Grafitti & Painting Arts

Musical themed paintings can be fun to find and fun to buy.  I have a musician friend that recently purchased a new home.  She bought new furnishings and asked me to find a new painting for her.  I found her a fabulous creation by Osnat.  It was an enormous, gallery size painting.

My friend’s new furnishings were very contemporary and the Osnat musical themed painting I bought for her was breathtaking when all five parts were mounted.  The musical staff ran the length of the painting with musical notes painted on it.  The painting had pretty shades of yellows and oranges.  It looked so elegant.

I found a still life musical themed painting of a guitar to buy for a friend.  He always has had beautiful pieces of art in his home and he wanted to change some of the pieces he had grown tired of.  The abstract piece that I found really struck a cord with my friend and he ended up buying another painting from the same artist.

I found a painting that was called Music of Fire that didn’t really seem to have a musical theme.  I showed it to a friend and she told me that the flames looked like they were dancing.  She told me that I was using a very narrow definition of musical themed paintings when I was buying art.

Abstract guitars really seem to be my favorite musical themed paintings.  I like to buy them when they jump out at me.  There is an artist named Slazo that is very prolific with his musical themed guitar paintings.  He has had a lot of exhibitions in Florida.

A friend of mine asked me to find artwork by an Armenian named Aram Koupetzian.  I was able to find a musical themed painting called Rondo by this artist.  It was really intriguing.  I’ve never purchased a painting in the Cubist style before.  The exact style of this musical themed painting was Synthetic Cubism.  I liked it a lot.  There is a lot to look at in the painting.

A couple of years ago, a good friend of mine graduated from the University of Texas in Austin with a degree.  He had a double major of music and education.  He got a job as an assistant band director at a middle school in Austin.  As a combination graduation and new job present, I bought him a musical themed painting.

The musical themed painting that I chose was painting by Tilo Rothacker that depicted a jazz musician playing a trumpet.  It was so very colorful and it felt a lot like New Orleans.  My friend and I had visited the French Quarter several times together.  This musical themed painting celebrated his life changes and our friendship perfectly.

My younger sister is quite the accomplished violinist.  She moved to New York and went to Juilliard.  Her path changed after a couple of years in New York.  She stopped pursuing the violin as a career, but her love for her music never waned.  I bought her a musical themed painting when she bought her apartment.  It was a contemporary abstract with brilliant rich jewel tones that depicted a woman violinist.

I was looking for musical themed paintings one day when I found Melody of Sunset for sale.  I’m not sure why this painting bothered me so much.  The woman was playing the piano, but she seems disembodied and strange.  Her eyes were closed.  This musical themed painting just did not strike a cord with me and I did not buy it.

My favorite musical themed painting in a long time was The Sound of Jazz.  It was painted by Sarah Kinan and it is gorgeous.  It is hard for me to not smile when I’m looking into this painting.  The background looks like confetti and the foreground is filled with musical instruments.  This musical themed painting can be described as feeling like a party.

I’ve been buying paintings of food and wine to resell to restaurants.  I make a good profit doing this. I have a real talent for matching the painting of food and wine to the restaurant that should hang it in their dining room.  I have purchased over one hundred paintings so far and I’ve sold over eighty of them to restaurant owners.

I sold a painting of food and wine to a martini bar that was opening up in a neighboring city.  I took a photo of the Michael Godard painting called Pop Olive and took it straight to the owner in person.  He loved the painting and hung it in his bar.

The Michael Godard paintings always seem to resell the best of all of the food and wine paintings that I buy.  There was one called Olives Gone Wild that I sold to a martini bar on the East Coast.  The restaurant owner thought it was fantastic and looked fun.

I saw an awesome painting in the food and wine section of a local studio.  The painting was called Chocolatey.  I bought the painting and have approached a couple of candy stores to purchase it.  I haven’t gotten a taker, yet, but I’m going to keep trying.

There is a pie shop in my town that I sold an original oil painting of an oversized apple.  There are always a lot of food and wine paintings at the galleries I frequent.  I liked the apple painting and also bought a sunflower painting by the same artist.

I bought an acrylic painting from an artist in North Hollywood.  His painting called Passion Splash is categorized as a food and wine painting because the woman in the painting is drinking red wine.  I sold it to a wine bar in Miami.  I was sad to see that huge eyed woman go.

I bought several food and wine paintings from him on that trip.  One of the paintings was entitled For a Perfect Cherry and I decided to keep that one and hang it in my dining room.  The red in the painting is fantastic and so beautiful.  I liked to display this food and wine painting with a spotlight on it.

