If you are looking for original wall art—art that speaks directly to you in a profound way—then it helps to determine your style. Who are you? What is your space? What would you like it to be?
Now that it’s easier than ever to buy affordable original art online, filling your walls with prints that are as unique as you are is a snap.
The great thing about original wall art is that there are no rules. You don’t have to be bound to one particular style, and art can always be mixed and matched.
Now that we’ve said that, when you are shopping for original art prints, it is often helpful to have a sense of what you like. The very best way to determine those big stylistic categories is to look around in a well-stocked art shop.
Once you are in the art shop, or on the website, take a look at how they categorize their art. You’ll find that some original wall art has some similarities to other original art prints. Here are a few general categories to check out:
Pop Art makes for excellent original wall art. It’s bright, colorful, and tends to reference things that are identifiable and original. MoMA (the Museum of Modern Art) explains that when it began, in the 1950s, Pop artists “began to look for inspiration and materials in their immediate environment. They made art that mirrored, critiqued, and, at times, incorporated everyday items, consumer goods, and mass media messaging and imagery.”
Abstract wall art is about mood and emotion, and not necessarily about identifiable objects. Abstracts are great original wall art to round out a room, or to create a particular vibe. Find one that really calls to you.
Just as it says in the title, nature prints are pictures of the amazing outside world. Original wall prints from this category can include everything from mountains to ocean landscapes, and from animals to surfers.
Move your original wall art into the dream world with a surreal wall print. By design surreal pictures are a blend of the everyday and fantasy. Surreal art is highly subjective and personal, designed to be evocative and moving. As Park West Gallery puts it, surreal artists “seek to explore the unconscious mind as a way of creating art, resulting in dreamlike, sometimes bizarre imagery across endless mediums. The core of Surrealism is a focus on illustrating the mind’s deepest thoughts automatically when they surface.”
The key to finding original wall art that matches your style is to understand what you like. Your original art prints don’t have to match your clothes or your furniture. Your original wall prints don’t even need to match each other! Better is to buy affordable original wall art online, mix, match, and repeat.
