How to Start an Art Collection on a Budget [2021 Guide]
When it comes to curating your first art collection, you might feel a little bit intimidated. You might think that you have to spend a lot of money or have a lot of empty wall space to get started. Luckily, this is the furthest thing from the truth! There are many ways to enrich your life with art you love without breaking the bank or having huge amounts of space.
If you're trying to start an art collection on a budget, you're in the right place. Below, I'm going to share a few of my favourite ways to find affordable, meaningful pieces, along with some ideas on how to create a cohesive collection, frame your work, and eventually curate your own dream art collection.
Where to Shop for Artwork on a Budget
Finding artwork that you really love can take time. If you're wanting to build an art collection that is personal and meaningful, you're not going to just walk into HomeSense, pick out a bunch of generic art, and make the perfect gallery wall right away.
How do you want to feel when you walk into a certain space? What memories or people do you cherish that you want to remember when you walk into a room in your home or office? What colours speak to you? These are the sorts of questions you want to start asking yourself. Your art collection is a unique, curated reflection of your personality - make it special!
If you’re not sure where to start, I suggest immersing yourself in art. Especially if you're interested in buying original art and finding something that expresses your unique personality.
Here are a few places you can look to find something a little more personal:
Craft Markets or Your Local Café
With local craft fairs and markets, you also get to meet the artists and can ask about the pieces that speak most to you!
We have the world at our fingertips with the internet these days, and it's easy to find lots of artists at the click of a button, yet almost every town has a small café, gallery, or market where local art is being sold. You'll likely be able to find artwork in a range of different prices and styles in these locations, so this is a great place to start looking.
Before you begin your online search, take some time to find out if one of your local artists might have the perfect piece for your art collection. By making an effort to go out into your local community to see art and possibly even speak with the artist in person, you might end up with a great story behind your next art find!
Social Media
If you prefer to look for art online, following your favourite artists on Instagram is one way to start. Stay up to date with their work and find out if they take commissions, if there’s an idea you’d like to bring to life. Search hashtags around the medium or style you're looking, or for artists in your specific area. Create a bookmark folder of pieces that inspire you.
Whether you're searching locally or online, don't be afraid to talk to the artists themselves! Most artists are more than happy to chat with people who love their art. You can ask them about a specific piece, framing advice, or their inspiration.
You can also find out the story behind a particular artwork. Sometimes hearing the story behind the art makes it even more meaningful.
Personally, I feel like it's such an honour when someone is inspired by my work, so I'm always more than happy to make that connection and help in any way I can, especially when it comes to investing in an original piece!
What Art to Purchase if You're on a Budget
Fine Art Prints
Fine art prints are an excellent way to start an art collection if you're on a budget. You might not be ready to buy an original painting or drawing yet, but that doesn't mean you can't own a high quality piece of work signed by the artist (or support that artist whose work you love!)
Artwork for sale at local cafe, First and Last Coffee.
Art prints are usually smaller than originals and come in standard sizes that are easy to frame. They come in a range of quality and prices as well - if you are sprucing up a temporary space, this is the way to go! At a price point as low as $10, you can even tape them to the wall or switch out pieces every few months. This way, you can see how the print feels in your space and you don’t have to worry about the commitment of an original piece.
If you’re ready to step up your game but not quite ready to spend hundreds on an original, look for archival quality prints. You can usually find this information with a little research on their website or just by asking the artist. Find out what type of paper and ink they used and how to care for the print. If you can find that information readily available, it's a good indication that the artist works with a good printer and is producing high quality art prints that will last. (This is the type of art print you will find in my store!)
Another option to keep in mind is limited edition prints. An artist may choose to only create 20 prints of a certain piece, for example, and once they are gone, they are gone! If you can't afford an original piece yet, a limited edition print is still going to be unique and can be an affordable alternative. Open edition prints, which are unlimited in number are easier to start with and get access to since they're always available.
A Non-conventional Piece
I have this poster hanging in my room. It’s not high quality - most wouldn't even consider it to be art. But every time I look at it I'm transported back to the moment when I bought it.
When I was in Scotland a few years ago, I discovered some of the coolest art I'd ever seen in my life by Russian artist Eduard Bersudsky. He creates these incredible kinetic sculptures, and I loved the story behind his work. He used to build playgrounds in Russia, and he'd take the leftover wood and make these gigantic sculptures with the extra pieces in his one-room of a communal flat.
In Glasgow, there’s a theatre where they've gotten someone to choreograph music and lighting around these sculptures. When you walk in, it's very dark and you hear this eerie music, and suddenly one of the sculpture lights up and comes to life. You weave around the room filled with these strange sculptures while each performs a dance.
When I returned to Scotland, I went back a second time because I loved it so much. That's when I bought the poster. The poster itself is black and white and a little dramatic, and it's beautifully illustrated. I've had it for years, and when I finally had space I framed it and hung it on my mini-gallery wall.
Poster from the Sharmanka Kinetic Theatre.
