There are many places to find oil paintings for sale. I live in San Diego where the weather is excellent for street faires almost year round. Artists display their art at parks, boulevards and outdoor venues. It is remarkable how often you can find very good, original art at these casual display booths. Prices are usually low and you are buying original art! A notch above this are the juried shows. These are often still outdoor venues but the class of artists is of a higher quality. They have had to submit their work for approval and entrance into the show.
Most Cities and towns have abundant galleries to visit. These are not museums but privately owned galleries. The gallery owner finds ’emerging artists’ who are willing to allow substantial cuts to the gallery owner, sometimes as much as 50%. So, of course be prepared to spend considerably more. These relatively small, private galleries are business ventures who are quite discriminating with what kind and type of paintings they will display. They are usually looking for an artist who generates a consistent style or theme. It is dissapointing to find art work that appear as spin-offs of tried and true, often nostalgic themes. Kinkaid (the painter of light), was very successful selling these bucolic, nostalgic paintings. There were many people who were satisfied with a decent print (a giclee) when the gallery prices for an original began to be in the $20,000 – $40,000 range.
There are many art lovers today who appreciate good oil painting but want to search on-line. You will be surprised at how many options there are through Google. Some web sites are poorly arranged and difficult to navigate, but there is usually a phone number to call. Many emerging and even mature, seasoned artists have elected to let other established sites carry their work rather than develop their own. These kind of sites are often professionally set up and easy to navigate. You can arrange for delivery and make payments through portals such as PayPal. The actual oil painting, once delivered will always be more stunning, more alive and more dynamic than what you view on line.
