Black & white photography is timeless. It adds depth to its surroundings and can bring an instant element of class and elegance to a room. However some people shy away from the idea of using black and white photos for decorating, afraid it will look dull and lack creativity. This could not be more untrue. Black and white is the perfect medium for decorating with pictures in any room in the house; even a child’s bedroom. The key is in knowing how to use it.

 Tips for decorating with black and white photography:

Tip 1: Black and white photos are ideal for decorating brightly colored walls because they won’t conflict with the surrounding color. Use the same frame style and color for every picture to prevent competition, while drawing one’s eye to the subject of the photo. Solid black or white frames with white matting work well with vivid backgrounds. 

Tip 2: Adorn a child’s room with black and white prints of a subject they love. Baseball fans will be thrilled by the variety of vintage shots featuring famous sluggers and well-known stadiums. For a child who adores animals, black and white pictures of puppies, kittens or horses play well against pale blue or pink walls. 

Tip 3: Teenage girls enjoy themed decor such as Paris, glamorous movie stars or dance. Paired in brightly colored or black frames against white or cream walls, black and white photos will blend in beautifully with her inspiration.

Tip 4: Neutral colored walls in a living space form the perfect pallet for black and white art. Photos of the beach or ocean framed in distressed white, light blue or natural wood give a special touch to a coastal themed room. A more modern and chic look can be achieved by combining photos in both black and white frames in a beige room with white trim and shelves and black wrought iron wall hangings, candle holders and lamps.  

Black and white photos can be dramatic, playful, elegant or glamorous, bringing tremendous beauty and infinite possibilities for decorating to a home. Consider the possibilities in your own home and then browse our large selection of black and white photography.  

If you are a fan of abstract paintings, there is a good chance that you’ve at least heard of artist Maeve Harris. For those that have not heard of her, please allow us to make the introduction. She is a versatile, Seattle-based phenomenon that’s known for her intuitive use of organic forms and blending techniques. In addition, she tends to incorporate elements of photos, literature and history into her work. Here’s a look at several excellent examples of her innate talent:

Maeve Harris Collection: Moment Series

Maeve Harris’ Moment Series is a prime example of her brilliant use of brush strokes to create the illusion of movement. The paintings in the series are appropriately titled Moment I and Moment II. In both instances, she blends blacks, whites, yellows and browns to create two distinct, abstract focal points. Because of their abstract nature and coloring, the paintings could very easily be used in a variety of settings.

Maeve Harris Collection: Jetty & Crème Series

Understandably, Maeve Harris does not restrict her color palette to the ones found in the Moment Series. She has two series that would be ideal for use in beach homes or areas ripe with cool tones. Those two series are Jetty and Crème. Each abstract painting in the two series incorporates white and off white colors. The Jetty Series, however, also infuses those colors with shades of blue and green. As such, all four paintings would look wonderful paired with natural items like pressed seaweed, sand sculptures, bowls of beach glass and driftwood fragments.

Maeve Harris Collection: Floral Paintings

No discussion of artist Maeve Harris’ work would be complete without a mention of her floral paintings. She has several collections that focus on flowers. Among the flowers highlighted in the various collections are marguerites, orchids, chiaroscuros and roses. Colors used in Harris’ floral paintings vary greatly. Therefore, it is easy to find one that will fit in with most design schemes.

Would you like to learn more about artist Maeve Harris and her exceptional paintings? If so, stop by the Fulcrum Gallery today.

Everyone loves popular color trends when they decide to remodel their home or renovate! It's fun to change your decor every once in a while to keep up with current popular color schemes. A very popular color for home decor, especially for this autumn season, is gold. Gold represents a meaning of success, achievement, and triumph. We often associate the color gold with money or wealth, but the color gold has so much more to tell us than just wealth. Many people have linked the color gold as a way to feel empowered and choose to think gold can give off a vibe of positive energy. Some also believe that gold can bring good wisdom, understanding, and enlightenment.

 Represents a Meaning of Success, Achievement, and Triumph!

Often we see gold metals for the winner of a race so we connect the color gold and it's meaning to the winner's metal. This color draws attention to itself, it is eye-catching, passionate, and confident. Gold is a color that is often overlooked when choosing decor because of the flashy and wealthy vibe it shows. Decorating an office with gold art, or neutral colored prints with a gold frame, can give one a sense of empowerment and success. Getting gold art, art with a gold frame, or art on canvas with gold painted sides is not only suitable for your office. These will also raise your feeling of success in a library or study room. 

Perfect Decor for Autumn Season!

