Size matters

According to a recent blurb in the Economist blog, “the acceptable size
of paintings is increasing, presumably as houses and walls get bigger too.
It used to be that anything more than 3.2 meters high would be hard to sell…
now you can go up to 4 meters before prices peak.”

Someone recently asked me if this applies to fine art photography, too.
And the answer is, yes. Over the past decade, bigger has become
better at many galleries- witness Thomas Struth and other of the German
photographers popular in the art world today.

From a decorating point of view, many decorators feel, like with furniture,
that even in a small space, one big piece of furniture or one big piece of art
makes a better visual statement than a lot of smaller pieces all over the place.

On the other hand, I personally love mixing things up and feel that the image itself
should dictate how it’s printed. Some images shouldn’t be blown up big just for
the sake of being big. There’s something wonderful about a small image in
a big mat with a lot of breathing space. It creates a sense of intimacy that
draws you into the picture more.

In honor of keeping things small, one of our favorite images we love small is Susan's Vase.

As the Photo of the Month, 5% of the proceeds of the photo will go to PeaceTrees Vietnam. This organization helps clear landmines in Vietnam, plants trees and helps promote a safe future for the country's children.

Earth day is coming!

Earth Day is coming up so I’d thought I’d share with you a photograph I recently took in Rome. Here I am shooting ancient ruins that are over 2000 years old and what do I see in the Tiber River- nonbiodegradable plastics. Modern ruins, you could call them.

The fact that there was an Italian soccer ball in the mix of colorful plastics is what really caught my eye. I usually don’t take pictures like these- my idea of a landscape is a bit prettier. But face it, unfortunately this is what a modern landscape looks like, and I did find beauty in the colors and shapes of the plastics as they rolled downstream.

My family and I have really made it a point to try to stop using plastics - including bags and bottles as much as possible. We try to bring our own sacks when we shop. We’re trying to do our little part.

As a photographer, one of the benefits of shooting digital these days is that we don’t use chemicals, and we don’t have film and film canisters to pollute the planet with. I used to spend a fortune printing editions but now because of high-end digital printing, we have a master file on our computers and we print to order. This saves paper, time and ultimately money for people like you who want affordable art for your homes .

In honor of Earth Month, here are some of our favorite landscape images. Let us know what you think! On our website, www.WillItLookGoodOverTheSofa.com, of course you can see a lot more- look under our travel, countryside and landscape categories! And we've got cityscapes, too!


Our photo of the month is our little part to save the planet. 5% of the proceeds of Trees in Fog by Mark Feaster (see below) will go to Conservation International. On Charity Navigator (charitynavigator.org) they’re listed as one of the top 10 charities that put their donations to good use. Their mission is to “conserve the earth’s living heritage, our global biodiversity, and to demonstrate that human societies are able to live harmoniously with nature.”

Happy Spring everyone!

Welcome to Will It Look Good Over The Sofa's blog!

Welcome to Will It Look Good Over The Sofa’s first monthly blog! Since I’m a fine art photographer who loves home decor, I thought it would be a great idea to create a blog (and website) where the two could meet.

If you’ve just bought a new home and you’re looking for some affordable art for the walls, if you’re a mom looking for kid’s room art (like our great alphabet art collection), or you’ve got an office to decorate, then this is the blog for you.

Shop our website, too - www.WillItLookGoodOverTheSofa.com where you’ll find lots of framed art and unframed art. Our online photo gallery features great affordable fine art photos by a variety of photographers in styles from abstract to photojournalistic.

And a variety of subjects, too – if you love flower photography or photographs of Italy, they’re here! They’re all original high end digital prints (or giclee prints as we’ve learned from the French), and they’re all signed by the artists and are limited editions.

If you’d like to see what your photo would look like in a room in your home, visit our new friends at www.DesignbyPhoto.com. Of if you’re not sure about how to hang your photograph (most of us hang our art WAY too high!), check out some of our articles on the Will It Look Good Over The Sofa website. There’s a great one on hanging art. (Also some great ones on collecting art, art for kid’s rooms, etc.)

Our blog also features a “Photo Of The Month.” This month's photo is "Juliet's Balcony." Yes, it's that famous balcony in Verona, Italy. Romeo, Romeo, where art thou? Each month we will highlight one of our photographs and 5% of the profits will go to help a charitable organization. This month the proceeds will benefit the Trickle Up Program.

The Trickle Up Program helps the world’s poorest people take the first steps out of poverty by providing seed capital and business training so they can launch their own small businesses.

Since it’s close to Valentine’s Day and we’ve got red on our minds, think about painting a wall red or hanging some art with red in it. In a study recently cited in the New York Times, office workers who were selected for their abilities to focus on their jobs regardless of their surroundings thrived the most in red rooms! Subjects assigned to plain white rooms with no splash of color or Matisse’s on the walls, did the poorest. So invigorate yourself from the winter doldrums by putting some red in your life!