Inspired by their own creative childhoods, it was important to Kate and Rick Watts that they surround their daughter with arty inspiration, leading them to purchase their first piece of affordable art.
Meet the Watts Family; having enjoyed their own creative childhoods, it was really important to Kate and Rick to surround their daughter Thia with arty inspiration, plus help her start creating her own masterpieces! This led them to purchase their first piece of original art from the Affordable Art Fair online marketplace, earlier this year. They told us more when they invited us into their lovely family home.
Kate: Growing up, there was art all around us and I think it’s really important for Thia to experience creativity and art growing up, because we had that ourselves. It’s also a really lovely reminder of different points in our lives and memories.
Rick: It’s a way to revisit memories and places we’ve visited.
Kate: Exactly – a really nice record of things that have happened in our lives.
Kate: Creating pieces of art at home with Thia is such a happy experience, she loves doing it, it puts the biggest smile on her face.
Rick: It can often be very messy… but it’s worth it in the end, and just looking at her art makes us feel so proud.
Kate: Yes! Thia likes looking back and thinking about all the things she’s created. Plus, just looking at pieces of art makes you happy as well, doesn’t it?
Kate: Who did you make these for?
Thia: I did these paintings for Daddy for Father’s Day
Kate: Can you tell us about them?
Thia: I did lots of hand prints, lines and dots and I draw with felt tips.
Kate: Who’s in this one here?
Thia: A tree, a heart, me and Daddy.
Kate: Do you like getting mucky with your paints?
Thia: Yes!
Kate: I love the really bright colours, the vibrancy, they really feel alive, bold and strong. They’ve got an exotic tropical feel to them, which makes me feel like I’m on holiday.
Rick: Yes, absolutely, the artist (Ramzi Musa) is amazing, and we were looking for something really bright. Also, we managed to choose the correct size. What we found really helpful was having all the dimensions on the website, so together they just fit the space really well.
Kate: We were searching online for different ways to buy affordable art, and funnily enough, the link came up to the Affordable Art Fair.
Kate: When choosing it and ordering it, it was slightly nerve-wracking, but once that was over – receiving it and unwrapping it was really exciting. The whole process was easy, and it’s fitted in the room so well – it just makes us really happy.
Rick: And we just simply don’t have time to get out a lot of the time.
Kate: With a toddler, going to art galleries wasn’t really an option. Buying art online from the Affordable Art Fair just made it easy because there’s just such a wide variety of types of art, different sizes and styles and different prices as well.
Kate: Very important, we’ve got a young family and I work part time, we haven’t got a big budget, but we wanted something unique that brings the living room to life.
Kate: This is a photograph I took during my degree, when I was at university in Bristol, so there’s some really lovely memories there. And either side of the fireplace we’ve got two paintings we bought when we were on holiday in Jamaica, it was a while ago now wasn’t it!
Rick: It was about ten years ago.
Kate: There was a little old man painting at the side of the beach, and we chose these two, to remember the holiday.
Rick: It was amazing! And we printed a photo to remember our wedding day.
Kate: Yes, that’s a lovely memory, we got married in Cornwall on a sunny day like today.
Rick: Don’t just go for the first thing that you see, have a look through the entire selection on the website, just make sure you get a feel for everything. There’s nothing worse than buying something and by the time it arrives, there’s something else that you like more that you’ve seen afterwards.
Kate: Actually, that was something I was really worried about, if it came and we didn’t really like it, but it’s actually really easy to return things, so that gave us peace of mind as well. There was loads of different mediums, it was really easy to use all of the different filters to find exactly what you needed, what your style was, what fitted in your home, and for the price you wanted as well.
Rick: You can look for things with a frame as well, so you don’t have to buy one and have that added expense.
Kate: When we first looked at the Affordable Art Fair website, we didn’t actually realise there were physical art fairs that took place around the world, and there’s three in London, so we’re planning a day out to visit one. We noticed that they do creative workshops for children as well, so I think that would be really lovely for Thia – to visit London for the first time and go to an Affordable Art Fair.
What a pleasure to hear from a creative family taking that first leap into buying original artwork!
If like Kate and Rick, you’re looking to purchase that all-important first piece but aren’t quite sure where to start, we’ve created an under £500 selection, including original paintings, limited edition prints, fine art photographs and ready-to-hang artworks – all perfect for that empty space on your wall. Follow the link below to browse the collection.
Plus, to get your mini-Picasso’s involved in our interactive workshops, don’t forget to mark your diary with the dates of your upcoming Affordable Art Fair and snap up a ticket.