Every year a whole flock of cedar waxwings flies in to eat the berries from the Photenia trees in the back yard. They stay for several days and when they have stripped off every berry, they are gone! This is a small painting, 5 x 7 inches. A frame that will hold a 5 x 7 panel can be found in nearly every store as it is one of the most popular sizes. Click here to learn more about this painting.
This 8 x 10 inch painting featuring yellow tulips has already sold, but you can see more paintings by clicking here. Interesting art can be found in online galleries. Fantastic collections online allow you to by-pass galleries and dealers who mark up art over 100%. Don’t ignore online options when you shop for art. Fantastic collections can be found in many places.
These garden tulips originally came to me from a florist’s shop planted in a painted bowl but in full bloom! I enjoyed them immensely and painted several canvases of them. This painting is sold but you can see others by clicking here. This painting is on a panel.
Panels were used by many of the Old Masters and are often preferred by many artists because of the rigid, smooth surface. A panel is easy to fit in almost all standard frames and framing a panel can be a do it yourself project. It can also be mailed easily.
Stretched canvas, on the other hand, can fit into standard frames only with special clips. Many people hang stretched canvas without a frame. “Gallery wrap” canvas is stapled to the back of a two inch wooden frame and hung just as it is. Artists often paint the sides of gallery wrap.
This is an oil painting on a 6 x 6 inch linen stretched canvas. For more information about the painting, click here.
Many people think that oil paintings are better than acrylic paintings but this is not true and I would not worry about acrylics v.s. oils when selecting a painting. Many acrylic paintings are hard to tell from oil paintings and can often be painted exactly like oil paintings depending on the skill of the artist. Both kinds of media are long lasting and can be framed without glass.
You should also not be concerned about whether the painting is on stretched canvas or on a panel. I will write about this in next week’s blog.
This painting sold before I could show it on my blog but I found a photograph of it and wanted all of you to see it anyway! Click here to go to my online gallery and see other paintings.
In addition to floral art, there is an endless number of paintings of other subject matter. The good thing about beginning a collection of small paintings is that if your interest later changes, your small paintings make wonderful gifts to family and friends or donations to charity for auctions. Collect a painting that you love, no matter what it is and you can’t go wrong.
Valentine’s Day is coming up in February so I am posting a lovely painting of two roses. It is available by clicking here to go to my online gallery which has details including price, size, and free shipping!
If you are beginning to collect art, you might consider collecting one or two special categories. Florals, for example, or landscapes are always popular. You can have a wonderful collection of paintings of all different types of flowers or you can specialize in roses, or pansies, or leaves! I have friends who collect paintings of dogs and a friend-of-a friend has built an entire collection of small paintings of turtles! Love what you collect and you can’t go wrong!
This painting is 8 x 10. I like to think that small paintings are 8 x 10 and under. Many artists paint even smaller works–those that are called miniature are often 2- 1/2 ” x 3- 3/8″. I have even seen tiny works 1-1/4″ x 1-1/4″ by artist Karen Libecap in her book “The Big Book of Tiny Art.” I don’t think that I could ever work that small, but I am experimenting with 5×7″ sizes. You can see a few of my 5 x7″ paintings by looking at my animal category in my on line art gallery Dailypaint works. Click here to go see.
