curating a personal art collection
a simple guide
Buying and displaying original, meaningful art pieces can be one of the most important things you do for your home. It adds so much personality to a space, and can communicate a tremendous amount about you, what you value, and what you love. Buying art needn’t be intimidating, very expensive, or difficult. You don’t need an encyclopedic knowledge of art history, or an interior designer’s help. This simple, no-fuss guide will help you to source inexpensive, local original art that resonates with you, and will give you great tips on displaying those pieces to get the best out of them.
how to curate an art collection
I am as far from an art expert as you can get. My knowledge of art, art history and movements, and famous and emerging artists is rudimentary at best, and this guide will certainly not be helpful to those more knowledgeable folk looking to invest in pieces from emerging artists that might one day be able to be sold for a profit on the secondhand market (although you might get lucky!) But, I have a good eye, and over the years have managed to curate an inexpensive collection of original art that never fails to get compliments and questions from guests. More importantly, the art in my home brings me happiness every day and makes my home feel like ‘me’.
I like to acquire art using a technique that I call the expanding circle of art acquisition. Let me tell you a secret; almost anything looks good if it’s framed properly. Vintage posters, children’s drawings, thrifted paintings, old letters or postcards, iPhone photos blown up really big. And so, the first place you should look for inexpensive (free!) art is in your home. Do you have some lovely drawings that your kids bought home from kinder? Do you have something in your box of old letters and cards that could be framed? Maybe you’ve still got the first CD or cassette tape you ever bought, could you take out the liner notes and frame them? Or have you kept every concert ticket you ever bought, maybe you could display them all together in one piece? Do you have some old faded polaroids? What about that iPhone shot of your kids that you love, could you turn it black and white, print it large and embrace the ‘lofi’ aesthetic of it? While you’ll have to spend a little bit to frame these pieces properly, you will have a genuinely authentic, original art piece for your trouble.
make it personal
My son made me this adorable Lego heart.
Once you’ve exhausted your own home, expand your search to your family and friends. Maybe your friend is an illustrator or photographer? Maybe your Nan was an amateur painter, or has a collection of vintage paintings, and maybe she has some old pieces lying around that would look great with a modern reframe? Does your cousin’s kid draw cartoons, could you commission something from them? Does your friend make woven wall hangings? Having an art piece on your wall that was created by someone you know and love is a great feeling, and a must for any amateur art collector.
The next circle is your local community. This could be your immediate local community, like your particular suburb, or your particular region, or your state. The benefits of buying art within your local community are manifold. You’ll be supporting local small, independent businesses, putting money into your local community, you might get to meet the artist, and there’s a good chance you’ll be getting an artwork that is much more relevant to you. Maybe it depicts a local area or local personality that you love? Finding art within your local community is requires a little bit of work to set up initially, but after doing some simple discovery work, you should have regular access to locally produced art. There are a couple of things you could do:
Ask family and friends. Do they have any artists in their friendship or family group, or have they bought any locally produced art that they like?
Find your local, independent galleries and sign up for their newsletters or follow them on social media. Go along to exhibitions and when you see pieces that you like, track down the artist and follow them on social media. Check out Instagram’s ‘follow similar accounts’ function to find even more artists who are similar to the ones that you follow. And vis versa, if you see that an artist you like is exhibiting at a local gallery, follow that gallery online. If they’re already exhibiting an artist that you like, chances are they will exhibit other, similar artists.
Head to local markets and art fairs in your community. This is a great way to meet and buy direct from artists.
Follow local design blogs like The Design Files and Hunting for George. They often feature new artists and will help you stay up to date with the art scene in your area.
Search for original vintage art in your area on eBay, Gumtree, and Facebook Marketplace. This is such a great way to get authentic art and you’ll find a whole section with tips and tricks further down.
Once you get to this point, you’ll be well on your way to having a great, eclectic, personal art collection that you’ll be proud to display. Using the same techniques I’ve described, you could then expand your circle ever further to include other states in your home country, or even art from other parts of the world.
are family photos ‘art’?
