Filling a home with originals

Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time.

Thomas Merton

I love art.  I think it's important to surround yourself with things that are beautiful and make you feel something.

In the past I've made paintings from acrylics on large canvas' using a dry brush technique.  These two I did years ago...

I love the color and movement of this piece.  After I did this one I did a smaller canvas with different colors but the same technique.

A dear friend loved this one so much I actually almost gave it to her...almost.

I wouldn't call myself an artist by any means.  I do know what I like though and I just can't bring myself to fill our home with mass-produced "art".

I've also filled my home with a few barn quilts that I painted.

This one adorns our garage...and was the first I painted.

You'll see this one in our dining room...

This one on the mantel of our living room fireplace...

I painted this one on a leftover piece of bead board, it hangs in our bathroom...

Those three have similar colors but different patterns.

I've had friends and clients over the years that were kind enough to give me originals of their work.

Maybe you remember this one...

Yes, that's a plane.  I love that it's in a fancy frame for the subject matter.  It was painted by a client of mine that sadly suffered from Alzheimer's.  His wife gave me not just this painting but this one...

And this one, which he painted in 1985.  Its of Maine.  (I was in Maine in 1985, by the way.)

If you could see it up close you'd see the fisherman with his dog in that boat...

Can you even!

 I always found working with watercolors challenging.  My friend was so good she taught classes.  She gave me this painting of a local restaurant back in the town I grew up in.  The place isn't there anymore but she captured it forever in her painting.

When I got wind that a friend's mother had painted I asked if she'd consider giving me one of her paintings for our dining room.

I'm proud to have her art hanging in our home.

Art is one of those things that they say is in the eye of the beholder.  I suppose that's true.  What appeals to one person might not to another.

The important things is to make your home beautiful.  For you.

Why not look and see if you can find some originals to fill your home with?