a piece of WORK of art

im dorkily laughing inside at my wheel-of-fortune-esque post title.
hehe


ok

i dont know about yall but i am always in the market for some good art. for the art obsessed person that i am, i find it very strange that i have only a small handful of pieces of art in my home i actually love.

and they are all... small

here are a couple:



this picture is something i found at a local consignment shop, by a local artist. i really wish i knew more about it...it looks like a festival or farmers market, either of which could have taken place at some square downtown. it came framed and i loved it.




this piece was a wedding gift from a friend of my moms. it is a painting of the church where we got married and i LOVE it. it also came framed and makes me smile every time i see it.  that is exactly what the sky looked like december 18, 2004.

both of these pieces are from etsy. just things i saw and liked. they are directly in front of my desk in my office so when i look up, i see them. they are framed in simple frames from michaels, and i used a gray linen blend fabric from hancocks for the mat. quick and easy DIY matting: buy fabric, tightly wrap the piece of cardboard that comes with your frame with the fabric, tape the back, then {either with tape or not} place your cut-to-size-you-want piece of artwork on top of the fabric covered cardboard and place in frame.




this piece. oh this little hokey beach scene. one of my absolute favorites. i actually stole it from my parents beach house one weekend {oops}. it had been in a stack of old framed paintings in their closet for many many years just begging to be put up. i thought the colors and the weathered frame looked perfect in bennetts room, and every time i look at it i am reminded of my childhood beach trips to my grandparents cabin in gulf shores {that my grandfather built}.


etsy is a great source of unique, affordable art and prints. you just have to be willing to SEARCH. i was in one such search the other day and came across these felted beauties from etsy seller deebs.

i have NO idea how people do this, and that is perhaps one of the reasons they hold so much intrigue.

my problem is that i am in search of LARGE art - a couple pieces for those big walls in my house that need a little "wow" factor.  the problem with that is that large pieces cost MONEY.  and because of this i am not worried that i have not found these pieces yet. 

of course another way to fill a big wall is with a gallery of artwork.  there are several ways to do this:

a series of prints in the same frames, hung randomly or in a grid:
one of my favorites: i searched forever for prints similar to this for bennetts room, to no avail:

instead i bought these old atlas pages on etsy and randomly hung them on his wall:


which was SO SO SO much easier than hanging them like this:

Bobby McAlpine and Susan Ferrier via House Beautiful - one of my favorite color combos right now - mossy green and gray blue.

which is what i did for emorys room:

{and as a late side note: i noticed in a restoration hardware catalog recently they have these same prints for sale! so if you like the restoration hardware ones, do what i did and find an old mother goose book - much kinder to the pocketbook!}

framed botanicals are really popular now, and i believe are timeless despite the "trend" factor they might portray due to blog-world coverage:

by decorpad user Suzie

by decorpad user Suzie

another way to do a gallery wall is with different items of different sizes and composition that, while it may be much easier to hang, takes a lot of design and a good eye in my opinion:

source unknown

i love so much about this:

via country living

via courtney giles

via house of turquoise

and now that i have shown you so many gallery walls...this is not at all what i am talking about.
HA! no really i love me some gallery walls and it IS a very good {and impressive} way to take up wall space, but i want some real A.R.T.

you know, the big signed original kind. 

im only looking {and have been looking} for a couple specific places, but so far,
most of the things i like=big bucks
and
my vision>our bank account

so im working on my etsy searches and scouring the less-known artists.
speaking of less known artists that should become much more known {:)},

my very talented friend maribeth took up art late in life {if you would call late twenties late! ha!} and has made a little business for herself selling her paintings.  she also does commissioned work, so email me if you are interested in some of your very own!






she also does landscapes, but i dont have any pictures of those :)  believe me they are beautiful!


and until i can afford the likes of hers, these, these, or these,
i will stick with attempting to find creative ways to fill these large empty walls with something interesting...
or at least leave them empty for now
...perhaps that IS the art...
the big empty wall of nothing.

ok now im reaching.
a minimalist i am NOT