Bargain Art

I confess, I love auctions. I'd never been to one before 2004, when I attended my first one with my seasoned veteran date, James. He had been going to them for quite some time. At my first auction with James, I picked up a few small Belleek china items for a great price, and I was hooked. My two auction passions are pottery and artwork. I don't normally luck out on pottery or vases, because fantastic pieces like Roseville and Fenton usually don't go for cheap- everyone recognizes those names and knows their worth.

This year, we've been to a few auction houses as well as estate auctions. Not only do we always have a lot of fun, we always come home with a neat find. In fact, I don't know that we've ever been to an auction or estate sale and NOT bought anything!

Although my sewing abilities are relegated to only cross-stitch, I do appreciate the hard work that goes into any kind of stitching project. At the last auction we went to, I got the pair of needlepoint horses below for next to nothing. They were obviously old pieces, but they were horses after all, and I can't pass up anything with a horse on it.

The piece below is a bit quirky- it's someone's original hand drawn architectural plan. It's actually quite large, and it was professionally framed, and I can see the talent and time that went into this. Plus, no one else bid against me so I got it for two bucks! Hey, $2 for an original work of art is a bargain, no matter what the subject is. I have it hanging upstairs over my work table, where I have great intentions of one day creating my own art again.

This painting below is an oil, and from the looks of the frame, it's fairly old. I told James I was interested in it, and while I was busy playing on my phone, he'd bid on it and won it before I even knew it had come up for auction. I think we picked this one up for a fairly great price too, less than $20.

The original water color below we got at an estate sale, and the departed was definitely an art collector, he had every space in his home covered with an original painting. Many were from the artist that painted the piece below, entitled "Seaside Cottage", which was painted in 1977 by Franklin Jones. I have never heard of him, but have since found articles about him online. He wrote several books about how to paint with water colors, and these were at the estate sale as well, along with I think a few dozen of his paintings. We paid a little more for this piece, but I love it. It was crooked inside the frame, so I took it out to straighten and reframe it, and found another original water color on the other side, by the same artist! It was not complete, but I thought it was a pretty cool discovery.

And the best of the best is below, a huge piece we got a few weeks ago. It came from a farm house in Pennsylvania somewhere, and I knew I had to have it. I wish I could show you how big it is, it's about four feet high and five feet wide. It's an original oil. And of course, I had someone bidding against me (a phone bid), but my dear husband knew how much I loved it and he outlasted the other bidder. It's not the most expensive piece of art I have, but it's the most I've ever paid at an auction. It has a place of honor right in our living room- in fact, I took down a big horse painting that was already there and put this up instead. I love it, it's original, and even though I don't know who painted it or even when, it was a fantastic find and I love it!