As I feared, searching for affordable art is quite a slog. There is plenty of art out there, but that is not necessarily a good thing. Most online art marketplaces are uncurated meaning that anyone with a brush and a canvas can sell their works (Artfinder, Vango, Koonzt – I’m looking at you). The result is that, especially at the low end of the market, there is a ton of junk.
Saatchi is a bit better, but at my low price point there is still a ton of [what I consider rather generic] stuff like this piece for $262 (20×16, by Ronald Halfant here):
After digging through page after page I did find a few that I liked, such as this for $270 (7×7, by Siri Tenden here):
But even that seems a bit unoriginal* and at only 7.5 inches square I don’t think I could pull the trigger.
Next time I’ll post some of the pieces I’ve found via my Twitter network.
* Sorry, I sound like a total art snob. Anytime I criticize someone else’s art I feel terrible – heck, I probably couldn’t paint anything like the two pieces I posted here, and I’m sure plenty of people would be totally unimpressed by my own art. I guess what I’m trying to say is that I’ve spent a lot of time over the last year looking online for art and I just feel that I see the same things over and over again, and often I don’t find it very inspiring. But hey – that’s just me, and I’m no art critic! As always, fell free to let me know your thoughts in the comments.
Vail + Young 