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Tips on Buying Paintings for Your Home
By Rochelle Caviness

Traditionally, only the wealthy were able to decorate their homes with paintings. Their main means of acquiring a painting was to commission an artist to create one for them. Fortunately, paintings are much easier to come by in this modern age. Yet, the traditional elitism associated with paintings still remains. In a modern home, paintings serve not only to decorate and accent a home, but they also give it a sense of affluence and luxury.

Using Paintings in Your Home

Paintings can be used to decorate any room of your home. Care must be taken to use a painting whose colors and size do not overpower a room. For example, in a small room a large painting may make the room look cramped. However, a large painting of a wide-open space may give a small room the illusion of greater size. The only way to really tell how a painting will look in a particular room is to 'try it out'.

Buying Paintings

Before going out to buy a painting, it is essential that you have some idea of what you are looking for - and how much you are willing to spend on it. Paintings, even by unknown artists, can be costly. It is also easy to spend more for a painting than it is worth, if you are unfamiliar with the market. Therefore, it is vital that you do your homework before shopping for a painting.

• Paintings are obtainable from a variety of sources including art dealers, galleries, art schools, auctions, yard sales, on the Internet, and the ubiquitous sidewalk art sale.
  
  
• If you are looking to buy an old masterpiece or a work by a well-known contemporary artist, be prepared to pay a premium for the work. As well, care must be taken to avoid being saddled with a forgery. This may entail having to have the painting authenticated by an art historian or other expert.
  
  
• If you want an old masterpiece, but cannot afford one, considered buying a copy. Unlike forgeries, which are works that purport to be the actual work of a given artist, copies are just that - copies of another artist's work. Copies are labeled as such, and the signature on the painting should be that of the copyist. Many art students prefect their skills by copying old masters and their works are often available for sale. Contact your local college's art department to find out when they hold their annual sale of student works. Often you can pick up well-rendered copies at a fraction of the cost of the 'real thing'.
  
  
• If you are not looking to buy a 'masterpiece' or to buy a painting as an investment, search for a painting that is pleasing toward your eye and your pocketbook and ignore all the rhetoric associated with what is 'in'.

• You should also decide if you want to buy an original piece or a copy. Copies are by far less expensive, but they are unlikely to increase in value, whereas an original work can.
  
  
• In addition to the type of painting, you should also decide on a style of painting. No matter what style of décor you have, you will be able to find a style of painting that matches it. Painting styles run the gamut from primitive to contemporary.

• Oil paintings have strong, long-lasting colors and can be hung in any room of the house.
  
  
• Pastels have delicate colors that need to be protected by being hung in a protected area, or by being persevered under glass.
  
  
• Watercolors should always be protected by glass as the colors can fade easily, even with glass they should never be hung where they will be subjected to sunlight.
  
  
• Acrylic paints hold their color well, but can yellow with age. In addition, if subjected to very cold temperatures, the paint becomes very brittle. Acrylic paint also tends to attract dust and should therefore be hung in a protected environment.