Buying Orange Paintings for Friends

Buying orange paintings for friends can be very rewarding.  This can also be a business if it is done properly.  If you know your friend’s tastes, you can be very successful.

I have been finding the most delightful paintings in orange lately.  I have been buying the paintings for friends.  They have been very well received.

I found a seascape that had a beautiful red and orange sunset in it.  The artist was Robyn Joy and buying paintings from her has been relatively easy.  Her prices are reasonable and the quality is excellent.

There was a painting that I decided to buy for some friends that were getting married.  The painting was enormous and perfect for the loft they just purchased.  It was orange and red and had a very stylized heart represented in the center.  The painting was shipped from Germany and arrived only three days before the wedding!

The painting that I chose for my son’s college roommate was of orange sneakers.  He got an executive position at Nike and needed help decorating his office.  He loves the color orange and was thrilled that I actually found some dynamic modern impressionistic art for his office that featured shoes.

My yoga instructor has been a good friend to me.  I found buying a painting for her to be a very rewarding search.  The painting that I ultimately chose was an abstract nude orange oil painting.  She proudly hung it in her studio.

My love of orange paintings tends to lean toward the abstract.  I keep finding paintings that really speak to me.  Buying the paintings for my friends has been really fun.  One of my oldest friends received a painting of orange blossoms for Christmas.  I know that orange trees bring back wonderful memories for her.

While I was searching for just the right painting for my friend’s new home, I found a wonderful artist named Aileen.  I bought her painting called Sunset Palm.  It was an original acrylic painting on solid wood.  It was breathtaking.

Folk art is something that I am not very good at buying.  I found myself drawn to some pieces at a local gallery that were very colorful and fun.  I even found myself buying one!  The friends that I bought the painting for are cat lovers and this was a folk art painting of three cats.

The painting I bought for my best friend looks very stylish on her plain walls.  It complements her modern furnishings and it makes an instant focal and conversational point.  This painting is orange and burnt sienna has a dream like quality and, according to the artist, is born from our rich cultural heritage of myths, legends and poetry. It is full of atmosphere and evokes feelings of mystery.

Pop art is fun to buy for friends.  I had a friend move to Southern California and buy a beautiful home.  I found the perfect painting for his stark white kitchen.  The painting is of an orange and a glass of orange juice.  It looks so nice on the new wainscoting.

My niece is getting married later this year.  I have spent quite a bit of time getting to know her soon-to-be new in-laws.  I have found a lovely painting for them as a welcome to our family gift.  They are involved in rose competitions and I found them a wonderful oil painting of a wild orange rose.  I can’t wait to give it to them.

The most energetic painting I’ve purchased was for a friend of my husband.  I found an art student at the local college that was trying to sell a wall painting she had done in orange and green.  The painting depicted orange and green in nature and how they represented the moods of the day.  I wanted to keep this one for myself.

I have a friend that teaches in a Montessori school.  I found that buying a painting for the school was pretty easy.  The classroom my friend teaches in is called the Iris room and I found a lovely watercolor painting of an iris that was very vibrant.  My friend and her students sent me a very lovely thank you note for buying it.

Love of Asian Botanical Paintings

I have a love for Asian botanical paintings.  I’ve been seeking them out for a long time.  I have many in my collection and love each and every one of them.

The first Asian botanical painting that I bought was Vietnamese.  It was one of a series of twelve paintings that I bought that were created by Vu Viet Hung.  I have them all over my home.

These oil landscapes by Vu Viet Hung are stunning.  These Asian botanical paintings really set a serene tone in my home.  The subtleties of the colors and the simple themes go so well on my walls.

I found a lovely Asian botanical painting quite by chance at a yard sale.  I don’t usually make a habit of looking for paintings at yard sales, but this one was displayed out front and enticed me to stop.  At first glance, I thought I was looking at a painting of a palm tree.  At closer inspection, I found that the painting was of a bonsai tree.

My office has a more contemporary feel than the rest of my house.  I have found that I like to have an abstract Asian botanical painting to ponder while I am thinking.  I searched for a long time to find just the right piece to hang there.  I finally found a piece by an artist named Soniei called Enlightenment.

