WALL-TO-WALL OPTIONS

Enter Alisa and Ian Cairns beach cottage and it’s immediately obvious what’s missing. Absent from the walls are the gratuitous space fillers that decorate most homes and offices: mass-produced posters.

You know the kind.

There’s the travel-agent city poster with a tourist-familiar scene from some old European city.

The commemorative museum exhibition, a known artwork captioned with the date and place.

Or simply the art itself, printed on glossy paper and found framed among images of the Bud babes and sentimental kitties at the swap meet or a vacant corner lot, two for $25.

The price tag isn’t an issue for the Cairnses. Filling their South County home with original art work is. The pair talk of emotions that resonate from having original art in their home.

Their small cottage is chockablock with their finds from abroad and locally, and in a slew of mediums: oil paintings, light sculptures, furniture, tin.

That they can adorn their home with pieces priced no more than $500--most fall well under that budget limit--has allowed them to become collectors in the most democratic way.

The Cairnses are among a growing number of art enthusiasts opting to search out original art they can afford to enhance their homes, offices and lives.

Once considered a luxury of the rich, art collecting is now embraced by people who believe that the finer things in life are also accessible to them. (Consider the nouveau connoisseurs of everything from fine cigars to pricey plants for the garden.)

“We just try to find inexpensive art that we like,” Alisa says. “We try to pick up a piece when we travel, some kind of memory from our trip.”

Like the time the pair, both former pro surfers and frequent fliers as heads of the U.S. Surfing organization, were in Australia. They discovered “beautiful pieces of wood and ceramics, reasonably priced, but really big,” recalls Alisa.

Their most recent acquisition is a 4 1/2-foot-square canvas of a vibrant carnival scene in oils, picked up in a Brazilian outdoor market.

Much of the couple’s collection marks treks around the world: Haiti, Costa Rica, Australia, France, South Africa. “And Laguna Beach,” adds Alisa.

The daughter of an artist, Alisa’s interest developed at a young age when the family would visit their second home in Haiti.

“A lot of our art has become much more valuable now that the artists have become known,” she continues, rattling off Sandow Berk, David Cooke, Anita Stone. “Not that we seek out artists as an investment; we just seek what we like within our limits.”

That’s sound advice, according to art professionals, no matter the budget.

“Any time you buy a piece of art, it’s a commitment, but you don’t have to break the bank to do it,” notes Dana Keene, co-owner of Gallery Paradiso in Costa Mesa. Hers is among a smattering of Southland galleries catering to new collectors by offering exhibition pieces starting at $150.

But don’t get blindsided by the low price, Keene cautions. “There’s no point in buying something at a bargain if in a year you’re going to go, ‘That’s ugly.’ Start small and invest in artists you like.”

Most galleries, she adds, offer layaway-payment plans.

If the thought of committing to anything rankles your desire to collect, try renting. It’s temporary and reasonable. The Laguna Art Museum and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art lease contemporary works from their permanent collections for as low as $50 a month.

Another route is the student show. Universities, community colleges and the occasional participating gallery near a campus feature art at semester’s end, frequently under $100.

Tyler Stallings, curator and director of programs for the Huntington Beach Art Center, recommends visiting student shows, in addition to those at local galleries, in order to develop a vision to your collection.

“The big issue really is what kind of collector do you want to be,” Stallings says. “Do you want to buy because you love the object? To be a patron? For investment? Or all of the above? Depending on how you answer determines where you look and where you buy.”

Artists ask themselves questions in determining who their audience is and follow that path, Stallings adds.

“The most satisfying point for collectors is buying what they like. If you do that, then the rules are open.”