Choosing artwork challenges homeowners

      Velvet paintings of dogs playing poker are not a sure-fire way to spruce up just any decor.
      Picking the right art for the right room isn't a no-brainer. Going to a professional designer or to an expert at a local art gallery, however, could be the first step to good taste.
      "Typically the artwork is the last thing that people address, because they're concerned about getting their windows covered and their furniture, if they have to buy it," says Marianne Freeman of Daniels West, a shop at 1240 S. Rainbow Blvd. that specializes in fine art, custom framing and other items for the home interior.
      "I feel that artwork is the finishing touch," Freeman says.
      It's a touch that can go seriously awry if you don't know what you're doing, but Freeman and others, such as interior decorators and experts at art galleries, can help.
      The first step is getting to know the customer. "We'll find out what their home is like; sometimes they come in with fabric or photos," Freeman says.
      "Some people are pretty directed, they kind of know what they want. If they don't it's usually a matter of going to their home, and we do that, too. We'll take a trip out there and look and see what they have, what their colors are like, what type of people they are, if they're Southwest, real contemporary or traditional."
      There isn't one dominant style in Las Vegas, Freeman has discovered. "There's a real mix here because you have people coming from all over the country, so you get different feels. We have our Southwest element, but I find that the Southwest look is less than 25 percent of what we do. It's out there, and it's a feel that fits well here because it is the Southwest, but Las Vegas is not like Phoenix, which is definitely Southwest. In Las Vegas I don't think you have nearly so much of that feel."
      Contemporary art -- abstracts mostly -- predominated here for a while, Freeman says, but she sees tastes changing to more of a traditional flavor.
      A major trend is toward "this Romanesque kind of look, this Grecian look, with the angels and the columns. The Caesars Forum kind of thing. It's like Southwest was a few years back."
      Moving to Las Vegas can be a big change for some people, and Freeman finds that people's taste in art changes here because of the environment.
      "A lot of people change a lot when they get here, because the styles are different. But they have their same basic interests. If they like something that represented something (to them), they probably still like that, maybe just in different colors."
      One of Freeman's customers, a woman from Boston, moved here with an original painting of an ocean scene by a well-known artist. It was in a dark frame, which worked perfectly in the Northeast, but didn't quite fit in with her new home that had a lot of windows, whitewashed woods and high ceilings.
      It's possible to adapt pieces so that you don't even recognize it, as the woman from Boston found.
      "She loved this piece and wanted to use it, so we took the frame off and we put on a colored linen liner, a soft mauve that was in her home and the painting," Freeman says. "It didn't even look like the same painting. But she loved it, and it fit in with the style here."
      Freeman sometimes has original artwork made for a client by local artists. Carolyn Schivo is one such artist who is called upon to paint a certain type of scene in a certain style utilizing specific colors to go with the client's decor.
      Schivo says paintings of people done in bright colors are a big part of her work these days. "With all the white interiors in homes today, they like bright colors," says Schivo, who has been doing custom paintings for the past five years.
      And matching the painting to the sofa also ranks high on a customer's want list. "That's the big thing, it has to match everybody's home," Schivo says.
      Schivo frequently goes to the customer's home to familiarize herself with the client's taste. "By visiting with them awhile I can come up with something. Sometimes they'll have something in mind and I'll go from there," Schivo says. She makes a preliminary sketch or painting, and if it meets with the client's approval, she completes the work on canvas.
      Freeman also often calls on Jim Sammarco, an artist who works with glass, to meet the needs of a client.
      While original art can be out of some people's price range, poster art can be transferred to canvas, framed and hung for a fraction of the cost. The art looks like an original painting.
      "Not everybody has the budget to buy original artwork, so it's a nice option," Freeman says.
      The time when everything had to match -- the furniture, the walls, the art -- is over. It isn't necessary to carry the same style of art throughout the house "especially if you have some wonderful pieces of furniture, or some family heirlooms, or some original art that you really really like and it doesn't fit," Freeman says. "People need to feel comfortable incorporating that into their home. Because these are not items you want to put in a yard sale or get rid of. Oftentimes it means something to people, and what I recommend they do is if the piece doesn't really fit, maybe change the matte color or change the frame. Those elements can be changed to fit into their new surroundings, then they don't have to get rid of those items, they can keep them."