Soniei has a collection called the New Zen Sho Collection.  I love his work.  The abstract that I bought is considered an Asian botanical painting because it features bamboo.  In addition to the bamboo, there is beautiful calligraphy.

I have my eye on another Asian botanical painting by Soniei that has shades of sea-foam green.  It is much more subdued than the one I bought called Enlightenment.  This one is called Self-awareness and it is just lovely.  It is another painting of bamboo.

My mother-in-law admires the Asian botanical paintings that I find.  I found one that I really liked at a gallery in Hartford while I was on vacation.  It did not fit with my home and so I bought it for her.  She has really enjoyed it.  It features two flowering trees in acrylic on two panels.  The painting really is stunning with all of the shades of red.  It looks great in her house.

My husband isn’t as big a fan of Asian botanical paintings as I am.  They just don’t speak to him.  He has allowed me to hang one painting in his office because he approved of the color scheme.  The Asian botanical painting he chose for me to hang for him was a black and white.

Our daughter loves watercolor Asian botanical paintings on fabric.  She keeps her eye out for advertisements in our local paper for people selling them.  She has already purchased three.  She is well on her way to her own collection.

Bamboo is the most popular subject in Asian botanical paintings.  I have found so many paintings in so many different mediums that all feature bamboo.  I catch myself buying so many paintings that I’ve started giving them as gifts for friends and family for house warming gifts.

My sister recently bought a condo and I gave her an Asian botanical painting of happy birds and bamboo.  She liked the watercolor and asked me to find her two more to hang throughout her home.  I was able to find several more at the same shop that were created by the same artist.

The other Asian botanical paintings were of snow bamboo in moonlight and green bamboo.  I’ll keep checking back at that store for new paintings.  She said that she could probably use one or two more.

I am planning to redecorate my kitchen.  I do not like the French Country décor that the previous owner chose.  I would prefer that my kitchen reflect my personality better.  I will absolutely need an Asian botanical painting hung prominently in my kitchen. 

I have the perfect Asian botanical painting in mind already.  It is a nice Chinese painting that was done on rice paper with ink, water and color.  It is mounted with nice silk border by an expert and is ready to frame.

Modern Oil Paintings

I have been buying modern oil paintings for a show in my gallery.  I have found many nice pieces.  I found a painting called Village in winter in a private collection in Illinois.  The artist was Fern Isabel Coppedge and she was an American.  I liked the piece because of the snowy scene.  It reminded me of my childhood.

While on a buying trip, I found Clouds Over Buckingham.  This was a really nice modern oil painting that was in a private collection in Pennsylvania.  I have seen work by this artist before and it always resells very well.

Buying modern oil paintings has taken me to various places across the United States.  I especially liked Main Line, Pennsylvania.  That is where I acquired Leaning Silo.  The artist of Leaning Silo was Arthur Meltzer.  I had been previously unfamiliar with him.

I enjoyed my trip to Long Island City.  I was buying modern oil paintings and found one from a French artist named Georges Antoine Rochegrosse that I really liked.  This painting was painted around 1900 and it was full of flowers.  I really liked it and think it will do well in the show.

I find that I can buy modern oil paintings very efficiently on the internet.  I found an art dealer in the United Kingdom that finds me some very nice items to show.  Recently, he sent me a painting of a nude beauty by British artist Allan Douglas Davidson.

The modern oil painting depicted a young Bohemian woman wearing only flowers in her hair.  She also has large gold earrings. She is posed against a dark background which highlights the perfection of her creamy skin.

The still life I recently acquired was so amazingly real looking.  This was one of the most beautiful modern oil paintings that I’ve found.  The detail was exceptional and the representation of the blooming rose was breathtaking.

I was so lucky when I found an original Max Ernst modern oil painting.  The title of the piece I found was Arizona Desert.  I really think it will do well in my show and I didn’t even pay half of what I think it is really worth.  It will make a great addition to someone’s collection.

