I prefer to have original paintings in my house. Nothing expensive, just pleasing to the eye.
This is a painting by Jere Gebr. If you ever watched Rod Serling's "Night Gallery", the bumpers for "Wild Wild West" or the title cards from "The Sting" he painted all of those:
These are from another artist who worked at Universal Studios in the late 50's-70's doing artwork and signage. He was classically trained in Europe, Victor Czerkas:
And this was painted back in the 1920's by Arion Putnam who founded the Pasadena Art Society and was big in the California "Plein Air" movement:
Nice vintage oils and watercolors are able to be had at decent prices. The Gebr/Czerkas go for $500-800 and the Putnam is large and more collectable, probably valued around $25k.