Great Art To Match Every Budget

My Journey to Buy an Outdoor Sculpture

We are lucky that talented artists make very good art which is available to us at a wide range of price points. I learned early in my adult life from Tom Maksout about the benefit that art adds to our environment, well-being and creative spirit. While we all have different tastes in our preferred art, their is no shortage of good art to meet every price point.

This Fall we began a two-phase landscape redesign on our home near Saugatuck. We live on Lake Michigan on a 3-acre parcel that is 100ft wide, so it is long and narrow and it’s 2/3’s wooded. We have a long and winding drive (about ¼ of a mile) and the intersection of the street and our drive is not visible from the house. As part of the redesign, I wanted to move one of my favorite sculptures which was at the foot of our driveway closer to the house so I could enjoy it more, but I also didn’t realize the hole it would leave.

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When the sculpture was moved, I missed the “cultural” welcome to our guests that set us apart from all the other driveways along our street. I was also pleasantly surprised that our neighbors noticed which I take to mean it had an impact on people besides ourselves. It didn’t take long for us to start looking to purchase another sculpture. If cost were no object, I would have loved to find a piece by a blue-chip artist like these from Joel Shapiro or Deborah Butterfield.

Joel Shapiro

Deborah Butterfield

But that choice was not in the cards. I wanted to stay under $2,500. I found art I liked in multiple price categories. Generally, $2,500 and under. $2,600 - $10,000, $10,000 up, and blue-chip art. (I recognize that these may be lofty prices for some readers to consider for outside sculpture and I assure you I did see some attractive pieces under $500) .

Through Google searches and Pinterest, I found lots of options. Interesting enough, I found a lot of great outdoor sculpture in Brittan and EU countries (you know when the measurements are in metric) that were only a fraction of the price of similar prices in the U.S., but were not available for shipping.

While I was looking locally, I was also scouring the internet for outdoor sculpture. I was working on two sides of a simultaneous equation. The Saugatuck/Douglas area is justifiably called the art coast for a reason, we were fortunate to have a wide variety of great art options.

To start we did define some criteria, a new piece had to be at least as big as the piece we moved (60 inches), it had to look great in our eyes, and it needed to be a good scale for the wide-open space (thicker vs delicate).

Like any good collector I always had my eye out for the “what if” scenario and so when we started to get serious, I already had a local gallery in mind as a place to start, Water Street Gallery. We looked at a few other places but ultimately worked with Water Street.

Steiner Rieckman (first try)

Joseph Lamontagne (second try)

Joseph Lamontagne (winner)

Over two weeks, we had three different sculptures delivered on approval. Each piece was beautiful but the first two were not at the visual weight we idealized. The third try was the charm, the piece delivered on all of our considerations. Only one thing remained, I needed to complete my internet research and see my other options.

My internet search was eye opening. First and foremost, I realized what a great value I had found locally at Water Street.. All of the pieces I brought home on approval were priced from $1,200-$1,900. They each stood favorably to my internet selections, but the the on-line resources where in the $5,000-$20,000 range.

Not available in US

Troy Pillow

V. Kharchenko

You might say that the more expensive ones were a better investment because they were more expensive, but I would offer a contrary view. I think everything from $1,200 - $20,000 is all classified in the “outdoor decoration” category. Purchasers are not likely to recoup their full investment; so my philosophy is to optimize the intersection of price and design aesthetic to my budget and taste.

I am very happy because I was able to purchase a piece of art that I love, and I got to look at a lot of great art. I am a double winner.