by Louie Spouls

Created on: May 11, 2009   Last Updated: May 19, 2009

Art is an excellent investment if you are skill-full, prepared, and hardworking. A certain piece can not only bring you tremendous joy but can carry everlasting, or even increasing value. Art is a multidimensional concept product, that can be almost anything and found almost anywhere beyond your conventional art gallery. It is important to look for pieces that have a certain kind of magnetism and mystery about them. While you are looking at a certain piece it should grab your attention, if only for a millisecond. The more fleeting the attraction the better the piece could be. If you start asking yourself, "why is this piece so attractive, what is it about this piece that is so engaging?" it is probably a great find. Keep looking for pieces that stun you, expect to find art anywhere, and visit cafes, little shops, and people's homes as often as possible.

Everywhere is a great place to look for new and upcoming artists. The Internet, an unpretentious cafe, a gift shop, an office, and especially houses, and apartments. Established major institutions have such self regulated avenues that chances are you will not find new artists there. Once in a major gallery, the artist has already been discovered. The two best places to look for new and upcoming artists are on the Internet and right in your immediate vicinity. The Internet is presently one of the most democratic mediums available, and is uniquely enabling for most new artists because artwork can be posted without the biased views of the art gallery gatekeepers. Web sights are fairly affordable and they offer new artists great opportunity to show their work to the world. Have fun with searches. Try search terms such as: art for sale, new artists, up and coming art, buy art, new art. Have fun with your searches, and keep combing through the results. There are lots of web sights to look through for art.The internet does not discriminate and anyone could see art posted by any artist that feels they want to show their work.

Your own neighborhood is also an excellent place to look, because many good artists lack entrepreneurial skills or agents and they may just have their art up on their wall. Exceptional, valuable art may be on the wall next door to you, on , the next floor, or around the block. Don't hesitate to ask people what they do for a living. If someone tells you they are an artist, ask to see their stuff. Try to be one of the first people to see what they are making. You may end up owning one of your neighbor's art pieces, before they become famous! If you meet an unknown, shy, artist, ask them to show you their work. You may find beauty, and that is valuable. The lone wolf makes a great artist and true art can be found on a wall of a humble house.

You may not be sure about market value when you are considering buying a piece, so the first thing you should look for for is quality. Workmanship is the most import thing when in comes to value. When you see art that is visually appealling and high quality it is valuable, and therefore it will always sell. It is always better to buy what you like unless you have extensively studied and understood a specific target audience. This would make you more of a personal shopper instead of an investor. If you buy what you like, you will be employing your instinct, and that is your strongest indicator of quality. If something intrigues you, you understand it's value better, and therefore you will be able to sell it better, precisely because you understand the pieces value. Ultimately, if you like a piece and you can look at it for a long time, and it makes you completely happy, it is a good investment.

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