Abstract prints

Abstract is the broadest page in the shop, and it is broad because three different kinds of painting end up here. There are the gestural pieces — brush-stroke sets in beige and navy, the loose peony and flower-bunch paintings where the bloom has dissolved into colour, sunbursts in orange and blue. There are the geometric ones — Bauhaus circles and half-circles, neo-geometric pairs, and mountain and desert horizons built from flat bands. And there are the figurative line pieces — one-line women, heads that turn into bouquets, a single continuous contour. Sets of two and three outnumber singles here, and the palette runs terracotta and ochre at the warm end, navy, teal and sage at the cool, with blush and beige in between.

Everything is painted in watercolour first, then printed to order on heavy matte paper and shipped unframed, in seven sizes from 5x7 in (13x18 cm) up to 16x20 in (41x51 cm).

How do I choose an abstract print when there is no subject to go by?

Choose by the mark rather than the picture. Ask what the hand actually did: swept it (a brush-stroke or wash piece), ruled it (a Bauhaus or geometric piece), or drew it in one continuous line (the figurative work). Then set that against the busiest thing already in the room. A patterned rug, a full bookshelf or a boldly tiled fireplace has enough going on, so a ruled, quiet geometric print sits better beside it. A plain room with plain furniture can take the gestural work, where all the interest is in the paint. It is a faster decision than trying to decide whether you like an image, and it is a more reliable one.

Why does abstract art hold a large wall better than a detailed print?

Because there is less to lose at a distance. A peony study is built from dozens of small decisions and most of them stop being visible past two or three metres, so the print needs you close to it. An abstract is usually three or four elements — a curve, a band, a single stroke — and those still read from the other side of a room. If you have a tall stairwell wall, a long hallway, or the stretch above a sofa that nothing has ever filled, this is the page to shop from and 16x20 is the size to take. The reverse holds too: at 5x7 in (13x18 cm) a busy abstract can look like a fragment of something larger, so keep the small sizes for the simplest images.

Can abstract prints hang alongside botanical or floral ones?

They can, and an abstract is usually the piece that makes a mixed wall work. A wall of only flowers reads as a boxed set; a wall of only shapes reads as a showroom. One abstract among them gives the eye somewhere to rest. The rule worth keeping is a single shared colour — if the abstract carries a terracotta band and the floral carries a rust petal, the two look chosen together even though nothing else matches. Keep the frames identical and let the images differ.

For the flat retro shapes and warm earth palette on their own, see Mid-Century Modern Wall Art. Neutral Wall Art Prints gathers the quietest of these in beige and sand, and Boho Wall Art Prints covers the sun, moon and desert motifs in full.