Affordable Paintings: Art Prints Buying Guide

The fastest way to bring beauty and style to a room is to put up prints of beautiful paintings. Here's what you should consider:

Painting Prints Price Range:



Expect to pay somewhere in the neighborhood of $50-$500 for an unframed print--anything less than $50 is likely a poster. You should expect to pay a similar amount to have the print framed--note that many prints are designed to be exhibited without frames.

Before art prints were sold online, the only way to get them was through galleries or museum shops, which had to charge a large markup. Nowadays, art prints rarely cost more than a few hundred dollars, and it is possible to find good-quality prints for under $100. Still, those lower prices generally come on prints that have been put on sale. Expect to pay more for perennial favorites like Van Gogh's "Starry Night".

Selection



There is at least one print of every painting or photograph on display in a museum anywhere. Thanks to the Internet, you can find the right art print among the tens of thousands in existence and have it sent to you, regardless of where the original is located. Since websites will let you browse thumbnail images of the artwork, it's easy to find a particular piece even if all you know about it is the name of the artist or even just the time period in which it was created.

Painting Print Media



Prints are available in a variety of print stocks.



Prints vs. Original Paintings



If all you're interested in is a picture to decorate your wall, rather than in collecting, prints are a better value than original paintings. Here's why:



* Expense. Creating an original work of art generally takes weeks. If you had to employ someone for several weeks or several months, how much do you think it would cost at even a modest salary? That's why original artwork generally costs at least thousands of dollars. In order to have a real chance of your work of art having investment value, you need to buy the work of an artist who is moving up in the art market.



* Questionable investment value. Original artwork only has investment value if the price goes up eventually. Very often, the price does not. In short, if you're interested in investing, buy stocks--it's a safer bet. Only buy art because *you* value it.



* Knowledge. You need to be very knowledgeable about what you are doing. Make no mistake: there's plenty of fraud in this business. There is also plenty of wishful thinking on the part of art dealers when it comes to a work's long-term market prospects.



Ready to make your home more beautiful with prints of great paintings? You're already in the right place: the Internet has numerous websites offering an unbelievable array of art prints. Start looking now.