How Do You Know When a Painting Is Right for You?

 

I think we sometimes make choosing art more complicated than it needs to be.

Sometimes you see a painting and you simply stop.

Maybe you do not even know why. There is just something about it. A colour, a shape, a small detail, the way everything sits together. Something makes you stay for a few seconds longer than you expected.

Then maybe you move on, look at other things, close the page and get on with your day.

But somehow, you come back to it.

That is the part I find interesting.

Because before all the practical thinking starts, there is already this little feeling of:

This one.

And then, of course, the questions begin.

Would it work in my room?
Is it too colourful?
What would my partner think?
Where would I put it?
Do I really want to spend that much on a painting?

I understand all of that. I would probably think about those things too.

But the first reaction is still there.

Abstract art can make people a little unsure because there is not always something obvious to “understand.” With a landscape, you immediately know what you are looking at. With abstraction, some people feel like there must be a hidden answer they are supposed to find.

I do not really see it that way.

When I paint, of course I make decisions. I move things around, cover areas, change colours, remove parts I loved five minutes earlier.

But a lot of it is feeling too.

Sometimes a colour simply needs to be there. Sometimes I make a mark and think, yes, leave it.

I could probably explain some of those choices afterwards, but the explanation would never be the whole story.

And I think looking at art can be the same.

You do not always need the words first.

Maybe the painting makes you feel lighter. Maybe there is something in it that feels familiar. Maybe you simply really enjoy looking at it.

That already means something.

 

 

When You Start Seeing It in Your Own Home

 

There is also a funny little moment when you stop seeing the painting only as an image on a screen.

Suddenly you are thinking about your own home.

You know that wall in the living room that has been empty forever?

Or maybe you start looking at the space above the sofa and thinking, actually, this could work there.

Then you begin imagining the colours with the room, the light during the day, what it might feel like when you walk in.

This is often where people start worrying about whether everything should match.

Personally, I think we can be a little too careful with that.

A home where every colour is perfectly coordinated can sometimes feel almost too controlled. Art can bring in something you did not expect.

Maybe you would never choose a pink sofa, but there is one bright pink detail in the painting and somehow that is exactly what the room needed.

Or everything around it is very calm and neutral, and the artwork brings some life into the space.

I like that.

I want a painting to feel at home in a room, but I do not want it to disappear into the furniture either.

 

 

When You Keep Coming Back to the Same Painting

 

This is something I have seen many times.

Someone looks through several paintings and likes more than one.

Then a day later, they come back to the same piece.

Maybe they send it to their husband, wife or a friend and say, “Look at this one.”

Then they return again.

They look at the details. They check the size. They start thinking about where it could hang.

And eventually they write to me and say:

“I don’t know why, but I keep coming back to this painting.”

I always smile when I read that.

Because maybe that is part of the answer.

Not always, of course.

But sometimes the feeling comes first and the thinking follows afterwards.

Then we start trying to make a very sensible decision out of something that is actually quite personal.

 

 

A Painting Becomes Part of Everyday Life

 

That is the other thing I love about art.

It goes into your home.

You are going to see it when you make coffee in the morning.

You will walk past it half asleep.

Your friends will sit near it when they come for dinner.

Your children may grow up seeing it on the wall.

It becomes part of all these completely ordinary moments.

That is what I find so special about paintings leaving my studio.

I make them here, surrounded by paint, mess and everything going on in my own life.

And then one day one of them is hanging in somebody else’s home, becoming part of their life instead.

That still feels very special to me.

 

So How Do You Know?

 

If you are looking at a painting and you are not sure, I would not try too hard to convince yourself either way.

Just notice what you are doing.

Do you keep going back to it?

Are you still thinking about it later?

Have you already imagined where it would go?

 

And there is one question that can be surprisingly useful:

If I came back tomorrow and somebody else had bought it, how would I feel?

Sometimes the answer is, honestly, I would be fine.

And then you know.

 

But sometimes there is that little feeling of:

Oh. No. I really wanted that one.

That tells you something too.

And if it happens to be one of my paintings, you can always write to me.

It does not have to be formal.

If you want to see it more closely, I can send you extra photos, details or a short video in natural light.

And if you are standing in your living room wondering whether it would actually work there, send me a photo of the wall and roughly how wide it is.

Sometimes seeing the painting in the space makes everything much easier.

And sometimes you look at it there and simply think:

Yes. That’s the one.

 

 Marisol