Guides
Simple, Belgium-specific guidance: buying a work from a Belgian artist, choosing it for your living room or bedroom, framing and hanging it - and, for artists, selling without a gallery.
To buy a work
Buy Belgian art: where, at what price, and how to get it right
You want an original piece at home, not a poster. Here is where to buy art in Belgium today, what each door really costs, and how to buy direct from a Belgian artist without a nasty surprise.
How much does a work by a Belgian artist cost?
Nobody publishes a rate for an original artwork, and that is normal. A price still reads perfectly well: the size, the technique, the artist’s track record - and above all the place where you buy.
Giving original art as a gift without imposing your taste
The fear that stops people from giving art is almost never the price: it is taste. There is a way to give original art that lets the other person choose - and it beats a parcel.
Paintings by Belgian artists: how to choose and buy an original canvas
You want a painting by a Belgian artist, an original piece for your wall, and every search for an original painting for sale in Belgium turns up cut-price prints on one side and galleries out of reach on the other. In between, there’s the artist. Here’s how to recognise a real painting, choose it, and buy it.
Buying art directly from the artist: how it works
Buying a painting from the person who painted it, and leaving with it under your arm, is the simplest and safest way to buy art. Here’s how it really goes.
Buying a painting online in Belgium: where, and what to check before you pay
You can find a painting online without getting it wrong, as long as you know who you are dealing with, what you are really buying, and what gets added to the price. A tour of the places, and the list of what to check before you pay.
To decorate with art
Decorate your living room with art: what size painting, and how high to hang it
An empty wall, a craving for colour, and three questions that keep coming back: what size, how high, and in which room. Here are the rules of thumb people actually use.
Which painting for your living room: colour, style, and the spot above the sofa
The living room is the room you look at most, and the wall behind the sofa is the one that is waiting. Here is how to choose a painting that holds the room, without getting the colour or the size wrong.
Which painting for the bedroom: above the bed, facing it, and which colours
The bedroom is the room where you see the painting when you wake up and when you go to sleep. It asks for something different from the living room: calm, a secure fixing, and nothing that stares.
A large painting for a large wall: size, price, and how to hang it
A large wall isn’t waiting for three small frames: it is waiting for a large canvas. How to choose it at the right size, what it costs, and what everyone forgets - the door, the stairs, and the fixing.
Framing a canvas or a painting: frame, floating frame, glass, prices
A canvas on a stretcher often does without a frame; a work on paper never does. In between, a few choices that change everything, and a few prices worth knowing before you go to the framer.
Wall decor: poster, printed canvas or original artwork?
On home decor websites, everything is called a “painting”. A poster, a photograph printed on canvas and a painting have nothing in common, though. Here is how to know what you are buying, and when the original is really worth it.
To sell your work
How to sell your paintings in Belgium
You paint, people tell you it’s good, and you have no idea where to start selling. Here are the five places where it really happens in Belgium, and what each one costs.
How much commission does an art gallery take, and what does a platform cost?
A gallery often takes half the price. That’s a lot, and it isn’t necessarily too much: it all depends on what it does for you. Here’s what you need to compare honestly.
Artists in Belgium: do you need a business status to sell your work?
It’s the question that stops the most artists before their very first sale. The answer fits in one sentence: it isn’t the amount that counts, it’s the regularity.