"I want it to match the couch."

These are words no photographer – or any artist, really - ever wants to hear.  They want you to appreciate their art for its own sake.  They want you to fall in love with it.  They want it to speak to you. 

Many artists feel diminished when they consider their work as “just décor.”  They would prefer that you planned your room around the art.  They want their work to be appreciated for its own sake, and to dominate the area where it sits.  And sometimes it does.

But sometimes it doesn’t.  Sometimes the art is décor.  Often the room is furnished and decorated and the art piece comes last.  Sometimes, in fact, you have a wall that is 5 feet wide, needs something on it, and the theme of the room is Plymouth Blue.  Period. 

This situation is trickier for some artists more than others.  If you are looking at paintings, they are what they are.  They have already been created and the size and the color scheme is set.  There is no changing them now. 

Adding Flexibility to Art

Photography is different, or at least it can be.  While some photographers create pieces of a given size and do not change them, others offer more flexibility.  At Behn Gallery, that flexibility is being taken to new levels.

“We will make the piece as large or small as the customer wants, as long as the aspect ratio stays the same,” says owner and photographer Roben Bellomo.  All the photography is created by Roben and his partner Jim Hamel, so they can work with the customer on sizing.  Even where the edition is limited, as it is with many of the pictures, they will still make different sizes but keep the overall number to the predetermined limit.

The Struggle for Certainty 

But how do you know how the piece will look, really?  That’s something customers often struggle with.  Roben worked to come up with a solution to that problem to give the customer an exact view of how any piece might look in their home.  He developed it doing his portrait work, where his clients struggled with this issue.  There were a thousand questions, from which pictures to get? how many should we get? how large should they be? where should we put them? how should we group them?

Initially, Roben came up with a number of solutions.  One idea was to let people try pieces in their homes before committing to them.  That proved somewhat helpful, and he still lets people do it.

The Solution: Virtual Displays

But the solution that appealed to Roben most was what he finally developed, which he calls "virtual displays."  This where he goes to the customer's home and takes pictures of the wall or walls where they might want to hang pieces.  He also places a measuring device in the shot, for use in determining scale later.  Then, back at the gallery, he creates virtual displays using the customer’s actual walls.  He can create different displays with one piece, multiple pieces, and different sizes. 

Roben makes it easy to do.  “I think what people appreciate most is that they don’t even have to take down whatever is already on their walls.”  He uses the magic of Photoshop to remove whatever is already on the wall and add the new piece(s).

The result is that people can see an exact virtual representation of their walls and their home with the piece of art hanging on the wall.  It is their exact home, their exact color, and the exact piece of art they are thinking about.  

Roben and Jim began offering the same service with the pieces on display at Behn Gallery.  The pieces are offered in different sizes and they will create a virtual display so you can see what would fit best in your home or office.  As a result, when you are looking at a piece in Behn Gallery, you don't have to wonder how it will look on your wall.  You'll know.