Galleries vs Convenience

 

 

Many of you have seen the small comment that we recently made on Facebook about trying to change the perception of convenience and I am happy to see that many of you agreed with it.

 

 

 

I have spent the last hour thinking about why people seem to feel more comfortable buying art from large furniture chains then they would from an art gallery and the only 2 things I can think of are convenience and having slight anonymity when buying (i.e you're not being sold to).

 

 

 

I just wanted to list a few reasons why buying from an art gallery is much better than buying from a huge furniture chain, and the benefits of buying from smaller galleries.

 

 

 

 

1.When buying from a larger store - do you really know what you are buying? What kind of print it is, what the image is actually of (if it is an image of a poppy would it make a difference if it was a remembrance day poppy) and who designed/created it? Probably not. I wouldn't know (as there is not information laid out about it) and I doubt the staff would either. When buying from a smaller gallery the employees will know who the artist is, what material it was made from and where and why it was made. All this for the same price tag (plus you won't be caught out by a friend when asked at you next gathering).

 

 

2.When buying from a small art gallery you are likely to walk away with a good quality piece. As a gallery we know all about the different types of paper ink and painting materials. We know it won't fade or wrinkle in 6 months so you have to buy a new piece 6 months later, most original pieces will be passed down through generations. (we will be blogging about different paper and ink next week and will link this too it be an informed buyer)

 

 

3.The journey of the artist is something to behold. One of the most exciting things about buying a piece of art from an emerging artist is watching their career grow. It's like seeing your favourite band emerging from a bar in Camden to the O2 arena, it's great to follow their journey and know that you helped them along the way. Who knows you may be asked to loan it to a retrospective exhibition one day. This won't happen with a mass produce piece

 

4.I know what you are all waiting for and one of the major reasons that we would buy a piece of art from a larger furniture store and not an art gallery and that is price. Price is by all means an important factor when buying art. And larger stores often have cheaper prices as pieces are massed produced and made from cheaper materials. Though let me say that it is very much quality vs quantity (in a slightly different respect). You will probably have to buy 10-15 different pieces of wall art to keep replacing the faded cheaper canvases or prints you will be buying from a larger furniture store at £25-£50 each so you are looking at a total spend of well £250-£500+ and with that money you can buy an original painting or good quality print that will last you lifetimes (and will, minimum, double in price within 10yrs). Also another point to stress is that we as a gallery know that most people can't spend £500 just like that, so there are ways around it, most galleries like us will let you pay in monthly installments.

 

 

 

I hope this has given everyone something to think about...and as a country we don't have much money to spend in this climate so why not make your purchases really personal to you.

 

 

Eleni