Before Buying A New Painting... You Need To Know This.
Updated: Mar 1
"Is There A Way To Invest In Art?"
Buying a piece of art is not just for aesthetic purposes, some art pieces have the potential to be a good investment. If you’re passionate about art, before you start collecting, some guidelines are very important to consider. Art is a very unique asset, besides stocks and bonds, investors think about art as a perfect way to diversify their investment portfolio. The value of an original art piece of an avant-garde pioneer artist is relatively stable, while, collecting high-quality art pieces from living artists actually is very profitable in long term.
How To Determine The Condition Of A Painting?
"Make sure the painting is not cracked."
The First to consider is the condition of the artwork, check the Painting canvas, the fabric is linen or cotton? is it in a good condition? Linen is the canvas of choice for artists who want their paintings to stand the test of time. If the painting is large, then linen should be the surface of choice, as it’s less likely to dip in the center after a long time. For rigorous painting techniques, linen for sure is the tougher choice. Do not buy oil painting on paper if you want your masterpiece to stay in a good condition for a long time. Having a close look at the surface of the oil painting is a must, to make sure that there are no cracks, a professional artist's practice would adjust the percent of oils in the successive paint layers, a cracked oil painting layer is a red flag, "a wrong technique was used to create the oil painting".
How Can You Tell If An Oil Painting Is Original?
"Original is to do something that has never been done before."
"Any step forward out of the Art world boundaries is considered to be an original step."
The word original has many different interpretations. Some would say that to be original is to do something that has never been done before, Others might think of the original as being the first presentation or the unveiling. To be original is relative, some paintings are original in introducing a new style, composition, color tones, techniques or even being non-subjective like Hilma Af Klint's abstract paintings. Creating art in a remarkable distinguishable way, to know who is the artist even without Looking at the signature, is a step forward in creating original art, the style includes the steps the artist took to create the artwork, whether it was classical multilayered artwork or an impression with a single layer of thick paints on the canvas, it also includes the color, was it realistic tones or fictional tones out of the realistic spectra, don't mention skill and time required to establish this style. The tools the artist used to apply the paint on the surface of the canvas tell everything, actually, the brushstrokes on the canvas tell the pathways the artist walks through to get the artwork out from none to existence, any new technique the artist use is considered a step forward. Creating an artwork that is purely innovative in all its aspects is not easy. but any step forward out of the Art world boundaries is considered to be an original step.
Why Is The Date Of An Artwork Important?
"Was the painting a work of a forerunner or a follower?"
Every art movement is a wave, first, the groundbreaking pioneers, the origin of the avant-garde art movement, then comes the second generation's validation of the ideas of the pioneers and spreading the wave into the art community, after a period of time the purity of the art movement starts to fade and turn into a precursor from which new ideas and concepts start to develop. For example, the abstraction wave evoked by theosophical society in the early 20th century started with the groundbreaking works of its pioneers Hilma Af Klimt, Wassily Kandinsky, and Piet Mondrian. After the three pioneers, the second generation represented by Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, and Willem de Kooning...etc. Knowing the creation date of an oil painting is important because it simply enables the viewer to classify the piece of art within the art wave, in its time was it a work of a pioneer forerunner or a follower.
Before You Buy The Painting "Know More About The Artist".
"Does the artist has the potential to rise in value?"
Do not buy a new original painting without having a close look at the artist's portfolio, and inspecting the signature of the artist on the canvas, in the artist's portfolio you can see the development of the artist's production through time. The versatility of the artist's portfolio in terms of style(Realism, impressionism, expressionism ….), techniques, and subjects(landscapes, still life, figurative....) indicates the professionalism of the artist, otherwise, the last thing collectors want to do is buying a hobbyist painting.
The Importance Of The Brushstrokes In Oil Painting
The quality of the artist’s brushwork … allows the spectator to recreate how the artist moved the brush and applied paints to get the artwork out to light. Oil paintings are created sometimes in one layer of paint or usually in overlapping multi-layer of paint. An artist needs to follow the Fat over Lean rule to end up with high-durability oil paintings, by looking closely at the texture of the painting you can make sure there are no cracks in the top layers of the oil painting.
The Importance Of A Strong Composition
"A good composition is one where the artist controls the movement of the viewer's eye."
In the process of evaluation of an oil painting, The composition is the most important aspect, we actually start with the composition and end with the composition. A good composition is one where the artist controls the movement of the viewer's eye to a beneficial result. Artists can do this by a number of means, such as reinforcing the focal point with the Rule of Thirds, implied lines, the contrast of value, and selective color saturation. The utilization of the two-dimensional space on a canvas, the interaction between the artwork subjects and the background, the color, and light transitions all these elements target the capture of the viewer's eyes and enhance the delivery of the artist's message, To achieve a successful composition is not easy and depends on the artist's ability to gather subjects, colors, and light to create a unique homogeneous or heterogeneous artwork, sometimes achieving an emotionally effective heterogenous artwork is much harder than a homogenous piece of art.
Finally, Buy The Artwork You Love
"What kinds of paintings do you naturally gravitate toward?"
Make certain that you purchase something that you adore. Take your time deciding what you like in a work of art. What kinds of paintings do you naturally gravitate toward? Is it a specific style, artist, or time period? You can make a decision by looking through galleries, museums, art books, and websites. If you’re thinking about buying art as an investment, you’ll need to know this. Keep in mind that paintings take a long time to appreciate in value, so it is better to buy a painting because you like it rather than hoping it will be worth a lot of money someday. Once you’ve decided on a theme, you’ll be able to find the perfect oil painting that meets your requirements and provide you and your family with years of enjoyment.