Art is such a visual, tactile interaction with the senses that it’s hard to imagine spending hundreds, maybe thousands, on a piece for your home without experiencing it directly. Then again, what if you don’t live in a city with galleries that appeal to your tastes? What if there are no galleries in your town at all? You can visit Absolute Arts, the largest site for contemporary art, art news and art history on the Web. With more than 150,000 works available for purchase and more than 27,000 individual artists’ and galleries’ portfolios to view, you have to take your time. Search for that must-have painting or sculpture by price, color and size; by the artist’s name; by title description; or by the artist’s location. On the advanced search page, you select the primary and secondary colors you’d be happy with, the theme you want — images of the ocean, for example - the medium and the price range. Our search for abstract watercolors between $200 and $400 returned 232 paintings, including “Sprite.” by Liz Penniman of Austin, Texas, a 4- x 6-inch original piece from 2004 ($200), and “Abstract Blue Yellow Houses” (pictured), by Syracuse, New York, artist Marilyn Nosewicz (created in 2000; $325). The site is so vast, with media including basketry, neon, fiber, furniture, glass and textiles, in addition to paintings, drawings, photographs and sculptures — not to mention art world news and blogs — that we can only just scratch the surface here.