Not only is gold great decor for offices, classrooms, libraries, and study rooms, but it is also great for general home decor during autumn season! Decorating your home with paintings and photographs of golden autumn trees and the golden kissed sky during sunset is a great way to bring the beauty of autumn into your home with out having crunchy leaves. Gold autumn decor helps a room pop with color and come to life. Golden touched autumn art is especially a great decor choice for those who find themselves who favor autumn over other seasons. If autumn season is your favorite, why not leave the autumn decor up year round to keep your favorite season around!

Although gold is a popular color to decorate, you want to make sure to not overdo it. Having too much gold decor in your home can be overwhelming since gold is such a bold color. If the room is painted a solid color that compliments gold, just decorating with gold is perfectly fine! But remember, gold is a loud color that does not need help standing out and making a statement. Too much gold decor can ruin the statement you want to make. If done correctly, gold decor can be the perfect inspirational art, or the perfect seasonal art!

Fall is almost here! As the temperature drops and the days grow shorter, nature follows suit with a change of colors. Yellow, orange, gold, rust and red take over the landscape, diffusing autumnal spell. An irresistible spell. A spell you want to bring inside your home and spread the magic all around. Here’s how you can bring the colors of fall into your home:

Celebrate the Colors of Fall

Fall means the orange of pumpkin, the red of corn, yellow of gourds and the rust of fallen leaves. Often, they don’t come in one shade but myriads of shades and hues – a subtle yellow, a bold red or deep burgundy. Fall celebrate colors, perhaps nature’s way of cheering the beginning of colder weather. Fall colors are warm and inviting and what better way of duplicating these hues than inviting them into your home. How? By using fall art and prints that capture the essence of the season. For instance Bright Autumn Day showcases trees touched by the glow of orange and red while Autumn Embers captures a more subdued autumn. What you pick depends on the mood and feel you’re going for.

Celebrate the Season 

In America, fall calls for celebration – pumpkin patch, hayrides, harvest fest, Halloween and Thanksgiving. Often, fall décor is employed to amp up the ambience. Apart from using pumpkins and gourds and fall flowers to build the atmosphere, consider using fall art and prints to add layers of interest. Transform the kitchen into an autumnal landscape of irresistible warmth and colors. Consider pictures of fall harvest such as playful Sharing the Harvest or thoughtful Harvest Blessings. Choices abound with pictures of wine, olives, prairie landscape and Tuscany harvest. 

Celebrate Fall One Room at a Time

Think of how many ways you can use fall décor and how many places you can go with that. We’re talking rooms in your house. The kitchen may be the most obvious place to deck out fall décor but don’t limit your fall magic to just one room. Cozy up your family room with autumn flowers or autumn landscapes or abstract art. Or the living room or the den for that matter. Follow your fancy and allow fall magic to invade your living spaces.

Use art to celebrate fall in all its glories!

The unique lobster has been crawling around on earth for about 100-Million-Years! Lobsters are amazing animals with extremely weird characteristics: they have kidneys in their heads, teeth in their stomachs, brains in their throats, and they grow throughout their lifespan by shedding their shells! They also taste things with their claws and hear stuff with their legs. Lobsters live alone and love to hide on the ocean floor amidst sea flora and rocks. Like birds, they even navigate by sensing earth's magnetism!

Lobsters are also much more than just expensive food! During the Medieval and Renaissance periods, lobsters were pulverized and utilized as medicinal cures for epilepsy, kidney stones, and eye inflammation. Plus, lobsters are steeped in ancient symbolism that connects to transformation, longevity, protection, independence, and solitude. It is said that those who feel a strong connection to the lobster are adept at letting go of the outer world, focusing on the inner world, and experiencing a true sense of freedom from societal labels and restrictions.

 In ancient Greece “the lobster was generally esteemed sacred by the Greeks and was not eaten by them; if the people of Seriphos caught a lobster in their nets they put it back into the sea; if they found a dead one they buried it and mourned over it as over one of themselves.” Lobsters have also been a persistent symbol in animal art history, from adorning mosaic images on Roman floors to being showcased in Japanese paintings. Salvador Dali used lobsters many times in his Surrealist art.

If you feel drawn to the unique mystery of lobsters and want to connect with their powerful symbolism, consider lobster themed fine art for your home. For a rustic lobster look that expresses their function as revered food, the “Red Horse Signs Lobster” print is an excellent choice. For a more whimsical look that expresses the dynamic character of the lobster and its ocean environment, “Sydney Wright Ocean Lobster” will beautify and energize your walls in no time! If, however, you prefer a highly artistic take on the lobster and its connection to independence, the fine art print “Andy Warhol Lobster, c. 1982” says it all!

Frederick Remington is one of the most famous practitioners of western art of the past century and a half. Before motion pictures began to color our perceptions of the American West, his paintings, illustrations, and sculptures captured images of the western frontier, of cowboys, Indians, and cavalry troopers who populated the era he was born into and worked as an illustrator for Harper’s Weekly.