I was able to resell a food and wine painting to a fish shop in New York City.  The fish shop had an upscale clientele and they wanted to put some artwork on the walls of the lobby.  I found an original oil painting by Marie M. Vlasic of a lobster.  It was such a good food and wine painting and it looked at home in the fish shop.

There was a dessert shop owner in Denver that contacted me and asked me to keep an eye out for food and wine paintings that featured pears.  She had developed several pear recipes that were fast becoming her signature dishes and she wanted to address that with the art hanging in her establishment.

I found a lovely oil on wood food and wine painting of four pears on a glass table.  The artist paints a new painting every day.  I commissioned him to make me six more paintings of pears and then I sold all seven to the dessert shop owner that had contacted me.  She was thrilled with the pieces and invited me to visit sometime.

I have a friend that owns a local beer joint.  I immediately thought of him when I was on a buying trip for food and wine paintings.  I saw an oil painting on stretched canvas that featured a close-up of an unopened bottle of beer.  It was perfect for him.  I bought it and it still hangs at the end of his bar.

My little sister was redecorating her shop and I found a great original oil food and wine painting.  The artist’s subject was a large spoon and strawberry jam.  The piece looked delicious!  I gave it to her shop and she hung it in the area that she sells gourmet jams.

I have a gallery that a local businessman financed.  He wanted a place on the town square that featured religious paintings.  I’ve been busy buying religious painting for several years.  I have found some very nice pieces and I have a lot of people purchase paintings that I’ve found.

One of my favorite artists is someone that I actually stumbled across when I was buying religious paintings.  He was not famous, but he had some of his pieces at a local show.  I found that he primarily paints and sells his work on the internet.

It is hard to describe all of the feelings that I had when I saw his first piece.  I really liked that he used the scripture Psalm 139:14 and made it gently legible within the layers of fresco colors.  I thought that this was an excellent choice for my gallery.  Buying religious paintings is very rewarding.

When my painting arrived, it was on gallery wrap ¾ inch stretcher frames and was ready to hang.  My patrons came to a private preview of the piece and were so happy with my success at buying religious paintings.  The piece was actually five original canvases, each 15” X 30” with black painted gallery wrap edges so that no frames were needed.

The title of the piece was long, but appropriate.  The title was “I will praise thee for I am fearfully made marvelous are Thy works and that my soul knoweth right well”.  One of my patrons wanted to buy it and hang it in his home.  I had to convince him to let me show it for four months before he did that.  It is hard work finding and buying suitable religious paintings.

In all the time that I’ve spent looking at and buying religious paintings, I am starting to feel like an expert.  I try to find paintings in a variety of mediums to keep the gallery feeling fresh and vibrant.  My favorite religious paintings use fresh earth minerals, pigments, oil glazes and acrylic varnish.

I actually have no preference if an artist signs his canvas or not.  Most of my patrons, however, want their religious paintings signed.  So, when I am buying religious paintings, I try to find ones that the artist signed.

The artist that I decided was my personal favorite uses the lost language of symbolism in his original paintings.  He told me that his religious paintings are inspired by the ancient storytelling frescoes of Pompeii, Italy.  He has a trademark style that he calls Religious Graffiti. 

I get a lot of requests for certain subjects in the religious paintings that I buy.  I have been looking for religious paintings of Mary and Jesus and also painting of Mary and Angel Gabriel.  I have several families that have wanted these classic images in their homes.  I have another family that wants me to find an oil Madonna with Child to hang in her church.

There was one religious painting that I bought that was very sweet.  The image of Our Lady, Jesus and St. Giovannino was very provocative and it hung prominently in the gallery for six months before I let it go.  I get attached to the religious paintings that I buy and then get to view every day.  I have a policy that no painting will leave the walls of the gallery for four months.

My new favorite piece is an abstract triptych that I found while I was in Atlanta buying religious paintings.  The piece was called Guardian Angel and I love it.  My patrons fell in love with it as well.  They have asked me to track down the artist and see if he has anymore religious paintings available.

The only religious paintings that I actually do not buy are ones that reflect the image of Jesus on the cross.  I don’t have a problem with them, some of them are extremely well done and would more than likely sell well, but my investors made it very clear when they financed the gallery that I would not put that image into it.