Controversial opinion warning! No, with some important exceptions, your family photos are not art and, in general, should not be treated or displayed as such in your home. Eek! This doesn’t mean you can’t put your family photos on your wall, I certainly do! Let me explain. I’m a photographer, I obviously think family photos are incredibly important and worth investing in. But when I see larger than life, formally posed family photos in people’s homes, it feels a bit ‘ick’. I think it’s weird to have your family’s faces blown up really big and put on your wall, particularly in the public areas of your house that guests will see, like the living room. To my mind, those photos belong in an album, that you can bring out and look through on the couch with your kids, and then pass down to them in a couple of decades.
So what are the exceptions?
* Vintage family photos. Your parent’s or grandparents’ wedding photos? An old polaroid from your childhood? Some faded film photos from your aunt’s trip to Europe as a 20-year-old? It’s art, frame them up in modern simple frames and put them on your wall.
* Professionally photographed family photos (or really good images you’ve taken yourself) that have some artistic merit. Maybe they’re candid, lifestyle photos of your family and you can’t really see anyone’s face? Or maybe they’re blurry, showing the movement of your kids running around? Maybe they’re great-looking ‘tiny people big landscape’ photos, where the environment is the star of the image, or they’re really graphic, interesting-looking black and white portraits all hung together? Then yes, print them out and hang them up. You could print them in a smaller size and include them in a gallery wall with other art pieces, or lean them on a mantel or shelf, or hang them in an interesting way in the more ‘private’ areas of your home.
what to buy, what not to buy
Don’t buy art from large faceless homewares stores that don’t list the name of the artist. Please don't. Always buy from a real-life, preferably local artist. It might be a little more expensive (although often it’s not!), but those homewares stores don’t need your money, and you deserve art that isn’t mass-produced and that honours the creator. Don’t buy canvas art pieces from these homewares stores. Canvas almost always looks tacky and cheap, even if you’ve paid a good amount for it. m
If you like a particular artist but aren’t able to afford an original piece, see if they do limited edition prints. I think this is a fantastic way to get an authentic piece at an affordable price, while supporting an artist that you like.
Do you know why you can buy prints of famous artworks like Henri Matisse’s Blue Nude fairly inexpensively? Because copyright only lasts for 70 years after an artist’s death, after which time the artwork is in the ‘public domain’ and can be reproduced and sold. Does this mean you should buy a print of Henri Matisse’s Blue Nude? No, no it does not. Support a living artist! It’s weird to have reproduction famous artworks on your wall that are clearly not originals or authorized prints, and trust me, the estates of Salvador Dali and Picasso don’t need your money, but an emerging artist probably does.
When buying vintage art, always buy original art, not prints or reproductions. You know, copies of real paintings on flat board? The kind of thing you bought from an op shop in your 20s and carted around from sharehouse to sharehouse? Get rid of that. Original vintage art by unknown artists is very inexpensive and plentiful (see my guide below). You want to be able to see the brush strokes! Much nicer!
Don’t buy images of recognisable people from the developing world, by fine art photographers from the developed world. In my opinion, there is no way this can be done ethically. Even if the photographer has received verbal, or even written consent, has the person really understood that their image is going to be sold for a profit and hung on the wall of a stranger in the developed world as though they are some kind of interesting oddity? I doubt it. If you’re considering buying a piece like this, I’d be asking serious questions of the photographer about how consent was given by the subject. But even then, just don’t do it. I think buying images of unrecognisable people from the developing world can be ok, and buying fine art photography or art pieces from artists from the developing world can be great if 100% of the profit is going to them.
Do check out organisations like Studio A and Arts Project who sell fanatic original art by artists with disabilities. I’m always blown away by the quality of the work for sale and the prices are very affordable.
how to buy vintage art
Buying inexpensive vintage art by unknown artists from places such as eBay, Gumtree, and Facebook marketplace is one of the best and most cost-effective ways to get gorgeous, authentic art on your walls. To be clear, I’m not talking about buying pieces by famous or well-known artists on the secondhand market, which takes a lot of knowledge about art and artists, as well as a lot of money. I’m talking about original art by ‘nobodies’, which can be just as beautiful and worthy of being on your wall as anything else.
