“How do I start collecting art?”

“How do I start collecting art? And how do I know if the artwork is any ‘good’?”

If you do any kind of research you will soon discover that artwork is frequently labeled as “good”, “great” or “inspirational”. Now do you want to be collecting art?

Frankly there are only two rules of thumb you should consider when it comes to buying or collecting art:

(1) Buy what you like
(2) Setting and sticking to a budget

Buying Art that You Like

Purchasing art for collecting or just for decorating your home is simply a matter of personal taste. As the novelist Margaret Wolfe Hungerford famously wrote, “Art is in the eye of the beholder…”

So the main questions you need to ask yourself  when considering buying art are:

• “Do you like it?”
• “Does it give you joy or make you happy?”
• “Can I afford it?”

As art consultant Alan Bamberger says “An original work of art is not only visually appealing, but it also radiates the personality, abilities, creativity, insight, inspiration, technical mastery, attitudes, and at its best, the brilliance and genius of the artist who created it.”

So we recommend that you only buy artwork that touches your emotions or that visually appeals to you in some fashion.

Sticking to Your Budget

Too often people are intimated by what they think will be the “high price” of good art.  However, a lot of excessive attention is often placed on “collecting” just for the sake of collecting.

We always recommend that you buy what you love but if you’re going to spend a lot of money, you may want to consider it to be like any other investment and take steps to save for it.

More than you might think, we have had customers “visit” a favorite work of art or a large signature piece for weeks, (even  months if they live out of town) before they feel comfortable enough to purchase it.

However, “Don’t devalue something just because it is priced at less than what you think ‘good’ art should be priced at,” says New York art collecting adviser Ginger Porcella. “I always tell people that if you really like it, buy it, whether it is $50 or $500.”

At Mountain Made we have pieces of locally made art that will suit just about any budget, so you never have to worry about suffering “sticker shock” here.

Our gallery specializes in offering unique yet very affordable mountain made art such as handcrafted jewelry & fine metalwork, pottery & ceramics, metal yard art, orignial paintings, photographs & prints, and wooden decor items.