Buying art from local artists is an interesting and worthwhile way to build up a collection. Read more on our web site about supporting local artists.
Vicky and Vince,
Love Your Art
Showing posts with label buying. Show all posts
Showing posts with label buying. Show all posts
Wednesday, 21 March 2012
Wednesday, 22 February 2012
Bargains Galore!
If you've not considered the benefits of buying second-hand art from charity shops we've written about the whys and wherefores this week. You can visit our web site to read the article on buying art from charity shops.
Vicky And Vince,
Love Your Art.
Vicky And Vince,
Love Your Art.
Wednesday, 31 August 2011
Local Support
We often hear people talking about buying locally produced goods, usually fruit and vegetables. Perhaps this idea should be extended to buying art locally too.
We don't mean the abstract prints in your nearest supermarket, mass-produced and imported from the Far East, but original art created by artists who live in your local area.
There are many opportunities to see and buy locally produced art. We're particularly keen on going to open studio events. Here you can visit one or more artists that you are interested in, see a variety of their work on display and talk to them about what they do and why they do it.
Many pro-active artists also hold their own exhibitions in towns around their locality. The artist is often in attendance so again, there is a chance to chat about their work.
Often an artist is represented by one of their local commercial galleries. The gallery owner or staff will have an in-depth knowledge of the artist and the works. They'll have a number of works on display by the artist and will be able to obtain others if you are interested.
Buying locally has the advantages of being more convenient to build up a collection of a particular artist's work, it is easier to keep in touch with the artists and is an extra talking point when discussing your collection with friends. It also helps to strengthen the community and retains money in the local economy.
Of course, you needn't buy art locally just because it's local, you should buy art that you like, art that you can enjoy. But as we've explored the world of art, we've discovered lots of local artists making pictures and objects that we like, and we've bought some of them too. Why not explore a little closer to home, you may be surprised at what you find.
Vicky and Vince,
Love Your Art
We don't mean the abstract prints in your nearest supermarket, mass-produced and imported from the Far East, but original art created by artists who live in your local area.
There are many opportunities to see and buy locally produced art. We're particularly keen on going to open studio events. Here you can visit one or more artists that you are interested in, see a variety of their work on display and talk to them about what they do and why they do it.
Many pro-active artists also hold their own exhibitions in towns around their locality. The artist is often in attendance so again, there is a chance to chat about their work.
Often an artist is represented by one of their local commercial galleries. The gallery owner or staff will have an in-depth knowledge of the artist and the works. They'll have a number of works on display by the artist and will be able to obtain others if you are interested.
Buying locally has the advantages of being more convenient to build up a collection of a particular artist's work, it is easier to keep in touch with the artists and is an extra talking point when discussing your collection with friends. It also helps to strengthen the community and retains money in the local economy.
Of course, you needn't buy art locally just because it's local, you should buy art that you like, art that you can enjoy. But as we've explored the world of art, we've discovered lots of local artists making pictures and objects that we like, and we've bought some of them too. Why not explore a little closer to home, you may be surprised at what you find.
Vicky and Vince,
Love Your Art
Tuesday, 19 October 2010
Credit Crunch Art
Times are tough. The future's uncertain. Everyone's short of money and along comes the perfect picture you've been waiting for. Or in our case, three of them.
We don't want to miss this opportunity but buying so much art may not be the best use of funds during the credit crunch. On the other hand, we don't want to wait or we may miss out.
So should our personal cutbacks affect our art collecting or can we justify buying art in a recession? Here are eight good reasons that we use.
1. It's cheaper than a holiday. Of course it depends where you go: giving up a wet weekend in Bognor may not pay for the Mona Lisa but postponing that two weeks at a 5-star hotel in the Seychelles could buy you some very nice artworks.
2. You can cut back on other things. Try living on baked beans for a week, or three...
3. It's an investment - you'll be able to sell it in thirty years to fund your pension, probably.
4. It cheers you up every time you look at it. (Vicky uses that excuse every time she gets a new pair of shoes.)
5. Your friends will think you're really wealthy and not about to lose your job.
6. You can sell the yacht. (Are you listening Vince?)
7. You can buy your next picture from a charity shop. You might even find that lost Van Gogh hidden by the Nazis. Even if you don't it still provides entertainment seeing all the rubbish, sorry, treasures that people have thrown out.
8. Retail therapy works.
So this weekend we'll resurrect the credit cards and go on a spending spree.
Now we're off to have dinner. Guess it will be beans on toast again tonight.
