For many people living today, the idea that you couldn’t own a high-quality reproduction of a favorite piece of artwork is unimaginable. After all, head to any poster shop and you’ll be able to get a copy of Vincent van Gogh’s The Starry Night or Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa for just a few dollars. While they certainly don’t offer the splendor of seeing the original, such prints do a good job of providing beauty to a bedroom or dorm room.

But prints aren’t pieces of art that really impress. So when it comes time to decorate an important space — grand living rooms, banks, corporate offices, casinos, or cruise ships — you’ll want to look well beyond prints and put up something that will really wow anyone who sees it. We’d like you to consider original extra-large contemporary wall art, because it’s sure to impress. Let’s take a look at why you should choose large canvas art over something lesser.

Extra Large Canvas Art Offers 3-Dimensionality

One of the important aspects of a piece of original art is how it changes as the light hits it differently. While a print is just two dimensions, paintings are often three dimensions due to their nature; paint builds up on the canvas as the painting is created. This is especially true with my work, as I sculpt the paint with palette knives in order to give it a raised look that represents land and water.

While the amount of paint differs from painting to painting and artist to artist, a painting will always give you the eye-popping effects that were intended by the artist…something that a printed piece could never do.

It’s Original

One of the most common ways that a business tries to appear special is to put unique artwork on the wall. Even if a bank has multiple branches throughout the city, they will almost always have different pieces of original fine art on their walls.

That’s because they want to appear special. While they have spent a lot of money on branding so that it’s obvious which bank you’re in (usually via the ubiquitous logo and color scheme), they still want something original on the walls to make this particular branch feel special. This combination of familiarity and uniqueness makes the customer feel comfortable while subtly letting them know that this branch of the bank is here to offer personalized service (in other words, the original art suggests personalization).

It Impresses

Most items in today’s world are mass produced. Walk into the average business and 99% of everything, from the furniture to the lighting fixtures to the carpet, is mass produced. That’s why people are so impressed by items that are unique. When you purchase a piece of extra-large contemporary wall art, you’re putting something on the wall that is handmade. And such large canvas art truly does impress.

You’re Supporting Artists

Even if you don’t support me as an artist by purchasing one of my extra-large paintings on canvas, I still hope you will support some artist by purchasing their original art. When it comes to prints and posters, the original artist is seldom making any money. Most of it goes to the printers, the sellers, and the museums that own the copyrights. Buying original art means that you’re helping an artist continue to contribute to the art world.

Even if I quit painting tomorrow, I would still think it very important for society to support artists. After all, artists help to make society livable!

Large Canvas Art Is The Way To Go

When you’re decorating a large space, large canvas art is an obvious choice. If you believe that one of my current paintings would be the perfect addition to your wall, or you like my style and would like to commision a piece of art, please contact me. I look forward to talking with you.

There are so many options in art when it comes to decorating a space such as an office or hotel lobby. Do you fill the space with multiple small prints or a single piece of extra large canvas art? Should you have a mural painted, or will that be too permanent a change to the space?

I fully endorse the use of extra large canvas art in an office, and that’s not just because it’s my specialty! Let’s take a look at how an original painting by an artist can elevate your office space to a new level.

An Original Impresses

I’m well known in some circles for my large original art. But I’m by no means a household name, which means that most people who see my art aren’t going to recognize the name attached to it.

But when you look at a piece of my extra large topography art, there’s no doubt that it’s an original. I sculpt with the paint in order to give it a three-dimensionality that would never be mistaken for a print. People are impressed with originals, even if they aren’t familiar with the artist. Add a plaque beside it and they’re even more likely to investigate the piece and be impressed.

The Size Draws People In

While the Mona Lisa might be the most famous painting in the world, it’s also famous for surprising people with its size. Most people get to the Louvre expecting it to be a huge canvas piece, with the subject appearing life-size. But at only 30” by 21”, it’s considerably smaller than most people realize; most reproductions are larger than the actual piece! So while it’s true that a painting can transcend its size, most people will overlook art that’s too small.

Large original art draws people in not just due to its subject matter but also because of its sheer size. If someone sees a small piece of art from across the room, they’re much less likely to go closer to investigate it. But when they see an extra large painting, they can experience it from far away and from up close. Large fine art pieces can be appreciated from multiple distances.

It Fills The Space

While personal taste in large contemporary wall art will change from person to person, there’s no doubt that it serves a very important role: it fills the spaces that need filled. Some wall spaces are so large that they simply need an extra large painting so that the wall doesn’t look empty. At the same time, multiple small pieces would make the wall space look cluttered. From a purely aesthetic standpoint, extra large painting can simply be a necessity.

Find The Piece Your Office Needs Today!

If you are ready to put an impressive piece of art on your office wall, my painting can provide the size and the interest you’re looking for. View my geographic abstraction paintings; some reach up to 10 feet wide, large enough to bring something special to the largest walls in an office or hotel lobby. I look forward to hearing from you!

