Why It's Better to Buy an Original Painting Than a Print

Prints are everywhere. Truly everywhere. I walk into a home-decor shop and think: "oh, that's the same print I've seen at three different friends' places, and on Pinterest." Pretty? Sometimes. Does it add anything to a life? About as much as wallpaper. It's there. That's it.

An original painting by a living artist, though… that's a completely different story.

1. A painting made by hand has a soul. A print is a selfie of a painting 😂

A print is a bit like a photo of a cake. You look at it, but you don't taste anything.

the texture that can't be copied,

that moment when the artist sighed, adjusted something, painted over it, and thought: "okay, now I feel it."

That's a life sealed inside paint.

2. Tenerife, disappointment, and a shopping wake-up call

I was recently in Tenerife. And — for the first time in a long while — I felt like I wanted to bring something real back from the trip. Something genuine, something mine.

So I started going through the shops. And what a disappointment… 95% of the souvenirs: Made in China. Colourful, pretty, cheap — and completely soulless.

And that's when it hit me: in a world so overflowing with everything… cheap things, decorations, copies, mass production… filtering has become a necessity.

We want something with a soul in our homes, something worth the space it takes up in our lives. Not a product. An object with a story.

And that's exactly what original art is.

3. Buying from an artist means being in touch with a person, not a printer

You can't ask a print, "what did you feel while you were being made?" Because it didn't feel anything — it came into being with one click of "Print."

And the artist? The artist will tell you everything — and make you tea while she's at it 😉

4. An original is one of a kind. A print has thousands of siblings

Do you want your home to look like half of Instagram and three hotel lobbies? If so — fair enough.

But if you want your space to have character, to look like your life and not like an interiors catalogue…

then choose something that exists in exactly one copy.

5. An original gains value. A print loses its value the moment you swap the sofa 😉

You grow together with an original. It travels with you through the years, takes on new meanings, becomes a memory.

A print? It often ends up in the bin the next time you redecorate.

6. An original moves you. A print decorates. That's the difference.

An original can genuinely touch you — with something you can't quite explain. A print makes an impression of "looks nice," but has no depth to the relationship.

In a world overflowing with everything — cheap decorations, copies, mass production — original art is like a breath of fresh air.

When you buy a painting by a contemporary artist, you're buying something real. Something that fills the space in your life with genuine value.