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Posted on by Carol L. Douglas

I haven’t got room for another painting

My painting in a town house in Edinburgh, Scotland. Isn’t that screen lovely? Ampersand Interiors, interior design; Susie Lowe Studio, photography.

I was chatting with a gallerist friend when we got on the subject of people saying, “I really love it, but I haven’t got room for another painting!”

“That drives me crazy,” she said. She pointed out to me how, over time, we inevitably stop seeing the paintings on our walls (and everything else that’s part of our day-to-day existence).

I have a lovely little landscape by Tom Conner in my living room. It’s been hanging at the foot of my sofa, where I can look at it whenever I’m curled up with my laptop. Tom’s brushwork is similar to mine, so occasionally someone will say, “I love that painting. Did you just do it?” Each time, I look up and appreciate once again the dusty grandeur and serenity of the Sedona landscape as Tom saw it. Then I’m sad that so much time has gone by without my even noticing it.

That painting is on the same wall as a still life by my goddaughter. I recently switched them around. It’s interesting how much more evocative they both are, just by being in different spaces. Moving paintings around is a simple way to rekindle your joy in your art collection.

Don’t let the serious mein of that custom-designed bookshelf fool you; the homeowner is probably curled up on that chaise longue reading Jane Austen. Ampersand Interiors, interior design; Susie Lowe Studio, photography

The joy of deaccessioning

I’m not averse to collecting something new and carefully wrapping and storing a painting that no longer catches my eye. There comes a point, however, when we just don’t want more stuff to store. Why not introduce a young person to the joys of collecting art by giving them paintings that are surplus to requirements?

Young people have studied less art history and appreciation, in general, than our generation. Because of wage stagnation, they have far less purchasing power than we did at their age. They’re buying houses, having babies, and at an earlier point in their careers. Taken together, these factors mean they don’t always have the spare cash to buy fine art, or the nous to know the difference between real art and the department-store imitations that are what they think they can afford.

You can help foster their art education by giving them a painting that is no longer important to you. That frees you up to acquire the one you really want.

The lesson I learned here is that it doesn’t really matter if the painting ‘matches’ the room; if it’s well-painted and has an emotional punch, it will fit in anywhere. (House available through Lone Pine Real Estate; paintings by me.)

Those aren’t my colors

Realtor Rachael Umstead asked me to hang some paintings in a sweet little house she has for sale in Camden, ME. With the warm floors and beautifully austere walls and cabinets, I thought something in red and orange tones would look great. Last week a client asked to see those paintings. I had to swap something else for them. I had two others in cool tones of blues and greens. I apologized to Rachael because I thought I was giving her a second-best option.

I was surprised and pleased to see that the cool paintings look just as good in that room. We sometimes get so hung up on matching our interior design scheme that we lose our perspective.

I would never have thought to put a blue painting on a blue wall, but the combination works.

I set a painting on my kitchen counter to wrap for storage. I realized it looked great there, so I put it on the wall for a while. If I hadn’t set it down, I never would have believed it could look so good in that very blue space.

This post includes two shots from an interior design project that included one of my paintings. The painting wasn’t intended for this setting; the home was significantly damaged by flooding a few years ago. A good painting can be the anchor for a series of rooms, for generations in fact. Its color scheme is almost immaterial, as long as it is well-executed and exerts an emotional pull.

Reserve your spot now for a workshop in 2025:

5 Replies to “I haven’t got room for another painting”

  1. I invited my niece and her new home daughter and son-in-law to my studio to pick out whatever she wanted and said “no rules”. Thrilled that they looked and exclaimed in every box and nook and took home a dozen! Most were 8-10 years old, they loved the things I was painting those years. The space I gained is priceless.

  2. It’s our job, now, to cultivate the new and young collectors of fine art. How do we do that with the limited funds they have and the pull of other strains on their budgets? We make space. We buy FOR them. We bring them to art openings and talk WITH them about what they like and why. We encourage their first purchase, no matter how small, no matter the cost, because they will always remember that feeling. And we do those things not for the sake of our own art, but for the sake of art appreciation in general.

  3. My son, Ben, recently was promoted to department chair for the school of Physical Education and Recreation Management at Appalachian State, and with that came a nice new office. I gifted him with three of my paintings for his office. I also have loaned five to a coffee house in Tryon owned by a friend. And a couple of my paintings are part of a rotation of paintings by local artists at our community hospital. And I do switch out and move around the paintings in my house from time to time. While I do want to sell my paintings and I’m delighted when I do, I’m also happy just having some out and about.

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