Obviously I wasn't going to be able to buy an original piece from his exhibition (a 9' sculpture moving sculpture wouldn't do well on the plane), but I could buy this poster. Every time I see it I think about that show and that experience I had abroad. It's a continual source of inspiration for me and I never get tired of looking at it.
It might not be the fanciest piece of art but this simple poster means so much more to me than something that costs thousands of dollars and I have no real connection to.
Other types of non-conventional artwork might include postcards, magazine pages, written letters, or textiles. Anything that brings back a special memory or holds significance to you specifically is definitely worth considering.
How To Know If It's THE ONE
When you're creating your space, I think emotion is one of the biggest things to consider when selecting art for your collection.
In my own experience with collecting art, if I see a piece that I like, it will usually stay in my head for a long time. I'll keep going back to look at it or start following the artist online. If it continues to come to mind, that’s a good indication that I want to have it in my space and I'll usually buy it.
Another good test is to replace the art as your desktop wallpaper or on the home screen of your phone so you keep seeing it every day. You'll soon know if it's something you really want to purchase or if it's something you'll get sick of fairly quickly.
Perhaps you are drawn to a certain medium, like pen and ink.
Look for art that carries a strong emotion attached to it. Gravitate towards pieces that embody the feeling you want to have when you walk into a room, so that you feel that emotion whenever you see the art in your space.
It might be a sad emotion if the piece you buy reminds you of someone who's passed away, but also a happy reminder of that person's spirit that you want to remember and cherish.
Some art might remind you of something or someone from your childhood. Artwork like this can be used almost as an escape from the everyday world, especially if you are hanging it in an office space where you might need a mental break from your daily grind.
Having this reminder of nature or beauty and being able to take a moment out of your day to experience a minute of peace, calm, or happiness can be very powerful. Make sure you always sit with the artwork for a while and really decide how it makes you feel before purchasing it.
Curating Your Art Collection
So you’ve found some pieces you love. Now what? Creating a flow between otherwise random pieces can be done in a variety of ways. You can connect pieces through themes, mood, or a specific feeling that you want to create in your space.
You can even change the dimensions of a piece with your matting.
The great thing about creating an art collection is that you can always switch things out and let it grow as your taste changes and evolves.
You can also connect pieces through a color theme. Color is a powerful trait that can also affect the mood of a space. In this case, you could choose to either pick a single color, or a handful of colors that repeat through each piece in the collection. Your options are limitless.
Another way you can create flow between very different pieces is by using the same frame or matting process throughout your entire gallery wall or collection. This is a very easy way to make a big collection of random artwork look cohesive and intentional without doing a lot of extra work.
Scale is another thing to think about. Will all your pieces be the same size or will they vary? Framing and matting can add a lot of drama and size to a smaller piece of art, so if you find the perfect piece and it's very small, the whole look and feel of it can be altered fairly easily by adding a mat and frame. Don't be discouraged from going with a smaller print if it's something you really enjoy.
Most importantly, know that you don't have to be married to whatever you choose. You can always be changing your collection - think of it more as an organic living representation of your life rather than just a collection that you work on until it's 'finished'.
Where to Hang Your Art Collection
Those narrow spots by the doors and windows are great spaces for fitting in smaller works or fine art prints.
Once you’ve found some pieces you love, it’s time to decide where to hang the art. A lot of people work backwards and think that since they have one giant empty space above their couch, they just need one big piece of art there, and this is often where they get stuck.
Yes, you can use one big piece of art, but you can also create a gallery wall full of smaller pieces. This gives you more flexibility in choosing pieces that really speak to you, and it also allows you to change it and edit it over time. You can switch out multiple pieces and work on building the collection slowly instead of forcing yourself to buy everything at once.
If you don't have a lot of space for art, there's no need to worry. Sometimes investing in smaller pieces just makes more sense. Especially if you have a smaller home. You can put art on a shelf, you can hang it in a little nook, in a hallway space or even in your bathroom. You don't necessarily need a huge empty wall to house your entire collection in one place.
As your deciding where your art should hang, there are apps available that let you create a mock-up of your gallery wall. There are many apps available for both iPhone and Android. I like ArtRooms. Or you can try Oh My Prints for a free online tool (it even lets you upload your own room photos.)
Shelves are a great space to sneak in some art - and, as a bonus, you don’t have to stick any nails into the wall, so it’s easy to move things around or switch out pieces!
In conclusion, starting an art collection on a budget is a lot easier to do than you may have originally imagined. Your art collection will be a unique reflection of you, your personality, your experiences and memories, and that's what it's really all about.
Don't worry too much about so-called 'rules'. Listen to your own feelings and create a collection based off of that. Spend more time caring about if you actually like the piece instead of worrying about if the artist is popular or not. It's more important to pick pieces that speak to you and make you feel good.
In the end, if you don’t like the finished result, it's really not that hard to put another hole in your wall or change out the pieces within the frames. Have fun with it. You don't have to match all your frames and you don't have to figure it all out at once, because building an art collection is a process that shouldn't be rushed.