At Home With... Will Ramsay

By: Annie Deakin Click author's name for more of his/her articles

My aim is to... break down barriers in the art world. You don't need to know about art before buying it. Just go for it. Many people have misconceptions about the price of art. Art needn’t be... expensive. An art fair is a great place to lose yourself among the throng and to browse on and off the stand. People dislike... walking into a silent, wooden floored gallery where you feel self–conscious. I want to meet... Tracey Emin. She's pushed the boundaries and made a lot of people think about art. Of dead artists... I’d like to watch the 17th century architect Bernini Gian Lorenzo sculpt. I have carte blanche with pictures in... my home office. Everywhere else, my wife has to agree which can lead to disagreement. We live in the Scottish borders and have a base in Pimlico. Before buying art... sleep on it if you can. Art should have some sort of longevity. Some art can immediately spring out at you for whatever reason. But on reflection, you may realise it doesn’t have much depth and won’t keep your interest.

It’s meant to be yours if... you keep thinking about it. You don’t have that luxury at an art fair. Try saying: ‘I’ll take it but can I bring it back tomorrow if it’s not right?’ Some galleries allow it. Otherwise, say ‘Can I sleep on it and if anyone wants to buy it, can you call me and give me first refusal?’ I would love to own... The Wanderer above a Sea of Clouds by the German painter Caspar David Friedrich. I adore my photograph by Barry Cawston called James Dean in Tibet. It hangs in my home office.

Don’t worry about... mixing the traditional with the contemporary. Abstract art can sit fine with brown furniture. A home is a home when... there is a very comfy sofa and good reading material like Viz in the loo. I would never throw out... my grandmother’s armchair. I’ve re–upholstered it in a light blue/grey material. If my house was burning down... I would grab my Louise Bourgeois print, my bagpipes and family photo albums. Traditionally, in difficult economic times... the middle market of the art world struggles while the top and bottom are fine. Evidence shows that the top end is hunky dory and the Affordable Art Fair will hopefully show that all is fine at the lower end of the market. Art benefits when... people don’t see the potential value in the stock market or in property. Buyers at the middle and bottom end don’t buy for investment.

The web is... a good marketing tool for artists. It enables people to get an idea of what a gallery sells but you shouldn’t buy art simply from a screen. You can’t get a feeling of scale, the picture is distorted, the colour isn’t right and you can’t understand the frame. Buying art is... touchy feely. You need it to be 3–dimensional and in the right light. You can’t get that on a screen. Online art is good because... you can buy something without having to venture into a gallery. But you need the ability to send it back when you’ve seen it in the flesh. One in ten people buying from our website send it back.

Article Source: ABC Article Directory

About The Author: Annie Deakin is a journalist, fashion and furniture expert and editor at mydeco.com who is currently interested in leather sofa, sofas and oak furniture