I’ve been buying watercolor paintings for decorating jobs.  I’ve found some really nice pieces on eBay.  I recently bought a watercolor painting by an artist named Y. Gianni.  The painting was produced in 1890 and depicted an Italian village.  It was very vivid and pleasing to look at.

I was trying to find just the right watercolor painting for a client when I came across one by an artist named William B. Gillette.  The colors were pastel, ranging from soft greens, browns, blues, purples and peach.  The scene was that of a pebble beach and crashing waves.  The hills on one side gave the beach a feeling of privacy.  It really spoke to me and my client loved it.

There was a cabin that I was decorating for a discerning client that needed one more piece of art to complete the look I was going for.  I found a wonderful watercolor painting that fit just right.  It had a lot of mossy green colors and there was a lake with a lake house.  The artist turned out to be Charles Dickens Wader.  He is a well known artist from New York.

I have a client that collects art from Romeo Tabuena.  I was fortunate to find two watercolors that the owners had purchased directly from Tabuena in the fifties when they lived in San Miguel.  The owner settled with me for an even thousand dollars.  My client was thrilled.

A lawyer friend of mine hired me to redecorate his office.  I had a lot of fun putting in things that reflected his interests and tastes.  He loves polo and I found a wonderful watercolor painting of two polo players on horses.  My friend liked the paintings and they have become a conversation piece in the new office.

My friend’s dad liked the office I decorated so much that he commissioned me to redecorate his office.  He is a hunter and I found a really nice watercolor painting of several mallard ducks flying above a marsh.  The painting was done by Jim Killen and he has painted for Ducks Unlimited.  His work is well known and respected.  My friend’s father really liked the find and proudly hung it in his reception area.

I was really unsure where I was going to find suitable art for the program director’s office at a local radio station.  When I went to visit with him for a consultation, his office was absolutely stark.  I like watercolor paintings and that is my first choice for buying art.  I found a fantastic watercolor painting of Bob Marley surrounded by sunflowers.  It was awesome and perfect for this job.

There is a musician that I was working for a couple of years ago that wanted their studio decorated with paintings from the artist Raoul Dufy.  Raoul Dufy made a whole series of paintings called Hommage to Mozart.  I was able to purchase three watercolor paintings in this series.  I have always been on the lookout for more paintings to purchase for this client.

A friend of mine asked me to find a watercolor painting to give to her mother.  I found one by Henry H. Parker that was of cattle in landscape.  The frame was what caught my eye at first because it is heavy gilt.  It would never hang in my house, but it looked great at my friend’s mother’s house.

When speaking on buying paintings of the Expressionist movement, it is always a good idea to review what elements make Expressionism unique, and to gain an understanding of some of the artists representative of this particular artistic movement.  The agreed upon intention of Expressionist artwork is not reproduce a subject accurately, but to instead portray the inner state of the artist, with a tendency to distort reality for an emotional effect.  The movement is closely associated with its’ beginnings in Germany, and has a few different but overlapping schools of thought within.

The term Expressionism was first used to describe the movement in the magazine produced in 1911 called “Der Sturm”, and was usually linked to paintings and graphic work that challenged academic traditions at the time.  The philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche later helped to define the area of modern expressionism better by clarifying the movement’s links to ancient art before any more modern interpretation had, and applied his own unique philosophy to the movement.  He has been quoted stating that disordered and ordered elements are present in all works of art, but that the basic traits of Expressionism lay in the mainly disordered aspects.

The Expressionist point of view was usually conveyed through the use of bold colors, distorted forms, and a lack of perspective.  Generally, a piece of expressionistic art is one that is expressive of intense emotion, and much of this kind of artwork occurs during times of social upheaval.  Though it can be argued that an artist is expressive by nature, and that all artwork is truly expressionist, there are many who consider the movement particularly communicative of emotion.  Later on, artists like Kandinsky changed 20th century Expressionist work through the formation of Abstract Expressionism.

The art historian Antonín Mat?j?ek was elemental in coining the term as the opposite to the Impressionist movement as well, and though Expressionism seems well defined as an artistic movement, there have never been a group of artists that called themselves Expressionists.  The movement was primarily German and Austrian, and many of the different groups of thought were based around Germany at the time.  Another artistic movement that heavily influenced Expressionism was Fauvism.  This kind of artwork is characterized by primitive, less naturalistic forms, and includes the works of famed painters Paul Gauguin and Henri Matisse.

