3 Easy Places to Buy Paintings
Variety, simplicity, and charity collaboration make for great holiday art-shopping ops.
Beth Ann Short is among 200 artists who will sell 8″ × 8″ works at People’s Arts Big 200. Click this image to see more samples.
View Slideshow » Illustration:Dani Hy Dennenberg
View Slideshow » Illustration:Lisa Laser
View Slideshow » Illustration:Dizzy Orion
View Slideshow » Illustration:Emily Bates
View Slideshow » Illustration:Gary Hirsch
View Slideshow » Illustration:John Gajowski
View Slideshow » Illustration:Kris Kanaly
View Slideshow » Illustration:Kyley Quinn
View Slideshow » Illustration:Rich Mackin
Giving art as a gift can be a tricky business. If it’s hanging in a gallery, you may incur a heavy investment and a month-long wait. Furthermore, there really is no accounting for your recipient’s taste. While the right purchase can open a heart, the wrong one will surely furrow a brow, and you’re still out good money. Though undeniably less romantic, it tends to be wise to save big gallery buys for your own walls, and when it comes to gift-giving, take a calculated risk on a little something.
That said, Culturephile has rounded up three ways to keep your holiday art search super-simple. Each one offers a diverse selection of works, a straightforward, immediate cash-to-goods transaction, and the warm fuzzy reassurance that some of your money will line charity coffers. Breathe easy; this will be fun.
People’s Art Big 200 is almost absurdly convenient, offering 200 8″ × 8″ original paintings from a diverse roster of local artists for a mere 40 bucks a pop, right in the Pioneer Square Mall. Starting on Dec. 10, you could literally hit this cash-and-carry gallery stop between visits to Body Shop and Baby Gap, and in so doing provide much-needed funds to the Oregon Food Bank.
The Art of Giving Web Store is a promising possibility for those who’d rather avoid the holly jolly crowd crunch altogether. With several paintings among its fine selection of wares, this website’s sales benefit area charities.
Prints for PICA puts a bit of social engagement and a sense of spontaneity into your art-buying transaction, hosting a Saturday night mixer on the 17th and a Sunday afternoon children’s workshop on the 18th to benefit the Portland Institute for Contemporary Art. The Saturday event will sell still-drying prints pulled earlier that day by more than 100 local artists for $50-250. (We can’t show them to you, since they won’t exist til day-of.) Also, for a mere $20, the Sunday workshop offers kids a learning experience with a tangible reward: take-home prints pulled by their own tiny hands.For more about Portland arts events, visit PoMo’s Arts & Entertainment Calendar, stream content with an RSS feed, or sign up for our weekly On The Town Newsletter!



Thank you for mentioning our new not for profit gallery, The Art of Giving, www.taog.org. We continue to add art and artists in our effort to help you give well and give back to charity.