I have saved searches on eBay for vintage art that I look through regularly. I have searches for oil paintings, watercolour paintings, and drawings. In the search parameters, I make sure that I’m only searching for ‘original’ artworks, generally under $200, and located in Australia to save on postage. If you’re interested in vintage art, check out my Instagram account Vintage Art Round Up, where I round up the best vintage art eBay listings that I find. Hot tip; if you see a vintage art piece on eBay that you love, don’t buy it on the spot, always put it on your watch list first. And then, like magic, the seller will send you an offer that could be anywhere from 5% to 30% off. Vintage art pieces by unknown artists are very slow to move on eBay, and if you’ve shown interest in a piece by putting it on your watch list, the seller is motivated to sell it to you. Don’t worry about it being sold in the meantime, it’s very unlikely to sell.
what else can you use?
As well as paintings and drawings, you could also find other vintage products and display them as art. Maybe you could find a vintage postcard of the small town you grew up in? Or the coastal spot where your family holidayed during your childhood? Maybe you can find a vintage map of the city you lived as an exchange student? Vintage blueprints like the one here can look great. People often sell genuine vintage photographs on eBay of everything from people to landscapes, maybe you could find a cute vintage photo of your favourite street in the city where you live? Or a cute looking couple from the 60s with great outfits? You could buy a vintage school class photo to hang in your small person’s room, cute!
reframe it!
In general, vintage art comes in a hideous, dated frame, and/or with an ugly mat board. I almost always take the piece out of the frame it came in, and have my framers reframe it in a simple, modern frame in either oak, white, or black. The contrast of a vintage painting with a beautifully simple modern frame is the best! With vintage paintings on hard board, I get my framers to do an oak floating frame, an example of which you can see above. It’s timeless! And with drawings or watercolours on paper, I get a simple frame with a white mat board or I float mount the piece if the edges are nice. Can you use a different colour mat board? NO! ONLY WHITE! Jokes, of course. You can use whatever colour you like, but I’ve never seen a coloured mat board that looked good with a vintage art piece. Keep it simple.
Sometimes when you take a piece out of the frame it came in, it might slightly damage the piece or the painting may look different around the edge that has been covered by the frame for decades. My advice? Embrace it! It adds to the character! Also, it’s an inexpensive piece and you really don’t have to be too precious with it.
lean in
I love to lean an art piece, either on the floor, or on a shelf, mantel, or piece of furniture. It looks so casually elegant, and means you can move the piece around at will. Generally vertical pieces look best when leaning.
go low
When hanging art, keep in mind that the middle of the piece should be about 145cm from the ground. This is the ‘ideal’ viewing height, making it neither too high nor too low. I find that this is much lower than people expect, and that in general people hang their art far too high. The exception to this rule is if the piece you’re hanging is ‘relating’ to a piece of furniture. For example, if you’re hanging a small painting close to a side table, hang the piece so it looks good near the side table, which will probably mean you’re hanging it quite low.
If you’re hanging your piece in a gallery wall, the same rule applies. Imagine that the whole gallery wall is one piece of art, the middle should be about 145cm from the floor.
