You can sometimes came across at cheap prints online shops that sell paintings reproductions for very cheap size. But if you pay attention you will notice that all prints and canvases of all painters are offered with the same sizes.
Ofcourse different paintings even of the same artist can not be of the same size! That means they just crop a painting cutting out parts of it to feet their standard size canvases or prints and that is why they are so cheap.
Here is en example:
The Starry Night of Van Gogh is 74 cm x 92 cm originally and look like this:
But one shop is offering its prints in such incorrect deminsions like 12” x 8 ” so it becomes:
Or even a square version, that is totally strange:
Please remember this when choosing art prints! Look attentively on the sizes offered and check if the same sizes do not repeat for each painting and the image is preserved without cruelly cutting parts of it or resizing it disproportionately.
Here is correct dimensions canvas print of The Starry Night print from PrintArtel.com:
If you are looking to buy real oil painting reproductions of famous art pieces you should know the way how to avoid fraud here.
So what is the process of making a fake oil painting? The method is very simple. First of all a canvas print of an original painting, lets take “Sunset” of Monet, is being covered with just a few strokes of an acrylic gel medium top, just matching in colour some places on the picture that is printed on the canvas.
Later when the gel dries some kind of varnish can be applied to give it glossy of a real oil painting. And then this print of Monet is offered as an authentic oil painting reproduction for a very low price!
Very often you can see such fakes in many art shops (not online), they are usually look very smooth and little bit blurred unlike real oil paintings, and of course cheaper in price.
However, sometimes such fakes are being sold even for a very high price of some thousands of dollars. And in some cases some photography studios fools the customers buy offering them an “oil painted” portrait” that is just their photo covered with an acrylic gel.
And of course do not jump on offers of cheap oil paintings in the internet – you have no possibility to check if they are real unless you see them in live!
On the other hand some shops truly state that their prints can be covered with acrylic gel to give it an oil look and they do not give i as real painting but offering such a service for the buyer on their choice. Then everything is ok here and nothing to worry.
Any way the best way to obtain a real oil painting is to find an artist in your area where you live, at an art school or art courses or ask among your friends and relatives. It is more lengthy process but finally a hundred percent real and authentic oil painting is guaranteed!
Looking through different articles about home design in internet and printed magazines one can notice that almost everywhere examples of the wall decoration were only abstract paintings or just photos.
Among the Sierra Nevada by Albert Bierstadt
Does decorating your home with framed prints of The Mona Lisa, Water Lilies of Monet, The Starry Night of Van Gogh, and so forth seem to be out of fashion or is it a sign of good taste?
In fact, the majority of people in the world use reproductions to decorate their homes. Using museum pieces is not tacky, why would anyone think it is silly to hang art prints on your walls, when the originals are viewed in museums by millions of people every year?
Having an appreciation for great art is admirable, and using it to decorate your home – well, how wonderful it would be to come home every day to some of the greatest works of art in the world.
To sum extend it is no different than listening to a recording of a famous musician instead of listening to them perform live. Sure, it’s not the original, but who can afford buying an original?
On the other hand purchasing prints of well know works like Mona Lisa, The Starry Night, Scream make sort of a bland statement about your aesthetic. “The art that speaks most to me is the top ten most widely-seen works in the world.” “I like things that the rest of the world has told me are good.”
By concentrating only on the well-known works, it makes others think the only reason those pictures are there is not because the person is fond of them, but because the person is trying to look as if being knowledgeable, which is especially ironic when you include the most famous, popular paintings that even the most uninterested in art can recognize. It looks like an attempt to appear educated, instead of a display of taste.
Railway Bridge At Argenteuil, Claude Monet
So the right way to do is choosing world famous artist but also less known of his work, besides the popular ones. You can hung on your wall Monet’s “The Railway Bridge At Argenteuil” and then someone ask who is the artist and you say it is Monet who painted Water Lilies and then you can show your good taste and your intelligence and real interest in art. By the way this painting was last sold for 41 million USD.
To sum up, decorating walls with prints of famous artists paintings is a nice way to add some comfort, coziness and aesthetic atmosphere in your home.
