Western Wall Art

Western Wall Art: Who It Is Really For

The people who buy western imagery are rarely decorating a themed room. Most are after one specific feeling — space, dry air, distance, the sense that somewhere out there the land runs on for a long time with nobody on it. That is why the strongest pieces in this category are often the emptiest: a horizon, a dirt road, a single figure very small against a great deal of nothing.

Buyers who do want the props — boots, hats, saddles, a skull on a fence post — are usually furnishing one particular room: a den, a games room, a bar corner, a teenager's bedroom. Nothing wrong with that, but the prop version dates faster and asks the rest of the room to play along with it.

Colour is the quiet reason this subject is easy to live with. Ochre, dust, faded denim blue, sun-bleached timber: a palette already knocked back by weather, with nothing shrill in it. It sits well with leather, worn wood and warm white walls, and looks stranded in a cool grey scheme with black metal fittings.

Light is the risk. Much of this work is shot into low sun, which means strong orange and a bright sky. On a wall that catches direct afternoon sun the image can wash out at exactly the hour it was meant to look its best. A wall at right angles to the window is the safer position.

Be honest with yourself about the horse. Horses are the most requested element here and the hardest to get right — a badly drawn or badly lit one is obvious to anyone who has spent time around them, and unforgiving at any size. If the animal is the point, look at the legs and the set of the head before anything else. If the landscape is the point, you can afford to be far more relaxed.