Buying art

While knowing that everybody is absolutely entitled to put whatever they want on their walls, I am saddened by the sort of bland corporate “wall art” sold by stores - yes, John Lewis you too- which seems to be more designed to match the soft furnishings than make any statement.
With so many talented young artists coming out of art school, so many talented amateurs and photographers exhibiting at their local art shows or in small gift type shops, how much better to encourage them in their art than buy the sort of corporate stuff you find in a Premier Inn!
Rant over!

I feel a link coming on.....?

May I say I LOVE Christabel the cat !

Well duh!

Art is surrounded by so many myths and I guess that is why people don’t feel very confident when it comes to buying art. You want to know that you will really like, maybe you even care for your family and friends to like it. Art prices are also a mystical subject, so you kind of want to make a good investment, but do not want to overpay.

Nice collection.

My husband used to go to local auction rooms looking for good paintings. We have 3 lovely ones hanging in our living room - one is somewhere in the Lake District. Then 2 smaller ones, one somewhere in the Alps, the other by a stream, probably in England.
I also have paintings of 2 sailing ships , of which one of my ancestors was master.
All much loved, brighten up the room.

Christabel the cat was a great character: if, in her opinion, I didn't get up early enough to give her breakfast she would wake me up by appearing in my bedroom, my side of the bed of course, reach up under the duvet and just rest her claws in my thigh. Or I would wake up with her on my chest, her face glaring an inch from mine. When my daughter was at university I would put Christabel on the phone and she would " talk" as soon as she heard the familiar voice. I still talk to her portrait.

Tretchikoff was well known in South Africa where he settled in the 1940s until his death at 92. He was known as the King of Kitsch. His "green (or blue?) lady" is available as a cushion or a purse!:

www.barakashop.co.za/handbags-and-purses/tretchikoff-handbags-pillows.html

Tillybelle that's special, thanks for posting.

Lovely thread this.

Our U3A art group put on a small display of their efforts at our meeting recently. A little seascape caught my eye, so I bought it. The lady who had painted it was SO excited, as it was the first picture that she had ever sold. She was practically in tears! Seeing her delight, especially when I told her that she could now consider herself a professional artist, was worth £30 of anyone's money.
What amused me was that she hadn't even put any prices on her work, quite sure that no-one would want to buy it. I think that she would have been perfectly happy if I had given her £1!

One cannot beat a piece of had curated Art at all.... I have a scribble of Salford by some chap named Lowry. He dropped it in a bin at a b and b in St Annes.

Chewbacca we visit Cornwall a lot and seen many of Stanhope Forbes paintings at the Penlee Gallery in Penzance. I have a print of his wife Elizabeth Forbes, painting "Zandvoort fishergirl" which I love and is a similar style.

We have quite a few paintings by Welsh artists, bought on the Collector Plan. All are originals .

J, my Mum had Miss Wong. I couldn't stand it.

I keep my eyes open for frames in charity shops. Had reasonable success so far.

I am an artist myself and so we have a house full of my paintings, some of which are hanging on the walls, but a lot of which are stacked up in the spare room. Our art group has an exhibition once a year during Oxfordshire Art Weeks and I usually sell a couple of paintings and some prints and cards. My cousin was a successful artist, too, so we have some of her pictures on the wall and also a few paintings I bought in charity shops or antiques centres. I love all of them. I had to re-paint one of my pictures for my husband, because I sold the first one I did and he was very fond of it!

I've remembered another one I was enthralled by when I saw it! I saw it at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, on the roof in 2009. It is Jeff Koons' Balloon Dog.

I have been very lucky to have known some artists and have even commissioned small things from them in the past. One of my favourites is an iron sculpture by Tony Wootton, which he made as a door stop and depicts all my children and my husband and myself.
On a different note, last night (30th December) a bird shaped murmuration of starlings was seen over Attenborough Nature Reserve. It was truly breath-taking! A vision of God's own Art!

Juggernaut that information is just fantastic and im so very grateful to you for letting me have that information. I've wondered about the girl for over 40 years and within less than 24 hours, I've learnt so much. Thank you very much indeed.

Chewbacca
In case you're interested....
Stanhope Forbes went to work in Cancale, Brittany from June to October 1881. Cancale was a small fishing village near St Malo.
During this stay in Cancale he painted "A Street in Brittany". He worked in the street that is now named Rue Kitchener and had the usual problems experienced by 'plein air' painters, changing sunlight, wind, dust and over-curious children.
His principal model was a young girl from the village called Desiree. She had worked in the hotel in which he was staying but had been dismissed for stealing. Forbes wished to pay her only when the picture was completed. Desiree sensibly struck a deal and insisted on a daily payment. Forbes was forced to agree and seemed well satisfied with her work. He wrote to his mother "she grows more perfect every day and seems to be as charming as she looks". Desiree is holding an implement used for making or repairing nets, possibly making a string bag.

Kim19
You just brought back some memories for me!
There was a Tretchikoff print, Miss Wong, on our living room wall when I was a child. DF chose it, DM and I both hated it! We named her Japonica!

Love the cat picture! What a character she seems.

Vladimir Tretchikoff does it for me. Particular favourite is 'The weeping rose' which is on my bedroom wall. I also derive much pleasure from JV's'Thoughts of you' which hangs in my lounge.

Oh my Jaxie, that's magnificent! How fabulous to have your well loved moggy immortalised forever and admired by so many.

Love it Jaxie, what a great gift. Wonderful to have your beautiful cat now famous. I don't think I'd like that artist painting me though, I'd prefer to go slimmer!