Alan Johnston

Jane Bloodgood-Abrams is largely celebrated for her awe-inspiring landscapes influenced by Hudson River School painters, Frederic Church and Thomas Cole. Bloodgood-Abrams has become one of the area’s most celebrated artists, gracing viewers with her compositions of sky, river and earth. Being less concerned with documenting specific scenes, Bloodgood-Abrams is focused on capturing nature’s essence, “the deeply profound moments, where there is a connection to a vital energy.” Her process begins with being in nature, where she allows the emotional energy of the landscape to filter through her psyche. The memory is then translated onto canvas after being worked over some time with layers of paint that is applied, wiped away and reworked. The result is a radiantly dramatic remembrance of Bloodgood-Abram’s encounter with “something beyond everyday life." The artist’s final hope is for these images to evoke remembrances within the viewer's relationship with nature. She was born in Queens, New York. She received her Bachelor’s of Fine Arts from the College of Saint Rose in Albany, in 1985. Three years later, she earned a Master’s of Fine Arts at the State University of New York in New Paltz. Now she paints in the Hudson River Valley and the Berkshires.

Painting is an art form that has spanned innumerable cultures, with artists using the medium to tell stories, explore and communicate ideas and express themselves. To bring abstract, landscape and still-life paintings into your home is to celebrate and share in the long tradition of this discipline.

When we look at paintings, particularly those that originated in the past, we learn about history, other cultures and countries of the world. Like every other work of art, paintings — whether they are contemporary creations or works that were made during the 19th century — can often help us clearly see and understand the world around us in a meaningful and interesting way.

Cave walls were the canvases for what were arguably the world’s first landscape paintings, which depict natural scenery through art. Portrait paintings and drawings, which, along with sculpture, were how someone’s appearance was recorded prior to the advent of photography, are at least as old as Ancient Egypt. In the Netherlands, landscapes were a major theme for painters as early as the 1500s. Later, artists in Greece, Rome and elsewhere created vast wall paintings to decorate stately homes, churches and tombs. Today, creating a wall of art is a wonderful way to enhance your space, showcase beautiful pieces and tie an interior design together.

No matter your preference, whether you favor Post-Impressionist paintings, animal paintings, Surrealism, Pop art or another movement or specific period, arranging art on a blank wall allows you to evoke emotions in a room while also showing off your tastes and interests. A symmetrical wall arrangement may comprise a grid of four to six pieces or, for an odd number of works, a horizontal row. Asymmetrical arrangements, which may be small clusters of art or large, salon-style gallery walls, have a more collected and eclectic feel. Download the 1stDibs app, which includes a handy “View on Wall” feature that allows you to see how a particular artwork will look on a particular wall, and read about how to arrange wall art. And if you’re searching for the perfect palette for your interior design project, what better place to turn than to the art world’s masters of color?

On 1stDibs, you’ll find an expansive collection of paintings and other fine art for your home or office. Browse abstract paintings, portrait paintings, paintings by popular artists and more today.