My Love for Ebay Art Continues

Two years ago I wrote about a fun/dangerous new habit I had developed and I must admit that that habit is still going strong even now.  I am not ashamed.  My love for searching original art on Ebay grows and grows.  Maybe because I dream of places like this filled with eclectic art, whether it's just one oil painting in a kitchen or a whole gallery wall in a living room...

^^via 

^^Studio McGee

^^Alisa Darnell

 ^^Source

^^via Cup of Jo

 ^^Philip Messenger and Susannah Lempriere

 ^^Emily Henderson, Curbly House

 ^^Nickey Kehoe

 ^^Homestead Seattle

 ^^Designed by Gretchen Mann

^^Source

^^Emily Henderson

^^French Inspired

So since sharing my Ebay love two years ago, I have added four paintings to our house from Ebay....

And I now have my own little eclectic gallery wall (with dreams of many more ;)):

Have gone through the buying process four times and the searching process for two years, here's what I've learned about buying art on Ebay along the way...

1) Double check the size of the painting in the description.  It's hard to tell scale based on pictures alone.

2) Try to buy art that is already framed, even if the frame isn't your style.  Framing is expensive.  If it comes framed then you can at least hang it up as is and then switch out the frame when you're ready to re-frame.  I love my landscape up there with green and pinks but it came unframed so it has sat in my pile of prints for months, living an unfulfilled life.

3) Use the automatic bidder that allows you to input your max bid.  Ebay will then bid up for you in small increments without you having to do anything.

4) Only bid if you really want it.  Seems obvious but I bid on one painting that I had only briefly looked at but thought "Why not? It's so inexpensive and I'll probably be outbid anyways."  Sure enough I won the painting and there went $15.  I like it enough but if I had studied the painting more closely then I wouldn't have bid on it in the first place. (I'm referring to the last seascape painting up there.  It actually photographs much better than it appears in real life.  It's got more purple in it than I prefer and just looks amateur.)

5) Check shipping costs before bidding.  Sometimes a piece is listed for $35 but the shipping is $40.  That piece of artwork may be worth the $75 total price to you but it's just important to make that call before you bid.

I was outbid on this next painting and will forever mourn that it's not in my house.  I love it 100% as is (frame and all).  I love the muted colors and the calm water scene.  The painting was large enough to hold it's own, but small enough that it could be used anywhere and in conjunction with any other painting.  Other people must have seen it's value/beauty too because there was a heated bidding war over it.

And just for fun, I went on Ebay on Friday and found the following paintings for sale right now (or at least they were on sale last Friday, some sales may have ended).  Maybe someone will see this post, buy one of these paints and then let me live through you :)

^^Landscape Oil Painting on Wood

^^ Polish Art by Kisling

It has some issues (chipping paint) but you could chalk it up to character.  He's so cute!

 ^^Mountain Lake Scene by Dorothy Dolph

^^ Big Ukrainian Canvas

^^ Original Oil Painting, Signed

 Vintage Landscape, signed

^^Love that frame!

^^ Europe "Town on Hill"

^^ Original Oil Floral Painting

^^I'd love to see this one in a different frame.  I love the pinks, greens and blues though.

^^ 1955 "Green Sea n Rocks"

 ^^1950's Vintage Paint By Numbers

 ^^French art sign by Lorjou

 ^^Original Oil by Eleanor McNerney

 ^^Echo Lake White Mountains, signed

^^ Signed H.M. Pechstein

^^"Sunset at York Maine" by Terry Buckley

So there's my Ebay passion for you!  It's a fun little hobby to seek out art that I love.  Hope to update again in two years with some more fun additions to our home art collection ;)