I believe there is a place for both prints and original artwork.
Prints make art accessible. They allow someone to bring an image they love into their home at a price that works for them. I offer prints of my own work for exactly that reason.
But an original painting is something different.
When you stand in front of an original oil painting, you aren't simply looking at an image. You are looking at the actual surface the artist worked on.
Every brushstroke is there.
The texture of the paint. The places where one color overlaps another. A bit of the underpainting showing through. The marks the artist chose to leave alone—and probably a few that almost disappeared beneath another layer.
You are seeing the decisions that happened while the painting was being made.
And you simply can't reproduce all of that.
Paintings have presence.
I've always thought this was one of the hardest things to communicate through a photograph.
A painting can look beautiful on a computer screen, but when you place the original in a room, something changes.
Oil paint catches the light differently throughout the day. Texture becomes more apparent as you walk past it. Colors interact with the furniture, the walls, and the changing natural light.
The painting doesn't just hang in the room.
It becomes part of it.
Sometimes it even becomes the starting point for the entire space.
Buy what you love.
So many people begin by asking whether a painting will match their décor.
And of course, color, scale, and the feeling of a room matter.
But experienced collectors often approach art differently.
They buy what they love.
They buy the piece they can't stop looking at. The one that stirs a memory, creates a feeling, or simply speaks to them in a way they can't quite explain.
Furniture changes. Wall colors change. Trends change.
The artwork you truly love can stay with you through all of it.
That's why I always tell people:
Buy what you love. Buy what speaks to YOU.
Not what matches the sofa perfectly.
Not what someone else tells you is the right style.
Not simply what happens to be trending at the moment.
Art is personal.
If you walk past a painting and keep coming back to it, there is probably a reason.
Maybe it reminds you of Lake Michigan, a favorite vacation, a quiet stretch of shoreline, a person, a season of life, or simply a feeling you want to bring into your home.
There is no wrong choice if you buy what you love.
And if you really love it, you will usually find a place for it.
You are also collecting a moment in an artist's life.
This is something I think about whenever I package an original painting and send it off to its new home.
There will never be another one exactly like it.
Even if I returned to the same location, stood in front of another canvas with the same palette, and tried to paint the same scene again, I wouldn't create the exact same painting.
The day would be different.
The light might be different.
And I would be different.
That's part of what makes original artwork special.
An original painting captures a particular moment in an artist's creative life—the choices, instincts, experiences, brushstrokes, changes, and even imperfections that happened while making that piece.
Once it leaves the studio, that chapter begins belonging to someone else.
And then the painting begins another story.
This may be my favorite part.
Artwork becomes connected to the life happening around it.
It hangs over the fireplace while children grow up.
It moves from one home to another.
It becomes associated with holidays, conversations, dinners, quiet mornings, celebrations, and everyday life.
Eventually, someone may say, "That's the painting that always hung in Mom's living room," or "We bought that on our trip to Michigan."
The monetary value of art matters, of course.
But I think we sometimes overlook this other kind of value.
The value of living with something meaningful.
The value of knowing a human being created it.
The value of owning the only one.
So, original or print?
There isn't a wrong answer.
I have prints in my own product line because I want people to be able to enjoy artwork in different ways and at different price points.
A print can be beautiful.
It can finish a room.
It can remind you of a place you love.
An original simply offers something different—the texture, the brushwork, the physical presence, and the knowledge that there is only one.
Whichever you choose, my advice is the same:
Buy what you love. Buy what speaks to YOU.
Because the best art for your home isn't necessarily the art someone else would choose.
It's the piece that makes you feel something every time you walk past it.
A print can decorate a wall.
An original can change a room.
But ultimately, the artwork worth living with is the artwork you love.
Ready to find the piece that speaks to you? Explore my collection of original oil paintings and fine art prints.