Building up your art collection and filling blank walls can be a daunting, time consuming and costly process. Here are 10 ideas that I hope will make that task inspiring, exciting and enjoyable.
GALLERIES
Not only are galleries a great place to pick up posters and postcards after an exhibition, but it’s also well worth perusing their online shops. The National Gallery, Tate and National Portrait Gallery for example, all have a good selection of prints and posters available to buy online.
https://www.nationalgallery.co.uk/products/printondemand
https://npgshop.org.uk/collections/national-portrait-gallery-prints
https://shop.tate.org.uk/prints-1
SURFACE VIEW
Surface View offers a huge selection of prints and designs available in different formats, from prints to wallpaper murals, canvases to wall hangings. This can be a great place to call on if you need something in a specific size or on a big scale. Their art prints can be printed in whatever dimensions you require, up to 145cm x 300cm.
https://www.surfaceview.co.uk/
PARTNERSHIP EDITIONS
An online platform representing emerging artists with prices starting as low as £50-60. The selection is large and cutting edge and it’s very easy to while away time on the site discovering exciting new talent. Partnership Editions also hosts events and exhibitions in conjunction with the artists they represent.
https://partnershipeditions.com/
PETRI PRINTS
Carefully sourced collections of antique reprints, all framed with imagination and thought. Petri Prints also offer a bespoke service sourcing antique prints if you’re looking for something particularly large or rare.
https://petriprints.com/
ANTOINETTE POISSON
A Paris based boutique selling their incredibly charming and beautiful designs on decorative papers, stationery, wallpapers and fabrics. A great ‘go to’ place for a set of prints to hang above bed, for example.
https://www.antoinettepoisson.com/
EBAY, ETSY AND AUCTION HOUSES
If you’ve got the time and patience, eBay and Etsy are well worth a trawl through for unknown artists’ work. There’s an abundance of inexpensive, framed, still life oil paintings, for example, waiting to be claimed. These marketplaces are also great spots to look through for decorative, vintage picture frames.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/
https://www.etsy.com/
ART FAIRS
London plays host to numerous art fairs throughout the year such as The Art Car Boot Fair, The Other Art Fair, The Affordable Art fair, to name but a few. These are great places to discover up and coming artists as well as get your hands on original works by more well known artists at affordable prices.
Student graduate shows can also be an interesting way of unearthing new talent and coming upon on original, unique pieces.
https://www.artcarbootfair.com/
https://www.theotherartfair.com/
https://affordableartfair.com/
PRINTED GOODS
A creative project which aims to use art as a way of enriching everyday experiences. Printed Goods sell a wide selection of affordable, striking and graphic prints where inspiration has been drawn from classical mythology, symbolism and archetypes.
https://printedgoods.net/
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- 'Tree of Life' by George Greaves, available from Printed Goods
GLASSETTE
Glassette is a carefully curated homeware platform selling the UK’s best independent brands. Its ‘Art Kiosk’ offers a wide range of original art from UK artists as well as prints, all at prices which won’t break the bank - a great way to start your art collection.
https://glassette.com/collections/art-kiosk
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- 'Citron' by Inès Tahiri-Alaoui, available from Glassette
DIY
You don’t necessarily need to look outside of your home for art, think about what you already have - kids’ drawings, postcards, tickets, restaurant placemats, polaroids; anything that’s of particular importance and meaningful to you might evoke just as much emotion, or more, as something bought. With some careful and creative framing, that rolled up placemat from the seafood restaurant you went to in Italy last year might become your most coveted piece yet!
