Choose the perfect art for your waterfront home
The ‘this or that’ approach
I love coastal living.
The delicate breeze, the smell of sea-salt in the air, sand squishing between my toes and the sound of the waves gently lapping the shore…
As semi-aquatic creatures, humans love to escape to the lake. The picturesque beauty of an end never seen humbles us as we gaze out into the water. As the tide rises and recedes, both taking away and replacing everything in its path, it reminds of how nature can be both nurturing and destructive.
The BLUENOSE Legacy painted by Suchiu
The seaside can pull out emotions in us that make us connected as human beings. It is why seas and ships are so often depicted in art, a thing of beauty to be loved and admired.
If you own a waterfront property, our guess is that you never tire from the everchanging scenic beauty that is your nearby waterscape. Lavishing your home with seashells, beach glass and bamboo helps bring the sentiments of the lake indoors, but nothing can be as equally breathtaking as when art and the sea collide.
In this article, we focus on best practices for choosing the right artwork for your waterfront property. As with most of our guides, this article will not simply spell out for you the titles of pieces, or even the styles of art we think work best. Instead, we will prompt you to put your thinking cap on with a series of questions that will help you find the right piece yourself, for yourself. After all, nobody knows what’s right for you the way that you do!
Fact or Fiction?
Do you love the sea in general, or are you obsessed with that ocean front cottage your parents used to take you to on the east coast most summers of your childhood? Are you an avid ship fan that likes anything with sails, or is there a specific historical boat you cannot stop talking about?
The reason you should ask yourself these questions when determining what type of maritime art you want for your waterfront property is because they will help you decide what the piece should mean to you and how it will express that part of yourself and your life accurately.
Hanging up a maritime piece of a fictional place will be all it takes for some to feel emotionally connected to the artwork; for others, they will need a specific depiction of the location they used to frequent like Boblo Amusement Park by Suchiu does:
Boblo Amusement Park 1898-1993 painted by Suchiu
Land or Sea?
The next ‘this or that’ question you should ask yourself is in the domain of the art’s subject matter. Are you after a piece that depicts a beautiful, picturesque display of a wide open lake, shrouded by beaches and trees? Perhaps you are looking for an art piece that views like a still from a movie or a special moment caught on camera. Maybe you can picture a beautiful, still life painting of a beach shell, or a row of footprints in the sand. The list can go on forever and the possibilities are endless.
The amazing thing about maritime art is that it can span over a great collection of various subject matters presented in various styles, settings and scale. It could be a close-in shot of something minute, like a crab or a sand dollar, or it could be a far-away panoramic view of the entire lake.
The best place to start is with the emotional cues your mind has already been signaling to you. More often than not, when we think of an artwork hanging on our wall, we have some sort of idea of what we would like to see there. Consider the different subject matters and styles aforementioned and narrow down your search with a mental process of cancellation.
Kentucky Fried Seagull painted by Suchiu
Real or Surreal?
The concept of maritime art speaks more to the artwork’s subject matter than its artistic style. Ask a room full of artists to paint the TITANIC and you will be amazed at the garden variety of ways they will approach it.
Arguably, the two broadest categories of artistic style that typically do not overlap are (1) realism and (2) surrealism. Realism is all about life-like depictions. If the TITANIC had 1,116 windows, a good artist of realism would ensure that every window was accounted for in the piece. If the seagull has 4 layers of feathery coverts, a good artist of realism will ensure that every last layer is present.
TITANIC painted by Suchiu
Surrealism is just the opposite. There are really no hard, fast rules when it comes to surreal art, as long as it starts where reality leaves off. Surreal art includes anything and everything that is not based on how things really work in the real world. It is created to make us question what we know and understand as truth.
Knowing, at least, if you imagine a realistic maritime artwork versus a surrealistic maritime artwork will narrow down your options by half, making your journey toward finding the perfect maritime artwork all the more easy.
HMS Detroit painted by Suchiu
Conclusion
Choosing art is less about matching it to your interior design and more about understanding your emotional and creative instincts as a human being. At Suchiu Art, we believe that artwork should serve to remind you of the sweetness of life, whether that be in the form of nostalgia, hope or inspiration.
Nonetheless, there are certain aspects of the art industry that we understand can be intimidating for first time collectors. As a lifelong artist with over 30 years of experience in the industry, Suchiu has the top-of-line knowledge for collecting art that beginners are asking for.
So, he created The Beginner’s Guide to Collecting Art You will Cherish for a Lifetime to teach people everything there is to know, when you do not even know where to start.
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