Reflect on the Mood You Want to Convey

UGallery client Kerry, who lives in a small town outside of Omaha, Nebraska, was receiving treatment for cancer when she noticed a piece of art on the wall that made her feel calm. Wanting to remember that feeling, she commissioned artist Kip Decker through UGallery to paint a sunrise, which would symbolize a new day for her.

“Consider the mood that you want to convey when looking for country house art,” says UGallery Art Advisor Samantha Greene. “Because art sets the mood.”

To inspire ideas for interior art for your country house, close your eyes and use your senses to think about how you feel, or how you’d like to feel, when you’re there. Perhaps you sense a deep connection to nature, and would love wall art of the bird that you hear outside the window, or the flowers that you smell every morning.

Perhaps you’d like wall art that embodies the sense that life has slowed down, and there’s nothing but emerald green farmland for miles. Nestled in quiet, open places, country homes are a natural fit for art that exudes tranquility.

Find Art That Reflects Your Surroundings

A UGallery couple who have a country house in the Hamptons acquired a piece of art by artist Sharon France titled “The Old Schoolhouse.” They chose the acrylic painting on canvas, in which an old white schoolhouse on a hill is dwarfed by a sky that covers more than half of the canvas, because they coincidentally live on Old Schoolhouse Lane.Just like the mood you hope to set in each room, the location of your country home is important when choosing artwork. Upon visiting a beach town, you might notice that a lot of the local artwork features seascapes and beach scenes; when visiting a place like Wyoming, it’s common to find artwork of cowboys and wild animals.

The location of your home can inspire you to look for artwork that reflects and celebrates your surroundings.

Consider the Subject Matter of the Art

UGallery client Neil, who owns a house in Manhattan, was searching for wall art for his home in the Hamptons. He was drawn to a painting of three Canadian geese called “Three’s Company” by artist Jo Galang, because the subject matter matched the location of his home.

“He always has Canadian geese in his yard at the Hamptons house, and he kind of hates them, so he thought it would be funny to get a painting of them,” Greene says with a laugh. “Well, not that he hates them, but he has to chase them off his yard.”

The majority of people who buy art for country homes tend to look for work that features things like the farms, farm animals, pastures and wildlife around them. But like Neil did with his painting, the subject matter can be chosen because it makes you laugh.

Look Beyond Local Galleries to Find Nontraditional Wall Art

UGallery client Paul, who lives halfway between Iowa City and the Quad Cities, once described to us the kind of art that’s most common in rural Iowa: paintings of hunters traipsing through tilled cornfields with their dogs, hunting pheasants, or hunters sitting in duck blinds with their dogs, hunting ducks.

“The local art market here in eastern Iowa is somewhat conservative, especially outside the bigger cities,” he said. “I have acquired a few works from locals, but UGallery opened my eyes to what’s out there.”

Typically, Greene says, people buying art from the gallery for the country tend to prefer more traditional work, like pastoral scenes and still lifes painted in a realistic style. But then there are collectors like Paul, whose taste in art doesn’t quite match the more traditional work that encapsulates his corner of the world.

Over the years, Paul has collected UGallery wall art that includes an oil painting by Nicole Newsted of three colorful pieces of wrapped, stacked taffy, and a whimsical watercolor painting by Diane Flick of penguins, with balloons tied to their fins, teaching a robot to fly.

“Sometimes people who are in the country have contemporary sensibilities, and they can’t find that in the local galleries,” Greene says. “So that’s what draws them to browsing online at UGallery.”

Mix a Rustic Style With a Modern Farmhouse One

Jamie, a UGallery client in Montana who has bought multiple pieces for the walls of his country home, decided that he wanted a piece that mixed traditional art with a contemporary country design. He and his wife settled on a painting for a particular wall titled “Proximity,” by artist Alana Clumeck, of a giant bison set against a wallpaper-like, repeated flower pattern.

“It’s contemporary,” Greene says of the painting that merges a rustic style with a modern one. “But it’s also a nod to the wildness of the country.”

Take Advantage of Extra Wall Space

Typically, homes in the country tend to have more wall space available for paintings than homes in the city, and tend to have more accessible means for getting the art inside. So multiple pieces could potentially fit on the walls of each room. And don’t be afraid to fill big, bare spaces with large, bold pieces. A spacious home deserves monumental art to complement and frame the space.

Jamie, in addition to the painting of the bison, found other pieces that perfectly complemented his home in Big Sky Country. A similar painting by Clumeck, 48” high by 36” wide and titled “Humming Moose,” features a large moose standing against a motif of hummingbirds. Another canvas, 30” high by 40” wide and titled “Sunny” by Nata Zaikina, portrays two young girls holding hands and jumping into an expanse of blue.Greene remembers that his choices were tied together by elements often found in the art sought by people with country homes.

“There were a lot of really large pieces that also reflected the setting in different ways,” she says.