How to Buy Original Art: A Collector’s Guide to Choosing Art You Love
How to Buy Original Art: A Collector’s Guide to Choosing Art You Love
Buying original art is different from buying almost anything else.
A painting is not simply an object that fills an empty wall. It can become part of your home, your daily life, your memories, and eventually your personal history. The right artwork can stay with you for decades — sometimes for generations.
But if you are buying original art for the first time, the process can feel intimidating. How do you know what to choose? Does the artist need to be famous? Should you think about investment value? What is the difference between an original artwork and a print? And how do you know if the price is fair?
After more than 20 years of creating art and seeing my work become part of private collections around the world, I have learned something very simple:
The best place to begin is with a work you genuinely want to live with.
Everything else comes after that.
1. Buy Art You Feel Something About
There are many reasons to collect art: beauty, inspiration, cultural significance, supporting an artist, building a collection, or potentially owning something that becomes more valuable over time.
But before thinking about any of those things, ask yourself one question:
Do I want to see this artwork every day?
Original art has an energy that is difficult to understand from a photograph alone. Sometimes you see a painting and immediately feel a connection. You may not even be able to explain why.
Pay attention to that feeling.
Trends change. Interiors change. Markets change. But a genuine emotional connection with a work can last for decades.
This philosophy is also at the center of my own practice: Do What You Love.
I believe the art we surround ourselves with should remind us of something meaningful — who we are, what we believe in, or how we want to live.
2. Understand What “Original Art” Means
An original artwork is a unique work created by the artist.
For example, an original painting exists as one physical artwork. Even if photographs or prints of that painting are later produced, there is still only one original.
A print is different.
Prints can be beautiful and collectible, particularly when they are signed and produced as limited editions, but they are reproductions or editions rather than the unique original work.
Neither is inherently better. They simply serve different purposes and often exist at very different price points.
If you are considering a work, check whether it is:
- an original artwork;
- a one-of-one piece;
- a limited edition;
- a signed print;
- or an open-edition reproduction.
A professional artist or gallery should make this clear.
3. Learn About the Artist
When you buy an original artwork, you are also becoming part of an artist’s story.
Spend some time learning about the person behind the work.
Look at their previous artworks, exhibitions, projects, interviews and evolution over time. Read their artist statement. See whether there is a consistent idea or visual language connecting their work.
You don’t need to become an art historian.
You simply want to understand:
Why does this artist create what they create?
For me, Do What You Love began as more than a phrase. It became a philosophy that has followed my work through paintings, murals, objects, public projects and sculpture.
The individual works change, but the central question remains the same:
Are you living the life you actually love?
Knowing the story behind a work can completely change the experience of owning it.
4. Don’t Buy a Signature — Buy the Work
A famous name can add cultural and market significance to an artwork, but a recognizable signature alone doesn’t guarantee that you will enjoy living with it.
The opposite is also true.
Discovering an artist before they become widely known can be one of the most rewarding parts of collecting contemporary art.
Instead of asking only:
“Is this artist famous?”
also ask:
“Is this work important to me?”
A meaningful collection does not have to look like somebody else’s collection.
It should look like yours.
5. Think About Where the Artwork Will Live
Before purchasing a painting, consider the physical space.
Measure the wall.
Then measure it again.
One of the most common mistakes people make when buying art online is imagining a work much larger or smaller than it actually is.
Look carefully at the dimensions and, when possible, ask for photographs or a digital mockup showing the artwork in an interior.
Large original paintings can completely transform a room. Smaller works can create more intimate moments or become part of a larger collection wall.
There is no universal correct size.
The important thing is understanding the relationship between the artwork and the space around it.
And don’t be afraid of a large painting.
Sometimes people choose art that is too small because they are afraid the artwork will dominate the room. In reality, one strong original piece can often make a space feel much more intentional than several small decorative objects.
6. Ask About Materials and Condition
Before acquiring an original artwork, you should know what you are buying.
For a painting, basic information normally includes:
Artist
Title
Year
Medium
Dimensions
Surface or material
Signature
Condition
For example:
Acrylic and mixed media on canvas, 48 × 60 inches, signed by the artist.
For older works, condition becomes particularly important. For contemporary works purchased directly from an artist, the process is generally much simpler, but the materials should still be documented.
7. Ask for a Certificate of Authenticity
When purchasing an original artwork directly from an artist or gallery, ask whether it comes with a Certificate of Authenticity (COA).
A certificate typically documents information such as the artist’s name, artwork title, year, dimensions, medium and signature.
Keep this document together with your records for the artwork.
It can become important for provenance, insurance, resale, inheritance or future authentication.
The paperwork may seem unimportant when you first fall in love with a painting, but twenty years later it may matter considerably.
8. Buying Art Directly From an Artist
One of the most interesting changes in the contemporary art world is that collectors can now discover and communicate directly with artists.
You no longer necessarily need to encounter an artist through a gallery first.
Instagram, artists’ websites, studio visits and online exhibitions have made that relationship much more direct.
Buying directly from an artist can also allow you to learn the story of a particular work, see additional available pieces, visit the studio, or discuss a commission.
If you are interested in a work but cannot find a price, don’t assume it isn’t available.
Simply ask.
“Is this work available?”
is a completely normal question.
So is:
“Could you send me a list of currently available works?”
You do not need to know special art-world language to talk to an artist.
9. Consider a Commission
Sometimes you love an artist’s work but the available pieces are not the right size, composition or direction for your space.
That is where a commissioned artwork can make sense.
A commission is an original work created specifically for a collector.
Depending on the artist, you may be able to discuss dimensions, general colors, subject, concept or the environment where the artwork will live.
However, commissioning an artist is different from hiring someone simply to reproduce an image.
The best commissions leave space for the artist to remain an artist.
You are choosing them because you trust their visual language.
A good commission becomes a collaboration between your story and theirs.
10. Should You Buy Art as an Investment?
This is one of the questions collectors ask most often.
Art can increase in value. Some artists’ markets develop dramatically over time.
But no responsible artist can promise what the future market value of a work will be.
That is why I personally believe financial appreciation should be considered a possibility rather than the only reason to buy.
If an artwork increases in value, wonderful.
But during all the years before that happens — or even if it never happens — you should still own something that gives you something every time you see it.
That is a return too.
11. Don’t Be Afraid to Start Small
You don’t need millions of dollars to become an art collector.
A collection begins with one artwork.
It might be a painting, drawing, photograph, sculpture or limited edition.
Over time, those individual decisions begin to tell a story about you: the artists you discovered, the periods of your life when you found them, the places you traveled, and the ideas that mattered to you.
That is what makes a personal art collection interesting.
It is not simply a group of expensive objects.
It is a visual autobiography.
12. Buy From People and Sources You Trust
Whether you purchase from an artist, gallery, art fair or online platform, make sure you understand who is selling the work.
For significant purchases, don’t hesitate to ask questions about authenticity, provenance, condition, shipping and documentation.
When buying directly from a living artist, communication is often especially straightforward because the provenance begins with the person who actually created the work.
13. Think Beyond Decoration
There is nothing wrong with choosing an artwork because it looks beautiful in your home.
But the best art can do much more than match a sofa.
It can challenge you.
It can make you laugh.
It can remind you of someone.
It can represent a particular period of your life.
It can become something your children grow up seeing every day.
And sometimes one sentence on a canvas can change the direction of someone’s life.
That possibility is one of the reasons I continue making art.
Choose Something You Would Miss
If you are deciding whether to buy an artwork, imagine the space without it.
Then imagine living with it for ten years.
Would you still want to look at it?
Would you miss it if someone else bought it tomorrow?
If the answer is yes, you probably already know more than you think.
Collecting art does not have to begin with expertise.
It can begin with curiosity.
And then with love.
Do what you love. Collect what you love.
Explore Original Art by Sergey Gordienko
Discover original paintings and selected works currently available from contemporary artist Sergey Gordienko, creator of Do What You Love.
For private collector inquiries, commissions, studio visits, gallery representation or international shipping questions: