There has been a lot of research on the psychology of color, and the following has been found to be true.

Black
Black is elegant and timeless. When combined with other colors, it adds contrast and helps ground the space.

Artwork: Floret Purple III by Sia Aryai

White
White symbolizes cleanliness and purity, and goes well with just about any color. It reflects light, so it can make a small room appear big and bright.

Artwork: City Bird by Judy Paul

Red
Red is a bold and powerful color that demands attention. It’s a passionate color that represents love as well as anger. People often experience elevated heart rate and increased enthusiasm in red rooms. Used as an accent, red will immediately draw the eye to that particular element.

Artwork: Grid Formation I by Christine Wilkinson

Blue
Blue is one of the most popular colors, and appeals equally to both men and women. It’s often used in bedrooms because of its peaceful and calming properties. It is also said to increase productivity and creativity, making it an excellent color for an office environment. Blue is also known to suppress the appetite, since there are very few blue foods found in nature.

Artwork: Equis I by St. John

Green
Green is the color of renewal, balance, and nature. Like blue, it’s a calming color and makes time seem to go by faster. Television studios have “green rooms” to help guests relax before going on the air.

Artwork: Zen Garden I by Sia Aryai

Yellow
Yellow is bright, perky, and cheerful, but it can also evoke anger. Used in abundance, yellow can be overpowering, as it is the most difficult color for the eye to process. Still, it’s considered a happy color of optimism and hope. The addition of yellow in a room can add the feeling of sunshine, even if there isn’t any.

Artwork: Harmonia IV by Sia Aryai

Purple
Purple is the color of royalty and mystery. It possesses the energy of red and the calming effects of blue. Used in a room, it can stimulate creativity. Darker versions of the color evoke moodiness and wealth.

Artwork: Natural Expression I by Sara Abbott

Brown
Brown is typically a favorite of men as it is associated with earth, wood, and natural materials.  Shades of brown, including tans, make an excellent backdrop to allow other colors to pop. In a room brown can evoke warmth, dependability, honesty, and friendliness.

Artwork: Hidden Meanings XIV by Caroline Ashton

Thanks to all of our fans who commented on our Art Giveaway: American blog post and for also sharing our blog and company with your friends on Facebook and Twitter. Our winner is, Mary Fowler! Congrats! Hope y’all are having a wonderful President’s Day. Stay tuned for future giveaways on our blog!

Aluminum is a great way to elevate your photo and bring it life, water glistens and seems ti almost move, lights seem to be sparkling and the whole picture has a sense of being alive not flat like a typical photo. So if you have a special memory you want brought to life check out the aluminum options form Gallery Direct.

This post brought to you by Ellen of Thrifty & Chic Mom.

Are you picking up on my “American” theme in this blog post? There are a lot of American things I love. One of my favorite American food is the Hot Dog. The idea of a hot dog on a bun is ascribed to the wife of a German named Antonoine Feuchtwanger, who sold hot dogs on the streets of St. Louis, Missouri, United States, in 1880. One of my favorite American or national pastime is seeing a major league baseball game. Go Red Sox! And when I think of a cool, American toy I think of Radio Flyer. Both my kids had a Radio Flyer Tricycle as their 1st bike. And they still have a Radio Flyer wagon. The company was founded in 1917 and is based in Chicago, Illinois. And the photo above is of a young girl with a Radio Flyer wagon circa 1955.

So who wants to win this gorgeous fine art piece, Radio Flyer I by one of our exclusive artists, Justin Garcia? I bet you do! It’s a beautiful canvas giclée (18×24″) with a 1 1/4″ natural dark brown floater frame, a $289 value. Here’s how you can enter to win:

For 1 entry leave a comment on this blog post with an answer to this question, who is your favorite American president or person ……or what is your favorite American thing, food or pastime?

For 2 entries (because you want to win that bad!), leave a second comment to let us know you’ve shared this blog post on your Facebook, twitter or blog.

*Comments are moderated and will show up once approved.

Entries will be accepted from now until until Sunday night 11:59pm on February 19th. We will select and announce the winner on President’s Day and ship off their awesome free art. Good luck!

We’ve brightened our work areas up here at Gallery Direct. We like to have a fun atmosphere to work at here…

Select from thousands of our fine art images, photos from our photo vault, or use your own image on our website Gallery Direct. It’s easy to do!

So stop repinning dream room ideas on your Pinterest – and make one yourself!

As a blessed employee of Gallery Direct, I am able to love my home and workplace through artwork, and I want all of you to do the same. This is why we are giving away three $500 shopping sprees to Gallery Direct for Valentine’s Day.  We want you to love your home.  Enter on our Facebook Page, winners will be announced on Feb. 15

If you haven’t noticed already, we’ve been finding some pretty awesome artists to join our family. This of course means more unique and new art for all of you! We just launched artwork from Christine Wilkinson. Her digital abstract collection has a lot of a psychedelic feel to it with it’s shapes and colors. Christine started hand drawing these shapes back in school in the 60′s, a foreshadow to what she would be doing later in life…working as an artist currently in London, England. She explores with her camera using light in many different forms: light on light, light through objects and light reflected off objects.

I find this piece, Diving for Pearls, so interesting with the movement all the lines create and the layers and lightness of the different color. Though a lot of her art seems to be inspired from the psychedelic 1960′s counterculture, in some ways I felt this piece was modern or even futuristic. It reminded me of a red robotic eye.

These two companion pieces, Green Pinko I & II, are very soft and feminine. They too also give us a feel of movement. I could imagine this is what it would look like up-close and inside of a bubble.

These series of images, Grid Formation I-III, give us a more abstract, rigid and masculine feel. The repetitious elements seem to resemble a candle burning motif. The different stages keep your eye moving along.

So if you like what you’ve seen so far on this post, check out more of Wilkinson’s amazing art on Gallery Direct!

Gallery Direct is excited to welcome another new artist to our family, Brett Pfister. Brett is the Print operator for The Canyon Gallery and owner of Mind’s Eye Productions. His background and degree is in Graphic Design, this knowledge shows in his photo treatment and technique in his digital art. Besides being a professional Graphic Designer and Artist, Brett also does Photography, Video Production and Web Design.

This is one of my favorite new images by him, Veiled Eden. The female figure and soaring birds really draw you into this image wondering what could be going on in this “garden of Eden”. The texture and lightness peaking through the trees really make it interesting as well.

This new image, Intrepid Home, is being printed on aluminum to be hung in our office gallery right next to our CEO’s office door. Brett has a couple really fascinating images using barren trees, including Stretching, Nostrum Locus, The Ends of the Earth, and Cynon Valley.

This image, Break, is also going up in our office gallery. The color, technique and texture he uses in this image really give meaning to it’s title. It’s a beautiful piece.

Come check out the rest of Brett’s images on Gallery Direct!

My New Year’s Resolution is to rescue these images from my camera and do something with them! I didn’t really intend to fill this blog post with my family photos from the holidays, but isn’t my niece adorable? She
is only 2 weeks old in these pics… and if I left her in my camera any longer she would be in preschool and I would sending outdated adorable pictures.

Alright, you get my point — so this is what I have done. I went to Gallery Direct and printed my favorite images from the holidays on canvas. I kept a few for myself, and I sent a few to my mom, grandparents and of course to my brother and his wife.  It’s ridiculously easy to upload your photos and print them on a canvas. It really takes about 4 – 5 clicks of the mouse.  Canvas prints are also very affordable, and with the 75% off sale, Gallery Direct is basically giving them away. Use code: Photo75

I must say– this simple gesture pretty much won me the award of
“family member of the year” as the phone calls and thank you’s I received were amazing, I think there were actually tears.  I did let everyone in on the secret code of getting 75% off at Gallery Direct — Enter: Photo75 at checkout.

Alright, I am off to print some more photos, just thinking about it reminds me that I need to send my sister a birthday present.