Thrift store art curator

Do pieces of artwork "speak" to you? Are you drawn to pictures and paintings that you really can't explain why you like but you just know you do? I am all over the map there. I remember being in an art history class in college, just knowing I'd be an art museum curator someday. It didn't turn out that way as I am nothing more than a dilettante. But I rather enjoy being a curator in my own home.

Over the years I have been collecting thrift store art. A far departure from the great works and not the most masterful of paintings but some are beautiful and interesting in their own right. I'm not sure it was a deliberate collection but just like anything else you like, you begin to gather and it grows around you I guess.

Of course when you are only paying from .35 cents to my most expensive bank-breaking purchase of $7.99, a collection is easily doable. Once they are displayed together, it looks more substantive. Boom - art curator in da house.

So on to the details of a few. Ok, maybe ten.

I love water scenes and muted colors. $3.99, thrift store. I still need to change out the frame.



Nature prints and pictures are on my list too. This one is a vintage print of El Capitan, which is in Yosemite, one of our favorite places. $3.00, yard sale

Another water scene, $2.99 thrift store

This I purchased for the frame only, but when I took it apart to clean and insert a family photo,

this print was behind the cardboard. $.35 cents, flea market.

Sweet, pensive girl, $.50 cents, yard sale

Paint by numbers, which I originally purchased for Charley's room when she was little, was $5.00, eBay. (I recently saw this very painting in a magazine featuring a designer's own home so I felt vindicated buying these weird birds.)

Watercolor fields, $1.00, thrift shop.
Also on my radar are old group photographs, $1.00, flea market

I also look out for vintage photographs of places we have lived. This is a picture of the Salt Lake valley. The price tag sticker said "Colorado Rockies." $7.00, found at an antique shop in Maryland.

So there you go, art for under $25.00. Now check back on Wednesday when they'll be up with a few other things in a new display.

Have a great Monday!