Are We Buying Comfort? What Art Sales May Be Telling Us
Something stood out to me at our recent 16x20 Art Show & Sale. As I watched paintings leave the walls and head home with their new owners, I started noticing a bit of a pattern. A lot of the pieces that sold had softer colour palettes, warm fall tones and subjects from nature. And quite a few of them featured animals. There were foxes, birds, farm animals and wildlife. Nothing overly bold or dramatic. Instead, many of these paintings had a quietness about them. They felt comforting. And it made me wonder whether that was simply a coincidence, a decorating trend, or maybe something a little deeper. We’ve all been living with a lot of uncertainty lately. The cost of living is still a concern for many Canadians. We hear daily about wars, political division, economic instability and changing relationships between countries, including our own relationship with the United States. It’s a lot. So I started wondering whether the art we choose for our homes might reflect how we are feeling, even when we don’t consciously realize it. I’m certainly not suggesting that someone buys a painting of a fox because they’re worried about world politics. But when life feels unpredictable, maybe we naturally start looking for things that feel familiar, calm and reassuring. Art is very personal that way. We often say we buy a painting because we love the colours, the brushwork or the subject. But once we bring it home, it becomes part of our everyday surroundings. We see it while we’re having our morning coffee, visiting with family, reading, cooking dinner or settling in at the end of the day. Maybe that helps explain why some people are drawn to art that feels peaceful. There is actually research suggesting that people often turn toward familiarity and nostalgia during stressful or uncertain times. Other studies have looked at the effect of visual art and nature imagery on stress and mood, with some finding that simply looking at certain kinds of artwork can have a calming effect. That made me think again about the colours I saw selling at the show. They weren’t loud colours. There were soft greens, warm browns, creams, muted oranges, ochres and earthy fall tones. Colours that remind us of forests, fields, harvest, changing leaves and home. They don’t demand attention. They just feel good to be around. And then there were the animals. That interested me most. Animal paintings can feel familiar without asking very much from us. A deer standing in a field, a Highland cow, a fox curled in the grass or a bird sitting on a branch brings a little bit of the natural world indoors. For many of us living in Manitoba, those images can also feel connected to home. Farms, wildlife, forests and changing seasons are part of the landscape we know. There may be memories attached to them too. Of course, one art show isn’t enough to declare that Canadian art-buying habits are changing. Sometimes a painting sells simply because someone walks by, stops, falls in love with it and decides it belongs in their home. That’s one of the wonderful things about art. But I still find the pattern interesting. Art has always reflected the times we live in, not only through what artists choose to paint, but also through what people choose to buy. Maybe some people are looking for more than a beautiful picture for the wall right now. Maybe they’re looking for warmth. For nature. For something familiar. For something that makes home feel a little more peaceful. And in a world that can sometimes feel awfully noisy, maybe the painting that makes us stop for a moment, exhale and feel just a little more settled is exactly the painting we want to live with. Maybe sometimes we aren’t simply buying art. Maybe we’re buying a little bit of comfort.