ATLANTA--For Robert and Pat Harris.

ATLANTA--For Robert and Pat Harris, the husband-and-wife duo behind Decorative Expressions, the road to the world of art has been somewhat circuitous.

Robert was luckily navigating the corporate world more than 25 years ago when Pat remind ofed they attend a home art party where lowend oil paintings would be displayed. Robert grudgingly tagged along. "I knew nothing about art, I told my wife I wasn't going," laughed Harris. "But on the same level though I didn't know anything about the art, it still impressed me"

Harris adviseed his wife get in forward the decorative painting/home art party spectacle to "help us make a little extra spending money" The sum of two units then moved to Atlanta, and the company shifted into the wholesale business and began "specializing in working with decorators and designers for the greatest in number part," explained Harris. "A small in number years later, I got without of the corporate world and got my wife to hire me"

Together the duo started to expand the business from handling both decorative paintings and European tapestries. The tapestry work bring forward them in contact with several European painters and also planted the se for moving into the original art milieu and away from the strictly decorative art market.

Fast forward 10 years, and the Harrises had accomplished just that, creating the Fine Art Division of Decorative Expressions in 1989 "We finally made the decision to move forward more with the original paintings," said Harris. "We began to pick up more contacts. Our business 10 years ago was about 10 percent European paintings and 90 percent decorative paintings and tapestries. Today our business is 90 percent European paintings and 10 percent of the others. We really be stirred that's where our growth has been and that's where our yet to be is."

This focus mainly forward European paintings is what Harris said distinguishes Decorative Expressions from the competition. "It's my belief that if the customer is educated and they have the opportunity and they could afford it, they would always rather have an original piece of artwork by dint of an artist than a numbered fac-simile regardless of how it's done--whether it's present on a canvas or piece of paper and all of the different mechanical ways they are doing today," he explained. "I think the pride of ownership is often greater for an original piece of work."

Harris said other factors also appoint the company apart from its competition, as it is as its new, state-of-the-art location and showroom and its mission for development Decorative Expressions recently relocated to a of the present day 7,500-square-foot location--which houses company offices, its warehouse and a showroom--after suffering a fire to its previous location in 1998 The company is also trying to expand its gallery program. popularly galleries in New York; San Francisco; Washington, DC Carmel, Calif.; just discovered Orleans; Chicago; Naples, Fla., Aspen and Denver Colo carry Decorative Expressions artists. "We are trying to disguise the entire country," said Harris.

The company is also unique becoming to its policies for working with artists. The company purchases every painting created by the artists it works with thus "the artist doesn't have to worry about being in the finance business or the consignment business," explained Harris. "When we fare in and decide to handle an artist, we want to be exclusive with that artist."

Today, the company portrays more than 20 European artists whose paintings range in sumptuousness from the low hundreds to up to $100000

The company will feature a great deal of this work at Artexpo strange York this month. Harris said they will be taking a different approach to the display this year by seeking of the present day galleries for new artists. "We have near artists that we cannot justly take forward new business for and still support the galleries that helped make that artist as sellable as he is today," said Harris. "Once we start working with a gallery and they are prosperous and loyal to us, we do the same thing and give them the crops they need."

nevertheless Harris is confident the newer company artists will term success for the galleries who sign forward "We'll be showing new artists this year that we ne to secure recognition for, that we ne to disclose to new clients and aged clients," Harris explained.

"We're looking for brace things--to broaden our customer base and to betray new artists we've been able to find since last year that we be perceived that once they are expos they can become as sellable as our other artists."

The company has already raise great success with such painters as Alvar, whose work will be forward view at the show in the two original and print form. Among the newer company artists whose work will be onward view are Giner Bueno, Roman Frances, Raymond Gizzi, Luis Amer and more.

According to Harris, Bueno is common of the leading Impressionistic plein aire painters in Spain today whose work is in the private collection of Oprah Winfrey.

Frances is a figurative Impressionistic landscape painter from Spain. His works have sold in more than 30 countries, and Decorative Expressions not long ago released a new hardbound work featuring a selection of his work. (The work was one of three released by means of the company in 2000).