Art dealer Debra Owen says Downtown residents are getting more educated about art. (photo/lambertphoto.com)

From lofts to penthouses, residents of San Diego’s booming Downtown are wrapping their homes with art, making their lives and neighborhood richer for it. Longtime 92101 art dealers Debra Owen and David Zapf say business is good and they are delighted by the sophisticated tastes and enthusiasm their newer neighbors are showing for supporting art — especially contemporary art by young artists.

“San Diego is getting more and more educated about art and people want to support art — even coffee houses have art on the walls,” says Owen, who has had art galleries Downtown for the past 15 years. “They appreciate the richness of expression that goes beyond a design element.”

Zapf, whose gallery has graced Kettner Street in Little Italy for 15 years, says he’s delighted by the new breed of art buyers, people who are often reinventing their lives with a move Downtown. “We see young couples just starting their lives together, empty nesters leaving a big house in Encinitas or Escondido, athletes and performers,” says Zapf. “They tend to be very interested in contemporary art and they are willing to spend for it.”

But, Zapf and Owen agree, buyers take their time, learning about art and their own taste.

“It has to be art that speaks to you,” says Owen, who admits she sends people to other galleries if they’re likely to learn more or find art they like better. “It’s not about grabbing a single gallery or latching on to a designer. Art is more than a pretty chair.”

People often lug home art the way they lug home a puppy — not sure exactly where to put it or how things will work out, but smitten and eager to find a place for it in their lives.

El Cortez resident Rob Mills doesn’t try to match his home with his art. (photo/lambertphoto.com)

El Cortez resident Rob Mills has done that a few times, most recently with paintings by San Diego artist Deron Cohen. The colors are bold, the lines sharp and the images challenging.

“I don’t try to make my home match my art,” says Mills. “I like looking at my paintings and they speak for themselves — I don’t do walls to match.”

But the fit can be enhanced.

Mills recently painted the back wall of his home cocoa brown and found it enhanced the Cohen painting already there.

Like decorating, the details matter. That piece that looked so great in the gallery might be challenging to fit into a sunny loft.

“Art provokes strong emotions,” says Cathleen McCandless, an environmental psychologist known as the Feng Shui lady. “It needs to accommodate the space it’s in.”

McCandless has worked in hundreds of condos and co-ops, from Manhattan to La Jolla, and says that the sense of comfort in the home is the biggest consideration in placing art.

“I worked with a client in Manhattan who has every surface of her place covered with priceless masterpiece paintings,” she says. “It’s impressive but it’s not comforting to be in there. It doesn’t feel like a place you want to stay.”

Downtown spaces tend toward high ceilings, view windows and fewer walls, factors that affect what people are looking for.

Zapf finds that people are drawn to sculpture to help define open areas.

“Sculpture has become very important for clients because you can place it in the center of a room or to demarcate the edge of a space,” Zapf says. “People are using sculpture on pedestals as space definition without putting up walls.

“There’s also a trend of setting sculpture in front of the windows to be set off by the views, by the lights at night,” he explains. “One of the artists we represent, Ron Tatro, does large sculptures in metal painted in primary colors that’s very striking in that kind of setting.”

For David and Leslie Cohn, whose restaurant empire is legendary, having great views in their Downtown condo meant seeking out a different kind of art.

Sculptures, which offer style and interesting placement options, are proving popular in Downtown’s homes and offices. (photo/lambertphoto.com)

“Our condo has a lot of windows so the art we’ve done is glass, astonishing chandeliers made by an artist in Seattle,” he says. “We’ve got sculptures on tables but it’s really built around the views.”

Windows, and the delightful San Diego sun they let in, provide challenges for the art itself, Zapf says.

“Large windows are great for light but not so great for art,” Zapf says. “Oils and acrylics are fine with intense sunlight, but works done on paper, watercolors and photography, don’t do so well.

“We help our clients use the right glass to protect their art,” he adds.

High ceilings can mean bigger art, gallery owners say. “You learn to use space differently,” says Owen, who lived in a loft for many years. “You learn to use vertical space and groupings. We placed art at eye level if you were sitting or standing and we put pieces that worked up very high.”

Not everyone agrees on art in high spaces, though.

Floor to ceiling art isn’t always great for comfort, McCandless says. “High ceilings diminish our feelings of safety — your senses work all the time, whether you’re aware of it or not,” she says. “The thing is to not put floor to ceiling art because you lose the sense of intimacy in a room.

“Keep in mind that harsh angles make people feel defensive,” she said. “And that nature is always soothing, whether it’s a landscape or a pattern that evokes nature.”

“Choosing where to put art is important to the comfort of the space,” says McCandless. “I have worked with many clients who have a difficult piece of art,” she says. “A domineering piece can be a real struggle. I had a client whose husband was getting angrier and angrier since they moved and hung a painting by her husband’s father in the bedroom. He was a Holocaust survivor who suffered from schizophrenia and painted these bloody, swastika-laden, visceral images. We moved the piece out of the bedroom, and eventually donated it to the Holocaust museum, and they both sleep better for it.”

Art also can help trick the eye to make small spaces look bigger. “To make a narrow hall feel bigger, put art on only one side with a nice horizontal line,” McCandless says. “If a space is small and you look into another room, put bold colors in the next room — it pulls interest in.”

James Thorn, director of Exclusive Collections in Mission Valley, says his gallery has worked with several hundred Downtown dwellers in the past few years, from the well-heeled to first-time homeowners and art buyers.

“Our collectors love the art for what it is and find art that really resonates with them,” Thorn says. “We do our best to help them create an environment for their art and to make sure they want it.”

Thorn’s gallery will loan pieces to people so they can see how they fit in their homes. But, he says, it is important to remember that art should transcend the moment.

“Even if they’ve never thought of collecting but have just fallen for a painting,” says Thorn, “we will gracefully encourage people to keep in mind that their homes will change over time — different homes, different paint and furnishings, different floors, but the art will be with them forever and may well become family heirlooms.”