Art Addict

I come from a family of art collectors. More specifically, collectors of antique oil paintings. Well, not so much a family as from a Dad. He has recently taken his love of paintings to a new level since he discovered eBay a few years ago. He stalks, waits, updates and buys pretty much daily, the older the painting the better. His collection has grown so rapidly that they no longer have any walls remaining to hang his new finds and they are starting to pile up in the basement. He is so dedicated that I have even been employed to watch and bid on his eBay auctions while he was golfing, as well as spending an entire day at a live auction and bidding based on his directions via cell phone. I will definitely have to share some of the highlights soon, because there are some really beautiful pieces around their house.

Some of this has definitely rubbed off on me. I prefer original art, whether it is photos or paintings to store bought. This obviously is usually much more expensive and time consuming since you just have to wait until you find those special pieces. My plan for our foyer/stair way has always been to cover the walls in nautical themed antique oil paintings. Since we have a 2 storey area to cover I am obviously going to need a lot of paintings! I am very excited that my collection has grown by 2 over the last few weeks thanks to the reopening of my beloved antique mall.

I saw this little guy when I went with my best thrifting buddy, Rebecca. I hummed and hawed over it the whole day since it was a little pricey, but when it came time to check out I just didn't think I could leave it. So home it came! It is not nearly as old as my Dad's paintings, but is signed 1933.


I found this one on another trip with my Mom and just LOVED it. I thought it had loads of charm. This one looks much older, but I cannot make out the signiture enough to do much digging on it's history.

This one isn't for my giant wall, but I think I will reframe it and give it to Wren. It isn't all that old (1985) but it is original and has some info about the gallery that sold it on the backside so I will do a little digging on this and find out about the artist. Isn't it cute? And at $2 I think it was quite a find!

My grand total is now at 6 paintings for the wall, some huge some small. But I have determined that I need to wait until my collection is at least at 12 until anything is hung.

So stay tuned?