Wall Art - Home Decor you can personalize

I love fine art. In fact, I studied it in school for some time until I realized I liked painting as a "hobby" and that I was not cut out for the life of a struggling artist. Neither did I wake up each morning with that hunger to paint. But I did wake up with was an urge to LOOK at fine art.

My husband is the same, thank goodness. We always visit museums and we each have our favorite artists. He is a Gauguin and Van Gogh man and I'm a Bouguereau and Rousseau girl. Always and forever. We love other artists to and our home is filled art treasures but those are our favorites.

When we were outfitting the den (remember the furniture?), the first place I started shopping for wall art was art.com due to their wide selection and custom options. I was hoping they would have Henri Rousseau's "The Walk In The Park", which happens to be my favorite painting. I was not expecting them to as it is among his lesser known works, but they did! So I splurged I got the largest they offered, a 3 x 4 and had it converted to a thin canvas. They also offered a brushstroke glaze that made it appear more realistic and required no mat or glass to be used. I chose a solid cherry frame from their frame selection and with shipping it totalled $277. I thought that was a decent deal, considering the size and the fact that it was transferred to canvas. I would not pay that for their prints, which I consider to be a bit high. The same print in a 20 x 30 size was $70, unframed and untreated, just shipped as a roll.  To have it matted, and custom framed here, I expect I would have paid close to the same amount and wouldn't have got the lovely finish I did. In addition, my art.com painting came "ready to hang".

One glitch, and the reason I ranked their customer service so high, is that their shipping time states 5-7 days. Within 4 days, I received my painting. But it wasn't my painting, it was some one else's painting of a deer head. Now I love art, but not quite that much. So I called them and told them that the label on the outside box was for me, but the packing slip was for someone in Utah. They found the order for the man in Utah and promptly shipped him another deer head. They told me to keep the deer head I received and reshipped my Rousseau to me. They called the man in Utah and told him he would be receiving a Rousseau painting and to keep it.

I thought that was the best customer service you can get.

My dad loves his deer head. I only wish that man in Utah had wanted a 3 x 4 canvas transfer of Bouguereau's "Charity". Oh well, can't argue with free stuff, now can you?