His focus was on people and animals, especially horses, of the American west, with the landscapes of secondary importance. Many of his oil pieces depict men on horseback moving at various speeds across the canvass, creating a sense of motion and energy that catches the eye and holds the attention.

Remington was just as adroit in executing bronze sculptures, the most famous of which was “The Bronco Buster,” which depicts a cowboy breaking a horse that is busily trying to unseat him.

Remington was born in 1861 in New York where he spent most of his childhood. After some failures at business and a rocky marriage he found his true calling working for Harper’s Weekly, a job that frequently took him to the American west in the 1880's and 1890's, executing some of his subjects from life. Unlike many artists, he was a shrewd businessman and a self promoter, something that redounded greatly to his success. He was an early champion of photoengraving process over wood engraving to reproduce visual art into magazine illustrations. He had an informal agreement with Harper’s Weekly for a first look at his art, but was free to sell it elsewhere.

Unfortunately Remington struggled with obesity all of his life. It eventually killed him in 1909 when he underwent an emergency appendectomy during which his girth complicated the procedure, resulting in peritonitis.

Over a century after his death, Remington remains an iconic artist/chronicler of the American west, capturing in his paintings and sculptures an era and a way of life, perhaps in some ways idealized, that is now long past.

From Asian and Indian to Native American culture, the tiger is a symbol for power, independence, vitality, unpredictability, healing, sensuality, aggression, and raw emotion. Tigers are solitary, stealthy, night hunters with extremely keen senses and patience who often wield the element of surprise on their prey.

If the symbolism of tigers speaks to you, it denotes that you are capable of incredible passion, courage, and willpower in the face of the most difficult circumstances. Those with natural tiger energy are said to be skilled as sensitive body workers who can easily move vital energy in themselves and others. Tiger people are also noted both for their adventurous spirits and for creating sacred spaces to enjoy their precious alone time.Tiger cubs are born blind and stay that way for two years. In mythology, it is said that this blindness produces remarkable inner sight, which later enables them to tap into all of their abilities, including psychic and physical. Tiger eyes also have extraordinary sight in the dark.

In animal art, the tiger has been revered in prehistoric images all over the world. The tiger is one of the twelve signs in Chinese Astrology, where it is associated with feminine energies and the element of water, all of which are often depicted in fine art. In India, Shiva is one of the three most important deities in Hinduism. Shiva is associated with destruction, transformation, and transcendence, and he is often shown in the company of a tiger in Indian fine art.

While connecting with tiger energy directly in the modern world is not likely, it is easy to do through art. For tiger art that focuses on sight, Eye of the Tiger by Lucie Bilodeau is an excellent choice. For a more traditional take on the entire form and beauty of the amazing tiger, consider the Tigre Royal fine art print by Paul Jouve. And last but not least, if you prefer a contemporary, realistic style of art that depicts the three elements of aggression, inner power, and healing symbolism of the tiger, Nature's Kingdom – Tigers is an ideal choice. Fulcrum Art Gallery also offers many other art images for the tiger energy in you!

Decorating a home can be daunting. First it’s paint, then it’s furniture, but a room is not complete without the perfect art piece to finish the tone of your room and home. If you’re looking for the perfect canvas art, Fulcrum Gallery is the place for you. Offering thousands of artwork to choose from, you will most certainly find something you love. From classical to contemporary, abstract to photography, from black and white to trendy colors, or sports and cities, Fulcrum Gallery provides a plethora of selections to meet your every need.

Accordingly to Freshhome.com,

“What makes canvas wall art so great is that they can be fairly inexpensive but give the appearance of an authentic piece since they are usually prints on canvas of an original. ... Choosing the right canvas wall art can be difficult at times but it only takes a few simple steps to find the perfect piece for your room.”

If you’re like me and too many selections get overwhelming, you’ll love that their sections are categorized by rooms. Finding that perfect canvas art for your family room will be a breeze. Kitchen art work will no longer be challenging, and the hallway will never be bare again. Whether you prefer a gorgeous Andy Warhol or a picturesque landscape, there is no doubt you will find the perfect piece.

Even better, once you’ve found that perfect item, you can order it ready to hand with gallery wrap, white or black painted sides, or even have it framed. Offering hundreds of colors and styles, mats and finishes, Fulcrum Gallery is a one stop shop. The selections are limitless. Start your search today. Whether by room or category, type of art or photography, searching is made easy, and, with their current 20% off discount, getting the right art work for your home is effortless.

My favorites are the canvas art of Venice, Italy. Which is yours? I dare you to check. It will be the best decorative decision you make.