I found a modern oil painting by the Spanish artist Grifoll that I liked.  I’m not sure how well this painting of a clown will sell, but I liked it and I think that there is bound to be someone who just can’t live without it.

I just adore paintings that depict Paris.  I don’t even care about the period or the style.  I was able to find a really nice modern oil painting by Edouard Cortes for my show.  The painting depicts flower vendors and a horse carriage.  I almost feel like I’m in turn of the century Paris when I look into it for a long time.

There are a lot of modern oil paintings that depict roses.  I plan to have a grouping of several at my show.  I was able to buy a painting by Theresa Bernstein called Roses that she painted in the 1940s.  She lived to be 111 years old and that is pretty amazing.

A popular theme among modern oil paintings is nautical.  I really do not like nautical paintings and don’t want them in my show.  I have had several friends implore me to change my mind.  I keep being told that I can’t possibly have a show of modern oil paintings that does not include a ship.

I had an assistant bring in a modern oil painting that had an interesting history.  It was more because of the history of the painting that I decided to hang it than because of its content.  The ship scene was really not to my liking, but I bought it anyway.

I have been looking for an antique street scene painted by Bettylane Resnik.  I saw a modern oil painting by her in an art catalog that depicted a really colorful street scene.  I can’t seem to find the current owner, but I’m trying.  I think that it would complete my show.

Buying Paintings: Symbolism

Evoking a taste similar to the Romanticist tradition, but utilized mysticism and sensitivity through mythology and dream imagery, preceding the psychoanalytical work of Freud and Jung.  With a strong philosophical touch, more so than a style of art, and Art Nouveau and Expressionist artists such as Edvard Munch.  Beginning in France as a reaction to the movements of Naturalism and Realism, which seemed to capture the particular components of consensual reality, and presented spirituality and imagination reflecting some artists budding interest in religion and spirituality.

In literature, poet Charles Baudelaire was developing his work and the movement, and especially with such luminaries as Verlaine contributing to the collective effort of the literary movement during the 1860s and through to the 1870s.  With the works of Edgar Allen Poe coming to popularity in the 1880s, the Symbolism movement in artwork represented an outgrowth into the darker and more gothic nature of Romanticism, and contrasted with Romanticism’s rebellious and impetuous sides.  Symbolist writers wrote in very metaphoric and suggestive manner, to imbue the subjects with a sense of symbolic meaning, and made realistic images into representatives for more esoteric and primordial ideas.

In translating the language of dreams into artwork with symbolic leanings, discovering a visual style that draws upon that philosophical approach that captures a sense of art that has been influential on more than one movement artistically, and has evoked some of the more fantastic imagery to ever cross a canvas.  The Symbolist Manifesto was published in 1886, leading to a description of the movement that included ideas such as being hostile towards plain and matter-of-fact meanings, and to express the ideal in a perceptible form was the sole purpose of this art form.

Symbolists that preferred poetic means of conveying their ideas, were known for their techniques of removing technical aspects to achieve a greater fluidity for their work, and became related with seeking use of symbolic images over raw description to evoke the state of the poet’s soul.  Paul Verlaine was influential in an 1884 publication defining the essence of Symbolism, through many essays on the relevant poets of the day, and came to the conclusion of relating the works of this movement to the famed philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer, whose own work delved into art as a means of refuge from the strife of the world.

These similarities, which presented a contemplative and artistic refuge using themes such as mortality and otherworldliness, created disparaging arguments between critic and artist alike.  Leading to many Symbolist poets of the day to make their own publications and periodicals, and the literary Symbolism then reached its’ peak in the year 1886, with one particular periodical lasting until 1965.  Though the two aspects of the movement were distinct, they would occasionally overlap each other, and became a continuation for mystical tendencies in a Romantic tradition, even flirting with the self-consciously dark Decadence movement.

There were several dissimilar groups of painters and visual artists within the Symbolism movement, and the artistic movement seemed to have a greater impact worldwide than the literary movement, reaching multiple artists and sculptors from such distinct parts as Russia.  Many of the symbols found herein are not necessarily universal, but more personally affected with the artist’s obscure and private references, with some dreamlike subject matter influencing later Surrealists.  Symbolism has had a strong link to music for a while, and mostly due to the enthusiasm for the work of Richard Wagner, whose own music reflected his influence from the philosopher Schopenhauer.