displaying your art
Many people, myself included, buy an art piece with good intentions and then never get around to framing or hanging it. Let me give you some tips to make it as easy as possible to get that art on your wall. First, get yourself a framer. Find a local framer with a good selection of quality frames, pick a couple of frames that you like and that ‘go together’, and just use those for everything. For example, I use Frames Readymade, on Lygon Street in Brunswick East and I highly recommend them. They have a great selection of simple frames in a couple of different colours. They make the frames and the mats on site, you can get a pre-made frame and frame your piece yourself in store to save a bit of money, or if you have something that doesn’t fit in their standard sizes, you can get a custom frame and mat for a little bit extra. Are they more expensive than a frame you’d get from Kmart? Yes, but not outrageously so. And they look so much better and are much better quality. It’s worth it. In terms of colour, in my opinion it’s best to have a couple of different coloured frames in your house. If they’re all the same, it’s a bit too matchy-matchy, but you don’t want a crazy jumble of frames either. In my house I have timber frames in either black, white, raw oak, or stained oak. They all work together, but there’s a bit of variety. When using a mat board, I always go for a white. There are generally many different shades to choose from, from stark white to warmer or cooler tones, so you can choose something that matches the piece. I’d avoid coloured mat board. In my opinion, it usually looks dated. Off centre hanging
Once you’ve got your own personal framer sorted, it’s time to hang your art on our wall. There are lots of ways to do this, you could even hire someone to do it for you, but I'm going to tell you my way, which I’ve found to be the most simple and easy way for me to get my art pieces on the wall quickly instead to gathering dust in a cupboard! I buy 3M Command Velcro Strips in bulk from eBay so that I always have them to hand. Then I unscrew the hanging wire on frames, stick a couple of Velcro Strips to the frame, and put it on the wall, done! No banging in nails and making holes in the wall, and the piece sits flush against the wall, which I like. You can also move the piece easily, I’m always rearranging pieces in my house. Use a butterknife to very gently jimmy the strips apart, starting at the bottom. Be very careful when removing the velcro from your wall so that you don’t strip paint, refer to the instructions on the back of the packet. For smaller pieces, I usually put one strip in each corner, and with larger pieces I put two strips in each corner. The largest art piece in my house is about a meter long, but it doesn’t have glass so it’s not very heavy. The Velcro Strips hold this piece without any issues, but if you have a very heavy piece, hanging it with nails might be your only option. Alternatively, you could leave the hanging wire attached and use heavy-duty 3M Command Hooks, which again are easy to put up, and remove/rearrange. Always check the weight limits and follow the instructions on the packet.
gallery walls
Oh gallery walls. Some people love them, some people hate them, but I can tell you one thing, they will always be in style. Personally, I love them. They allow you to display a disparate collection of smaller art pieces that might be difficult to display separately, and they make a real statement. I like to have one or two larger pieces that ‘anchor’ the wall, and hang those first, then hang the other smaller pieces around them. Having only smaller pieces can look a little ‘bittsie’. Do you have to have a theme or colour scheme? Nope. I mean, you could. You could have a gallery wall with just vintage portraits, or vintage landscapes. And you could have a colour theme. But the beauty of gallery walls is that you don’t have to have any theme. Your theme could be ‘art pieces I like’, and just the act of putting them all on a wall together means that they work together somehow. In my current gallery wall, I everything from modern fine art photography, to vintage paintings, and I think it all works. Do your frames all have to be the same? Nope. I’d recommend that the frames all ‘work’ together, but having them all match can look too matchy-matchy, and the aim with a gallery wall is to make it look casually elegant, like you just put a bunch of things you had lying around on your wall and they just happen to look great together. In terms of hanging your gallery wall, some people advocate tracing each art piece you want to hang with butcher’s paper, cutting them out and then hanging the paper on the wall to get the shape you want, and then replacing the paper with the art pieces. I’d recommend this if you’re going to be hammer nails in the wall, but if you’re like me, you like to make things easier and quicker. I use 3M Command Hooks or Velcro Strips which makes it much easier to get things on the wall, and easier to rearrange if you make a mistake with placement. When first hanging a gallery wall, I put all the pieces on the floor in front of the wall and arrange them so they look balanced. As I’ve said, I always have a larger piece or two to ‘anchor’ the wall, and arrange smaller pieces around them. I generally like to place my biggest piece in the bottom right corner. Then I hang! Sometimes I have to rearrange things, but using 3M Command Hooks mean that rearranging is fairly painless.
gallery walls
where to buy art
Many people end up with unoriginal, mass-produced art, or no art at all in their homes simply because they don’t know where to find great, locally made pieces. Let me help! Click here to reveal some fantastic Melbourne and Australia-based artists and art resources, selling pieces to suit all budgets and styles.