With this influence firmly in place, Expressionism grew into striking compositions that focused on representing emotional reactions through powerful use of color and dynamic approaches with subject matter, and seemed to counter the qualities centered on by the French Impressionism of the time.  Where French Impressionism was to seek rendering the visual appearance of objects, Expressionism became an opposing movement seeking to capture emotions and subjective interpretation, and it was not important to reproduce a visually pleasing interpretation of the matter that the painting represented.

Expressionism has crossed over into many differing fields of artistic vision, with sculpture and filmmaking being primary examples today, and have influenced many people throughout the course of its’ existence as a movement in art.  These visions have combined over time to create the comprehensive idea of what Expressionism has become, and many people have found this type of art very appealing and eye-catching.  Throughout this century, much Expressionistic artwork has come to be representative of what art can come to be, and many people have been influenced by this very emotional artwork.

Buying Paintings: Expressionsim

Buying folk art paintings has become a passion of mine.  I’ve been looking for them everywhere it seems.  I found a bunch of folk art paintings recently and I am having trouble deciding which one to buy.

There was a folk art painting by Rev. Howard Finster that is titled Howard in 1944.  This is an all enamel folk art painting that was painted in 1988.  The smile on this portrait is very engaging and makes me smile just as big.

I am also really taken by a folk art painting that was painted by painter Bill Dodge in Oct 1962.  The title of the painting is First Trolley To Van Nuys.  The painting is on board and depicts the center of town with all the people in town.  They are in the windows and on the street.  The town market, bakery, Hotel Van Nuys, an ice cream parlor and the Wing Lee Laundry are all depicted in vibrant color.  The women in the foreground are against the Trolley and their signs say "Ban the Monster" and "Keep Van Nuys rural".

Thomas Chambers is one of America’s foremost folk artists.  I found a piece by him that I just don’t like very much.  It is a bit austere for my tastes.  The subject is a fishing scene with villagers and boats.  I don’t think that I will purchase this folk art painting because I just don’t like it.

There was a folk art painting I found called Alligator Fisher that was painted in 1940 that I really like.  The blue of the bayou is very calming and the trees give it a very Southern feel.  There is a swamp house in the painting and I like this one very much.  It reminds me very strongly of Louisiana.

My mother started this passion of mine for folk art paintings.  She had a folk art painting by John Roeder in our parlor growing up.  I used to spend hours just staring into it.  The trees were so relaxing to lose myself in.  I have asked her to give me this wonderful folk art painting many times, but she says that I will have to wait until after her funeral!

I found one folk art painting during my journey that I felt sad every time I looked at.  The name of the painting is A Letter from My Mother.  The look in the girl’s face is so serious and sad.  I have no idea where this folk art painting should hang.  The painting itself is magnificent; it just makes me feel sad.

There is a whole subset of folk art paintings that represent black Americana.  I don’t usually buy any of these pieces as they don’t speak to my experience.  I did find one piece that I purchased for a collector friend of mine that loves this type of art.  The folk art painting had a whimsical feel to it and a woman relaxing in a hammock.  He hung this in his hallway and has loved it for a long time.

My brother likes folk art paintings as much as I do.  He prefers animals to be the subjects of paintings he purchases.  I found a lovely clouded leopard folk art painting for him last Christmas and he has asked that I keep my eyes open for more like it.  He said that he will buy any art I find for him because he trusts that I know and understand his tastes.

I have kept my eyes open for animal themed folk art paintings for my brother, but I just can’t seem to find any as nice as the leopard that I got for him.  The grand extent of animal themed folk art paintings I’ve found recently was a painting of two owls on a limb and I know that he would not like it.  Ever since we were kids, owls totally freak him out.

Graffiti arts are identically to the street arts. Yet as the history of graffiti; it has been done by ancient people thousands years ago even; drawing or painting on the wall to describe something. We can see the graffiti samples such as relief and other arts. Graffiti is kinds of art for it contains beauty and can amaze anyone watch it.

Nowadays, however, graffiti is usually made by street boys. They often make it on the wall of residences’ houses or offices without permit so sometimes it makes people unlike and dame graffiti. The kind of art is beautiful actually, but the makers should know that it must be applied in the right places. There is much creativity contented in graffiti and it can increase the beauty of a place with an arranged form and colors.

In some country, the government permits graffiti to be made but it still arrange in the regulation and limitation. In some moments, people who appreciate graffiti as the part of art make such competition of graffiti. That is a good idea since the fact graffiti is also need a place and chance to be published. So, there is no fault in graffiti; making works on wall since it makes the wall increasingly beautiful and still tidy.