There are some pretty big (and wonderful!) photos available here.
http://www.lumas.com/

Art students are a great source. We also have a thing at a local gallery called called Take Art, Leave Art... bring one of your own pieces and get one. I got several amazing screen prints and etchings this way.

Also, stretching beautiful pieces of fabric is pretty easy... Or even just blocking out chevrons for painting a stretched canvas is not too hard (just a little math!)

we recently found a fairly large piece at a thrift shop! My husband found another last year in a vintage store. This method can take a while though. I'd recommend keeping an eye out for your local art gallery nights and frequently those. There are great local artists in every city.

Open Studios are a great place to find art - unique pieces at sometimes amazing prices and most times you're buying directly from the artist. Not sure what part of the county you're in, but I've been to open studios in SF, NY and LA. SF usually has them most weekends every October.

Easy. Buy at auction. Depending on where you live, Sotheby's, Bonhams, Freemans, Doyles or Phillips de Pury will all have great large-scale images which you can use. You will usually pay less than buying through a dealer and your investment will keep its value. The images in Marsha and Javier's home all come up regularly at auction (Serrano, Becher etc).

We have some fab large pieces in our gallery:
www.tastewineart.com
check out Doug Sweet and Mary Bechtol and Stephen Sumrall Orsak and Jack Ramsey and M Allison, all listed on our artists' page. we will ship. we are located in the Hill Country just outside of Austin and San Antonio TX

20x200 is a good place to start
http://www.20x200.com/

For contemporary art by big name artists
Exhibition A
http://exhibitiona.com/

You can also check out my site, I sell my editions in 3 sizes 12"x12", 24"x24" and 36"x36"
http://www.laura-hughes.com

If you feel daring: paint some giant paintings for yourself. If you cannot find large enough canvases, create a painting that spans two or three.

I'm definitely not an artist, but I have painted a few paintings for my home because I cannot yet afford a giant piece of art. My "art" doesn't stand in perfectly for the real thing, but I'm pretty pleased with the results.

Scroll down on my list of DIY projects to see what kind of art I have whipped up.

http://dans-le-townhouse.blogspot.com/p/diy-projects.html

well.luckily my husband's father is a painter so we have some really nice paintings with pastel colors and very whimisical feel. But then my husband likes knives and strange stiff. Life is too short to argue so I just go with the flow

md-canvas.com

Thrift/antique stores are hit and miss. I got REALLY lucky when I found a beautiful 80+ year old sketch in a Dutch thrift store by a not very well known artist. He unfortunately died before making a name for himself (although he does have a couple of works hanging in museums in NL) and for whatever reason there were about 4 sketches for sale, €125 each, but I only bought one, which I'm now kicking myself over. Most of what I've seen is pretty run of the mill, blah. I want to start looking into local art events, students, etc . . .

www.katyallgeyer.com --she does commissioned pieces, too!

I've seen a few of this persons work in high end salons and couple of collectors http://brycestudio.com/pages/facades.php

They were at least 32x40" and 40x50"

another vote for thrift stores -- we've bought all our paintings at consignment stores -- that way, too, they come framed.

Tanya from Dans-le-Townhouse, your house is beautiful- you should have a tour on here!!!

As a large format painter, my advice is to look locally. Every town has plenty of local artists, and many will negotiate a price within your budget, accept payment plans, or recommend other artists that you might not know about. Or commission something from an artist you like. Many people are too afraid to ask.

www.micahcash.com

I'm sort of surprised the original post didn't list the artist names because the art was really a highlight of the tour and a lot of those pieces are by major artists - Vik Muniz, Andres Serrano, etc.

I agree with MichaC..........You can't go wrong any way you look at it , and you will be supporting your local artists and will end up with something beautiful no doubt !

Tanya- thanks for the link to your blog, I am totally going to steal your ideas and paint some art.

I'll second the thrift stores and ebay. We got some great large pieces (more abstract) from ebay for SUPER cheap. They look great and we always get compliments on them. You just have to wade through the annoying mass produced stuff.

Keep your eyes out for local artists showing at coffee shops and the like. If you are attracted to their work, inquire if they will work with you to commission art according to your dimensions, etc. Be aware that sometimes artists that produce smaller works of art don't necessarily make the transition to creating large pieces. Also, finding artists through a boutique or a cafe' will likely be a *huge* price break over going through galleries.

I create Contemporary Abstract Art, most of my work being mixed media and have sold a lot of work through the cafe's and have been contracted for commission work this way as well.

Here is a post of my currently available large works, from 36x36" to 66x80". http://tinyurl.com/44g3poa

Here is a post showing a 4x7' commissioned piece for a client in DC.
http://tinyurl.com/3zfm77e

Also, sometimes a grouping of smaller artwork in a series or on a concurrent theme can be arranged in such a way that it fills a larger space. http://tinyurl.com/63ylxbs

Take care and good luck!! Latifah Shay

Flea markets! The Eastern Market in DC has a lot of thrift store finds and local artists selling their work. So you can have something new AND old!

And if you're looking for something interesting but you don't necessarily care if it's truly original, there's always mass market: art.com has thousands of photographs that can be printed large scale. We ordered a huuuuuge vintage poster from art.com. No one is going to mistake it for the original but this is because a) it's a print and b) the original is $4,000. :)

Gallery hop in smaller contemporary galleries and see if you like anything. Original art that size is NEVER cheap. Or, try contacting your local university/college with an art program. Mind you, I am in such said art program and I tend to ignore those emails. Check out student run galleries or artist run centers. We are all desperate to sell work!

If you know of any local artists that you like their work, contact them and see if you can commission a large piece. Once again though, not cheap.

Good luck :)

find a local artist you like and commission a piece. or two.