artsy fartsy me

I have this thing about buying pre-fab art. I'm not sure where I picked up such a snobby attitude, but I really have very little interest in owning prints. Having said this, I do like limited prints and hand printed pieces, and I do own own set of prints that I bought at Z Gallery that I truly love. But for the most part, I want originals.

The problem is, I also have this thing called a budget. Such an ugly word, budget. Bud-get. Yeez. Anywho, I have semi rectified this situation by painting my own art. Please make no mistake. I am not a gifted artist. But I am crafty in both senses of the word. I have found that it is pretty easy, once you have a concrete idea, to come up with a product you can hang on your wall, at least until you have company over.


Take for example my guest bedroom:


Originally, I wanted a large cast iron sea horse sculpture to go above the bed. First, I couldn't find exactly what I had conjured up in my head, and second, when I did find something I thought would work, it was $2200. Ah- no.

I took the photo of the sea horse sculpture that I liked and painted it onto a canvas. It isn't an exact match, but that's what I like about it. It is my own. I didn't want to spend the money to have a huge canvas custom stretched to the size I wanted so I just bought two smaller canvases (on sale at Dick Blick) and painted an anemone on the other canvas. It has a little hidden clown fish in it that makes me smile. I still wish that the canvases were larger, but all in all, I'm happy with the result.

I really enjoy painting. I find it totally relaxing and almost hypnotic. I signed up to take a weekend long class (Sept. 20-21) from Anahata Katkin, owner and founder of Papaya. Check out her work she is amazing. I am hoping to come away with some fabulous pieces that I can be proud to hang on my wall.

I'll tell you another word, uglier than budget. Frugal.

finally, design sunday

Nina Clough is an illustrator who likes to spend the day drawing, painting and printing. Nina loves the colours, lines and characters in architecture and nature.
She lives in Southsea Hampshire, in England. I have admired her work for a while now. I would love to buy an original some day.

I think it is important to seek out art work that really speaks to you and save up to buy either an original or at least a artist produced print. I am striving to carefully choose each and everything I decorate my home with, so that it doesn't feel "overdecorated", but is simply, beautifully our own creation.