Love your Art
Vicky and Vince,
We don't want to miss this opportunity but buying so much art may not be the best use of funds during the credit crunch. On the other hand, we don't want to wait or we may miss out.
So should our personal cutbacks affect our art collecting or can we justify buying art in a recession? Here are eight good reasons that we use.
1. It's cheaper than a holiday. Of course it depends where you go: giving up a wet weekend in Bognor may not pay for the Mona Lisa but postponing that two weeks at a 5-star hotel in the Seychelles could buy you some very nice artworks.
2. You can cut back on other things. Try living on baked beans for a week, or three...
3. It's an investment - you'll be able to sell it in thirty years to fund your pension, probably.
4. It cheers you up every time you look at it. (Vicky uses that excuse every time she gets a new pair of shoes.)
5. Your friends will think you're really wealthy and not about to lose your job.
6. You can sell the yacht. (Are you listening Vince?)
7. You can buy your next picture from a charity shop. You might even find that lost Van Gogh hidden by the Nazis. Even if you don't it still provides entertainment seeing all the rubbish, sorry, treasures that people have thrown out.
8. Retail therapy works.
So this weekend we'll resurrect the credit cards and go on a spending spree.
Now we're off to have dinner. Guess it will be beans on toast again tonight.
Love your Art
Vicky and Vince,
Tuesday, 12 October 2010
Two Different Worlds
Several events over recent weeks have prompted us to think about how the art world goes about showing and selling art. It seems there are two main styles - formal and informal.
In previous posts we have written about Gallerina and their friendly, relaxed approach, the open-plan exhibitions at Richmond Station where you can browse at leisure all day long if you want and the Matombo sculpture displays with their "have a go yourself" feature.
These ways of seeing and buying art are easy, enjoyable and fun.
On the other hand, some of the commercial galleries we have visited have made us feel quite uncomfortable, even nervous, as though we don't belong to their exclusive art-set.
We went into such a gallery a few weeks ago. The walls were plain, cold white. The pictures and ceramics were displayed in neat, rigid rows, with official looking descriptions, equally neatly aligned next to them.
The owner was just as rigid and predictable. He hovered in the background looking almost like one of his works of art (perhaps a self-installation?). We were "allowed" to wander round the displays. But when we stopped at a picture, he pounced and gave us a lengthy lecture about the artist's life and the concepts behind this amazing work of art. Oh, and he owned a collection of works by that artist too.
We rapidly worked our way back to the door and left the gallery dazed by the intense experience. Time for a coffee and large slice of cake to wind down!
Like most people, we are interested in art for the pleasure it gives us. We can admire the skills of the artists and collect the works we find attractive. We want to enjoy the experience. Gallery owners and curators can help us to learn about the art we are interested in, help us to choose which pieces of art to buy and put us at ease. If we are comfortable and relaxed, we might even spend more money than we ought to.
Love Your Art,
Vicky and Vince
In previous posts we have written about Gallerina and their friendly, relaxed approach, the open-plan exhibitions at Richmond Station where you can browse at leisure all day long if you want and the Matombo sculpture displays with their "have a go yourself" feature.
These ways of seeing and buying art are easy, enjoyable and fun.
On the other hand, some of the commercial galleries we have visited have made us feel quite uncomfortable, even nervous, as though we don't belong to their exclusive art-set.
We went into such a gallery a few weeks ago. The walls were plain, cold white. The pictures and ceramics were displayed in neat, rigid rows, with official looking descriptions, equally neatly aligned next to them.
The owner was just as rigid and predictable. He hovered in the background looking almost like one of his works of art (perhaps a self-installation?). We were "allowed" to wander round the displays. But when we stopped at a picture, he pounced and gave us a lengthy lecture about the artist's life and the concepts behind this amazing work of art. Oh, and he owned a collection of works by that artist too.
We rapidly worked our way back to the door and left the gallery dazed by the intense experience. Time for a coffee and large slice of cake to wind down!
Like most people, we are interested in art for the pleasure it gives us. We can admire the skills of the artists and collect the works we find attractive. We want to enjoy the experience. Gallery owners and curators can help us to learn about the art we are interested in, help us to choose which pieces of art to buy and put us at ease. If we are comfortable and relaxed, we might even spend more money than we ought to.
Love Your Art,
Vicky and Vince
Tuesday, 5 October 2010
That's The Way To Do It
If we asked you to guess who won the recent customer services survey in Darlington, you might suggest it was one of the big supermarkets, a popular department store or a designer clothes shop.