Symbolism even grew to affect some of the literary fiction contributed by Oscar Wilde and Paul Adam, and has a pronounced ring when speaking about movements that have literarily and artistically that have crossed over into other inner groupings of artistic work.  The waters of Symbolism have even filtered down the centuries into the state of motion pictures today, and early on held influence with Russian playwright Anton Chekhov, as well as Russian actor and director Vsevolov Meyerhold’s method of acting that influenced early motion pictures.

It is difficult to overlook Symbolism’s influence and repercussions throughout the timeline to the current period of the world, as it drifts through many aspects taken for granted on a daily basis, and many pieces of work for many artists from writer T. S. Eliot to painter Pablo Picasso and even the state of horror films as well.  A decidedly different state of the world now has interpreted and reinterpreted all this throughout these hundreds of years, and created more and more material reflections of the state of things as they happen to be.

Buying Paintings: Futurism

A 20th century art movement with its’ roots in Italian and Russian beginnings, Futurism is said to have largely began with the writing of a 1907 essay on music by the Italian composer Ferruccio Busoni, and explored every medium of art to convey its’ meanings.  The Italian poet Filippo Tommaso Marinetti was the first to produce an article in which was summed up the major principles that became the Manifesto of Futurism in 1909.  It included the passionate loathing of ideas from the past, and with that enmity of political and artistic traditions, espoused a love for speed and technology.

The philosophy of Futurism regarded the car, the plane, and the industrial town as legendary of the technological triumph of mankind over nature.  With Marinetti at the helm, a few artists of the time introduced the tenets of the philosophy to the visual arts, and represented the movement in its’ first phase in 1910.  The Russian Futurists were fascinated with dynamism and the restlessness of modern urban life, purposefully seeking to provoke controversy and attract attention to their works through insulting reviews of the static art of the past, and the circle of Russian Futurists were predominantly literary as opposed to being overtly artistic.

Cubo-Futurism was a school of Russian Futurism formulated in 1913, and many of the works incorporated Cubism’s usage of angular forms combined with the Futurist predisposition for dynamism.  The Futurist painter Kazimir Malevich was the artist to develop the style, but dismissed it for the inception of the artistic style known as Suprematism, that focused upon the fundamental geometric shapes as a form of non-objective art.  Suprematism grew around Malevich, with most prominent works being produced between 1915 and 1918, but the movement had halted for the most part by 1934 in Stalinist Russia.

Though at one point, those Russian poets and artists that considered themselves Futurists had collaborated on works such a Futurist opera, but the Russian movement broke down from persecution for their belief in free thought with the start of the Stalinist age.  Italian Futurists were strongly linked with the early fascists in the hope for modernizing the society and economy in the 1920s through to the 1930s, and Marinetti founded the Futurist Political Party in early 1918, which was later absorbed into Benito Mussolini’s National Fascist Party.

As tensions grew within the various artistic faces that considered themselves Futurists, many Futurists became associated with fascism which later translated into Futurist architecture being born, and interesting examples of this style can be found today even though many Futurist architects were at odds in the fascist taste for Roman imperial patterns.  Futurism has even influenced many other 20th century art movements such as Dadaism, Surrealism, and Art Deco styles.  Futurism as a movement is considered extinct for the most part with the death of Marinetti in 1944.

As Futurism gave way to the actual future of things, the ideals of the artistic movement have remained significant in Western culture through the expressions of the commercial cinema and culture, and can even be as an influence in modern Japanese anime and cinema.  The Cyberpunk genre of films and books owe much to the Futurist tenets, and the movement has even spawned Neo-Futurism, a style of theatre at utilizes on Futurism’s focuses to create a new form of theatre.  Much of Futurism’s inspiration came from the previous movement of Cubism, that involved such famed artists as Pablo Picasso and Paul Cezanne, and created much of the basis for Futurism through its’ philosophy.

Buying Folk Art Paintings

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.