Antique Oil Paintings for Your Home and Office

Add an air of sophistication to your house or business with an antique oil painting.

Antique oil paintings give your home Old World Charm. When you put an antique landscape, seascape, portrait or still life on your wall it makes it look like you've been amassing a collection for decades. Choose your paintings wisely and it will look like you've spent your lifetime collecting art.

If you are intimidated by picking out antique art for your home, don't be. Believe it or not the first rule is to buy what you like. Yes, it is okay to buy a painting because it will look good with your color scheme and furniture. If it increases in value over time, well that's icing on the cake.

Landscape Painting from the Hudson River School

Haunting River Landscape

Landscape oil paintings can transport us all over the world. We can wonder at mountains, plains, and valleys. If it's an antique painting, then it can transport us to another time as well. I love antique paintings that show this country in it's earliest times. Eighteenth century paintings show us vast land teeming with wildlife, Native Americans and ancient trees.

When I see the mountains and rivers that the American pioneers faced, I am amazed that this country expanded as rapidly as it did. I love the romantic imagery that those early landscape painters used. The mountains just floated up to meet the sky.

If you love to travel, you can show where you've been by hanging an antique oil painting that shows the country or city. You can even put a small plaque beside it or under it that says what country it was and when you were there. I like to think of them as unique travel logs.

Antique Oil Paintings Landscapes

Antique Mountain Landscape Oil Painting

Remember those old creepy horror movies where portraits of all of the relatives hung in a long corridor? Well all antique portraits aren't creepy. You can find a variety of interesting portraits to bring the corners of your home to life.

Because I live in a 19th Century farmhouse that was built by a sea captain, I love to find old paintings of sailors. You can tell the time period by their uniform. They really look like they came with the house. People often see one portrait of a grizzled old sea captain and really think it was the person who built this house.

The best part is that it cost under $100. Not all antique oil paintings are expensive. You'd be surprised the art pieces that get sold for $10 at yard sales. Often the family inherited them from deceased relatives.

Antique Oil Paintings Portraits

Antique Oil Painting Seascape

A Tall Ship Passes Through Rough Water

Find the Perfect Antique Seascape Painting

Since we live in an old rambling house on the coast of Maine that was built by an eccentric sea captain, it's a given that we have antique seascape paintings in our house. Some seascapes are calm and relaxing and others show the drama of the high seas.

We have pirates battling from their ships over our fireplace. It's filled with energy and always draws a crowd. People who have never been to the house before are fascinated by it. This probably isn't the best influence for a boardroom, where you want to forge a common purpose.

I love hunting down affordable antique oil paintings and spend hours in shops and at estate sales. You can do the same thing on eBay. Many dealers who own shops also list their work on eBay. Click Here to see what's available there today!

Updated: 07/12/2014, Digby_Adams

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