On my about me page, I detail the very specific extra large canvas painting that set me in motion when it came to my own life in large original art: A Storm in the Rocky Mountains, Mt. Rosalie.

“My mother would take me to the Brooklyn Museum of Art and it is there where I first was exposed to the painting Storm in the Rocky Mountains by Albert Bierstadt. I was amazed at the scale and detail of this piece of large original art and wondered how the artist was able to create such a magnificent piece. I would revisit this extra large painting again and again, and it would never cease to enthrall me. It inspired me to seek artistic instruction and explore all facets of the art world.”

All these years later, the painting still impresses beyond belief, and I heartily encourage you to visit it at the Brooklyn Museum where it still resides. Let me tell you a little about it.

The Artist

Albert Bierstadt was born in Germany but brought to the United States at the age of one. He lived in New York and studied painting with other landscape artists that took the romanticism movement to a new level. They would often incorporate stark contrasts in the glowing light that seems to emanate from the landscape; this is called luminism. He is known as the most important painter of the American West from 1863 through the end of the 19th century when he died in 1902

The Surveying Expeditions

As America continued its westward expansion, Bierstadt was invited to go along to help document the landscapes. The paintings were in part used as a means of convincing the rest of America that moving into this territory was a good idea.

While we often credit Ansel Adams with bringing the wonder of the West to the American public, most of America could get in a vehicle and drive to the locations he put on film. But in the time of Albert Bierstadt, the American West and, specifically the Rocky Mountains, were far out of the reach of the average traveler. Artists like Bierstadt and a few other painters could bring the beauty of the West to people of the East. Extra large paintings were the way to both impress the public and to get as many people view it as possible. He was so influential in giving Americans a positive view of the West that they named Bierstadt Lake, one of the most popular lakes in Rocky Mountain National Park, after him.

While at first you might imagine Bierstadt lugging huge canvases and gallons of paint thousands of miles across the country, the process was actually much simpler. Bierstadt would make sketches of the scenes in question, then return to his studio in New York and create the actual work that would be seen by the public. No doubt the months (or even years) between the viewing of the actual landscape and the painting of it helped to create the idealized versions of nature found in his works.

The Painting Itself

The extra large painting is approximately 6-feet tall by 12-feet wide and is oil on canvas. Inspiration came from an 1863 expedition that Bierstadt was on, but the painting wasn’t completed until 1866. The extra large canvas art traveled the country for a year to various exhibitions and museums before returning to the Brooklyn Museum for permanent display.

The Majesty

Yes, A Storm in the Rocky Mountains, Mt. Rosalie is large, but even when viewed on a relatively small computer monitor it still evokes an amazing majesty. While it is best viewed in person, the artist’s talent creates a feeling of awe that transcends the viewing medium.

It is difficult to put into words everything that is going on in A Storm in the Rocky Mountains, Mt. Rosalie. Perhaps the first aspect that most viewers will notice is the stark difference between the bright sunlight and the black thunderclouds, a hallmark of luminism. The light highlights some of the nearby mountains and plays on the surface of the lake. But the darkness from the clouds leaves the lake half black, mirroring the stark contrasts above.

The clouds cover most of the rising mountains, which at first might seem like an odd choice in what is essentially a mountain scene. But further inspection shows a nearly pure-white peak breaking through at the top, almost a cloud itself despite its jaggedness. Most believe this to be Mt. Rosalie.

No fewer than three sources of water feed the lake, one dropping from such a height as to be blown by the approaching storm. At the same time, an eagle or hawk fights through the high winds.

But there is action as well! Dwarfed by the majesty of the mountains and water features are the Native Americans in the foreground that could go unnoticed at first viewing. There are two horses and three Native Americans hunting deer, accompanied by what appears to be a small black dog. And this isn’t their first hunt of the day, as there is a small encampment nearby with a dear already dead. It’s interesting that Bierstadt chose to include people at all, but it seems that he was interested in bringing the entirety of the Old West into one oil painting.

In Closing

Is the painting a perfect representation of what Bierstadt actually saw? No. Like he did in many paintings, Bierstadt exaggerated the respective sizes of the mountains in order to make them more majestic than they might appear in real life. (Today, photographers can do the same thing by using a telephoto lens to compress the image, bringing items that seem further away closer to the scene.) Mt. Rosalie doesn’t actually have such a distinctive point, and the three sources of water feeding the lake are probably exaggerated. Did he actually see Native Americans hunting deer at this altitude and in such an idyllic scene? It’s unlikely. But despite the romantic notions, it still makes for one of the most amazing and awe-inspiring paintings of the American West ever created.

I was so inspired by this amazing painting that I now work as an artist in large contemporary wall art. If you’re interested in extra large canvas art, whether topographical art you see on my website or you’d like to commission a piece of art from me, please contact me and we’ll talk!