I have only bought one piece of art while traveling, so I am by no means an expert on this subject. Nevertheless, I thought I would share the walk away method I used because buying art on a trip is a stressful and potentially expensive decision that needs to be made very quickly.

Here is how the method worked for me. I was studying in Rome and took a weekend trip to Positano, Italy. Along the beach there was a man painting beautiful watercolors. He happened to have a few from his collection for sale. I instantly fell in love with his paintings; the colors were so happy and the paintings captured the dreaminess of the place (like this one below).

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I inquired about the price and it was somewhat out of my budget. I was a broke law student at the time, so I said thanks and walked away. I had lunch with my boyfriend Mike and couldn’t stop talking about the painting, so he suggested that I do a walk by again and see if I still loved it as much.

I approached the Italian painter, Pasquale, again and had the brilliant idea to try to negotiate the price down. Well, for any of you trying to negotiate with an Italian, I can assure you, it is a lost cause. Somewhere between my low-balling the price and his explaining that his painting was not only one of a kind, but was painted on homemade paper, the price actually went up! And so, I had to tell him that I couldn’t afford it.

I walked away again and found myself still debating whether I should buy it. Right before we were to head back to Rome, I still had the painting on my mind. I ran down to the beach to see if he was still there… and he was! In the end, I shelled out the money to take the beautiful painting home as my souvenir and couldn’t be happier that I did! Every time I look at the painting I am reminded of the charming town where Mike and I spent an amazing weekend!

And so, if you can’t decide whether you should buy a piece of art that caught your eye, I think you should try the walk away method. Go to lunch, go do something else, sleep on it if you have time, and if you can’t stop thinking about it by that time, it just may be the perfect thing for you.

In case you are curious what my painting looks like, here is a picture of it framed and hanging on our wall (sorry about the glare!).

Here is another one of Pasquale’s paintings of the Positano cliffside.

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Happy Travels!

-Jenny

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