Since i'm not rolling in dough it seems professional framing and matting is more than the artwork itself

I'm excited to have company over and see if I get an compliments on the art work.

Any thoughts on this subject?

 

Greg,

I don't know too very much about the subject, but I've always heard investment advisors tell their clients that any piece of art that they buy as an investment should be a piece of art that they like. The reason being that it might have to hang on your wall for a very long time while it is appreciating.

Enjoy. One of these days I'm going to come over and admire your collection. (Greg and I live with about 5 miles of each other).

 

I bought 3 landscape paintings only because I liked them. The first one was an oil of the desert near where we live. Since then I bought 2 watercolors by the same artist. One is of Vasquez Rocks, also near where I live and the other is of a stream in the Sierra Nevadas. I don't look at the oil much anymore but I still love the watercolors. I also have a few watercolors I painted myself on the walls that I like.

 

Ralper is right,

Buy what you like. I would add that if you are buying as an investment, get a clear history of the artwork provenance. You can buy a "real" Botero on Ebay, but it's actually going to be a Jimmy Botero!

My favorite painting in our house is HUGE--over 4' x 4'. When I showed my aunt (professional artist in Santa Barbara), and said that it cost $35, she asked "35 hundred or thousand"? Actually, we bought it in Bali this year for $35!!! We got a nice frame job on it, and I could probably sell it for $3,500, realistically.

Lots of fun and rewarding, though.

 

Frequently communities hold "starving artist" sales where you may be able to buy some nice pieces for a pittance of what a gallery may sell the same piece. As far as framing, etc. goes -- you can generally get your framing materials, mats, etc. from craft stores if you are handy and do your own framing. Art can certainly make your home and surroundings much more interesting. Art clubs often have seasonal showings and sales where you can get some nice things for reasonable prices as well. Happy hunting!!

 

Rob is truly correct, buy what you like and what you can afford in that order.

We collect paintings and art glass, most of the art glass that we own is by smaller studios and artists because their work tends to be much more affordable. We certainly like Stankard, Chihully, Kuhn and many others but that price thing gets in the way.

We also collect a painter named Tim Cantor. We have met him and his wife and they are really nice folks.

Some pieces we have had for a number of years, but I still enjoy just looking at them.

 

I have quite a few nice pieces of artwork (paintings, sculptures, photographs), mostly in the clown/mime vein, but also some still lifes and landscapes. Some signed, some not. One of my favorite artists is a man named Fairchild. His painting "Bal Masque" (Masked Ball) is wonderful. I have it on my living room wall. Next to it are hanging some handmade Italian carnival masks I got from the Toscano catalog. Unfortunately, I have pieces stored away because I have run out of space in my condo.

There used to be stores around - one was called Make-A-Frame - where you could mat and frame your own stuff. More recently, though, I have had things done for me. It is expensive, but the results are worth it, in my opinion. If you buy art from an art store/gallery, they will sometimes give you a break on the framing.

 

If I see somthing I like and it can go somewhere in my overcrowded house and I can afford it and I think it is not overpriced...Then I buy it. I don't expect anything I buy to ever be worth anything.

 

I'm the same way.


fltsfshr

 

We have several paintings (oils and acrylics) that we particularly enjoy and some primitive art pieces that we love, along with a few other collectibles.

Some of the matroishka we've collected surrounded by a few of the elephants that I collect:


A few of the elephants in my collection -- I particularly like the alabaster elephants -- the hummels actually belong to my daughter: