Decorate your Living Room with Winslow Homer’s Paintings

If you like your home to be welcoming, a space to relax, and a place where you and your family and friends can just feel “at home”, one of the best ways to create all of these is to decorate your living room with paintings. Well-chosen art can create a specific atmosphere in your room.

One problem, however, is that the choice of works of art is so wide that you can’t decide which paintings you have to use. You can virtually acquire a reproduction or print of any painting if you can’t get or afford the original.

In this article, we’ll share some ideas on using Winslow Homer paintings to decorate your living room. First, we’ll discuss “general rules” regarding acquiring and using paintings for your home and look at specific Winslow Homer paintings.

Why Is It Good to Have Works of Art in Your Living Room?

It has scientifically been proven that looking at paintings when you are relaxing can normalize blood pressure levels. So, you can decrease your stress levels by looking at and enjoying the paintings in your living room. In addition, well-chosen pieces of art can create a relaxed atmosphere in a room, which will positively affect you, your family, and your visitors. 

Because the living room is usually where the family gathers and good friends are entertained, it is good to create a relaxed but simultaneously “lively” atmosphere. The paintings in your living room must send the positive message that you want to enjoy life.

Well-chosen paintings are also “conversation starters”, and psychologists have found that most paintings enhance positivity and allow your brain to share your opinions with others. Another study found that paintings can cause people to have a greater tolerance for the views of others. Thus, the right paintings in your living room may have the ability to keep discussions “calm”!

Winslow Homer Paintings for Your Living Room

The American artist Winslow Homer (1836–1910) is best known for his marine subjects. If you are interested in marine-related paintings. Homer’s paintings will be just what you need for your living room. Some of Homer’s paintings will bring calmness to your living room, while others will provide the “lively” aspect we’ve discussed above.  

In some of Winslow Homer’s watercolor paintings, a calm effect is caused by Homer’s use of color and light. In Homer’s watercolors and oil paintings, you’ll find that he always worked on natural visual sensations of outdoor color and light. His work was also always based on direct observations of nature. As a highly-talented artist, he could extraordinarily combine the qualities of color, pigment, and line.

The more you learn about Winslow Homer, you’ll find the “lively” effect in most of his later works when his favorite theme was stormy oceans. When you view his sea paintings, you experience the movement of the waves and the collision between the water and the sturdy rocks.

Every painting by Homer is an excellent conversation piece as well. You and your friends will be enticed by his paintings to discuss the specific subject in the painting for hours.

Examples of Homer’s Works to Decorate Your Living Room

For your convenience, we’ve listed three watercolors and three oil paintings that would be ideal paintings to acquire for your living room.

• “Boys in a Dory” was created by Homer in the mid-19th century and is one of his first watercolors. It depicts a boating group of boys and is an example of Homer’s decision to depict simple life and rural environments in his paintings. 
• “On the Trail” is part of a series of watercolors on deer hunting in the wilderness of the Adirondacks. It shows a young hunter at the start of the hunt, holding two lively dogs, their tails twitching in anticipation.
• “Hound and Hunter” is another watercolor in Homer’s series on hounding. It depicts a young hunter lying in a guided boat. He is holding a noose in one hand, and a dead deer in the other, and his attention is centered on the dog swimming toward him.
• “Prisoners from the Front” is an oil painting depicting Confederate officers surrendering to Union Brigadier General Francis Channing Barlow during the American Civil War.
• “A Visit from the Old Mistress” is one of several oil paintings that Homer created during a visit to Virginia. “A Visit from the Old Mistress” is one of Homer’s paintings of black southern life of that time and is deemed an invaluable record of life in Virginia during the Reconstruction.
• “The Fog Warning” is one of several famous paintings on marine subjects by Winslow Homer. The painting depicts the hard lives of fishermen.

What if You Can’t Find or Afford an Original Homer Painting?

After we’ve now looked at why and how you can decorate your living room with Winslow Homer paintings and learned all about artist Winslow Homer, let’s look at how and where you can acquire Homer paintings.

Although it would be fantastic to have a living room filled with original Winslow Homer paintings, it is usually not financially viable. Fortunately, there is excellent replica art available at affordable prices.

We are not going to discuss how to acquire original Homer paintings because, if you have the money to do that, the easiest way is to contact a reputable art dealer or attend art auctions. So instead, we’ll look at how to purchase reproductions and prints for your living room.  

Prints and Original Reproductions

In principle, you can purchase two types of “copies” of original paintings. You can either buy a digital print of the original or an original reproduction done by skilled and trained visual artists. And many art lovers will tell you that they enjoy their prints or reproductions just as much as any original paintings (sometimes called “first paintings”) in their living room.

Digital Prints

Digital prints are made using a professional, large-format, high-resolution digital camera calibrated for color. Each image is corrected until an even lighting distribution is ensured and the visual color is the same as that of the original work of art.

Although a print of a famous Homer painting will enhance your living room’s décor, the print will not have the “look and feel” of the original.

Original Reproductions

Reputable online art galleries offer reproductions of works, including paintings by Winslow Homer. Trained and highly skilled artists do the reproduction of a painting. They paint an “original copy”. Because they use paint and, in principle, the same painting techniques as the original painter, the end product has the “look and feel” of the original.

Although the artwork is still copy painting, in a certain sense, you have “original reproductions” on your walls.   

Always Purchase from a Reputable Gallery

Whether buying a print or a reproduction, always use a reputable online gallery with a published list of Winslow Homer prints or reproductions. It is always good to check whether:

• There is positive commentary available from previous clients regarding their handmade paintings or prints,
• The gallery offers a 100% satisfaction guarantee on their oil drawings and paintings or prints and has a reasonable money-back guarantee and return policy in place,
• The shipping is free or at least reasonable.

Conclusion

We hope that this article will help you to decide which artist Winslow Homer

paintings reproductions and Winslow Homer prints you want to acquire for your living room, and you can find a reputable online art gallery to use.