But this year, the award for the best customer service in own was won by Gallerina, a commercial art gallery on Duke Street.
The survey was organised by Darlington Borough Council and Darlington Town Centre Traders' Association who sent out mystery shoppers over the summer to find out which businesses gave the best service to their customers.
Brother and sister team Richard and Helen Hindle, who run Gallerina, are both delighted to win the award and put it down to their friendly, relaxed approach, creating an atmosphere where you can browse at leisure and not feel intimidated.
Our experience of the gallery confirms that this philosophy works. Whenever we've popped into Gallerina, we've invariably found Richard enthusiastically discussing an interesting artist with a customer or helping someone to choose the best type of frame for a particular painting.
In fact, when I (Vince) called in to discuss writing this blog, Richard was sat on the sofa chatting with customers over a cuppa. Unfortunately, I didn't have time to join them.
Gallerina's approach has helped them to grow over twelve years to become one of the leading sellers of contemporary art in the area. The gallery currently has displays by Tom McGuiness and Peter Blake as well as a varied mixture of works by many talented artists.
But this year, the award for the best customer service in own was won by Gallerina, a commercial art gallery on Duke Street.
The survey was organised by Darlington Borough Council and Darlington Town Centre Traders' Association who sent out mystery shoppers over the summer to find out which businesses gave the best service to their customers.
Brother and sister team Richard and Helen Hindle, who run Gallerina, are both delighted to win the award and put it down to their friendly, relaxed approach, creating an atmosphere where you can browse at leisure and not feel intimidated.
Our experience of the gallery confirms that this philosophy works. Whenever we've popped into Gallerina, we've invariably found Richard enthusiastically discussing an interesting artist with a customer or helping someone to choose the best type of frame for a particular painting.
In fact, when I (Vince) called in to discuss writing this blog, Richard was sat on the sofa chatting with customers over a cuppa. Unfortunately, I didn't have time to join them.
Gallerina's approach has helped them to grow over twelve years to become one of the leading sellers of contemporary art in the area. The gallery currently has displays by Tom McGuiness and Peter Blake as well as a varied mixture of works by many talented artists.
Tuesday, 20 July 2010
The Purple Picture
Last month in one of the charity shops we visit regularly, we spotted a watercolour of Hartlepool Harbour entrance: Vince learnt to sail there so was keen on buying it. But its mahogany style frame was a bit too smart for the soft, blue-grey colours of the picture and it had no mount to show it off to best effect. Then Vince realised that the frame was ideal for a print we had bought some months earlier.
What we call "the purple picture" is a small African landscape print of unusual proportions and in shades of purple. When we bought it it was in a very large chunky brown wood frame that was way out of scale for the picture and it had a ubiquitous cream mount that was entirely the wrong colour. Temporarily, we put it into a cheap A4 certificate frame and planned to get a new frame made for it later.
On checking the frame from the Hartlepool picture we found that it was perfectly proportioned for the purple picture, matching the style well too. All it needed was an appropriate mount. So off went Vince to our local framer, and selected a purple pearlescent mount to match the picture. It now hangs on the living room wall and looks like it was bought from a gallery.
So, that one picture has solved the problem of framing the purple picture and saved us having to buy a custom-made frame that would have cost us many times more. All we need now is a decent frame for the Hartlepool Harbour picture.
Love Your Art,
Vicky and Vince
ps. The charity shop where we got the Hartlepool picture now sells only books, with no bric-a-brac or interesting stuff - shame! One less source of great value art.
Tuesday, 8 June 2010
Buy Me!
"That looks unusual", said Vicky, pointing to a rather strange looking picture cowering in a corner, half hidden by a rack of ladies jackets. Vince pushed the jackets aside to the annoyance of a little old lady who was rummaging through them. He rapidly scanned the piece, making disdainful grunts as he digested the brown colouring and the angular lines of the landscape.
"It looks a bit dull," he suggested. Then he noticed the markings along the bottom edge. "Ah, it's a signed, limited edition. Look 4 of 36, Souel - Vines, D M Patterson. It might be worth a bit!" So we bought it because of its unusual style and the fact that it was a limited edition.
That happened on Saturday. On Sunday we cleaned the picture up and and tried to find a suitable location for it. We failed completely! It didn't hang happily on any of our walls. Perhaps it was the harsh, jagged angles of the brush strokes, the monochrome brown colouring or the wholly inappropriate lime-washed grey frame it was in. Our interest in the picture rapidly turned to disappointment. Now, the only reason we had to keep it was if it had some value.
We spent several hours discussing how much it may be worth as a piece of serious art. A thorough search on the Internet revealed nothing about the picture or the artist. Vince claimed that its unique and distinctive style, and the fact that the artist thought that it was worth producing a limited edition, suggests that it did have some value above a basic print. Vicky argued that the frame reduced its value significantly and the dull, jagged lines of the landscape would appeal to only a very few art lovers. Our conclusion was that if we sold it, we would be unlikely to be able to retire to the Caribbean.
We both regret this impulse buy. Were our expectations too high? Are we becoming over-confident and buying without thinking things through first? Whatever went wrong, we are now left with an unloved, unwanted picture. eBay here we come!
Love Your Art,
Vicky and Vince
"It looks a bit dull," he suggested. Then he noticed the markings along the bottom edge. "Ah, it's a signed, limited edition. Look 4 of 36, Souel - Vines, D M Patterson. It might be worth a bit!" So we bought it because of its unusual style and the fact that it was a limited edition.
That happened on Saturday. On Sunday we cleaned the picture up and and tried to find a suitable location for it. We failed completely! It didn't hang happily on any of our walls. Perhaps it was the harsh, jagged angles of the brush strokes, the monochrome brown colouring or the wholly inappropriate lime-washed grey frame it was in. Our interest in the picture rapidly turned to disappointment. Now, the only reason we had to keep it was if it had some value.
We spent several hours discussing how much it may be worth as a piece of serious art. A thorough search on the Internet revealed nothing about the picture or the artist. Vince claimed that its unique and distinctive style, and the fact that the artist thought that it was worth producing a limited edition, suggests that it did have some value above a basic print. Vicky argued that the frame reduced its value significantly and the dull, jagged lines of the landscape would appeal to only a very few art lovers. Our conclusion was that if we sold it, we would be unlikely to be able to retire to the Caribbean.
We both regret this impulse buy. Were our expectations too high? Are we becoming over-confident and buying without thinking things through first? Whatever went wrong, we are now left with an unloved, unwanted picture. eBay here we come!
Love Your Art,
Vicky and Vince
Thursday, 3 June 2010
Serving Our Apprenticeship
Watching episode 4 "A Work of Art" of the BBC's Junior Apprentice programme provided an insight into the difficulties of buying and selling art. The teams were given a shortlist of contemporary artists from which they had to select two to represent and sell their art at a special gallery sale. Easy? No, it was harder than it looked!
The first problem was which two artists to choose for the team to represent. Was the bottom-line, as Kirsty from Team Instinct focused on, money and whether the artist had a range of prices. Or was it, as Zoe from Team Revolution showed, the concepts behind the art backed up with some schmoozing and flattery of the artist. In the end both teams wanted the same artist, Tom Lewis, as he had a range of affordable and expensive prints and originals that would appeal to a range of buyers. The losing team were stuck with the more expensive artists like Sarah Kate Wilson who's pieces were up to £4000. Although both teams drummed up buyers, most of those preferred to pay in the hundreds rather than thousands of pounds.
What could we learn from this? Despite professional artists trying to push the conceptual boundaries, the majority of buyers wanted something attractive and decorative to put on the walls; neon lights spelling out words or phrases didn't cut it for the average buyer. Price is also important. When buying pieces for our walls we've bought originals by unknown artists from charity shops, or bid on eBay for more well known artists and tried to get value for money. In the end art is only worth what someone is prepared to pay for it.
Vicky,
Love Your Art
The first problem was which two artists to choose for the team to represent. Was the bottom-line, as Kirsty from Team Instinct focused on, money and whether the artist had a range of prices. Or was it, as Zoe from Team Revolution showed, the concepts behind the art backed up with some schmoozing and flattery of the artist. In the end both teams wanted the same artist, Tom Lewis, as he had a range of affordable and expensive prints and originals that would appeal to a range of buyers. The losing team were stuck with the more expensive artists like Sarah Kate Wilson who's pieces were up to £4000. Although both teams drummed up buyers, most of those preferred to pay in the hundreds rather than thousands of pounds.
What could we learn from this? Despite professional artists trying to push the conceptual boundaries, the majority of buyers wanted something attractive and decorative to put on the walls; neon lights spelling out words or phrases didn't cut it for the average buyer. Price is also important. When buying pieces for our walls we've bought originals by unknown artists from charity shops, or bid on eBay for more well known artists and tried to get value for money. In the end art is only worth what someone is prepared to pay for it.
Vicky,
Love Your Art
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