A friend of mine recently told me that she and her husband had purchased a painting in Bombay. The painting, she said looked like a scribbling (probably by a child!) but was priced very high. But apparantly she liked the painting, and had bought it. She was worried that people may comment that she paid too much for the painting.
Now, how does one differentiate between a child's scribble and a fine art painter's creation? Especially with 'abstract' paintings, this is even more difficult.
It is essential to look into the artist's previous paintings, starting from his/her early paintings, to see how the artist has evolved. This gives you a fairly good idea about the artists creations, and the artist as well . You will notice that the scribbles are not actually scribbles, but carefully rendered strokes of an aritst. Paintings purchased with careful research about the artist may even turn out to be good investment one day.
In my opinion, my friend did the right decision in buying the painting even though she did not learn about the artist before she bought it. This is simply because she purchased the painting because she liked it. After all 'liking it' is the best criteria for a good purchase.
