Today, the Internet has opened up a whole new world to artists, galleries and even the amateur artists showing off their weekend snapshots.

Previously, if an artist wanted people to see their work, it meant struggling to get their art into a gallery. And, even then, it would only be seen by a select few.

Today, the web allows artists to publish as much work as they wish in a place where millions of people could see their work. Better yet, they are able to buy and sell the art right over the site.

Yahoo! alone listed thousands of artist's sites. Granted, a lot of it is pretty rough but the point is that it is there and anyone with enough inspiration can do it.

Of course, with a new audience of Web surfers buying this never before seen art and all these artists trying to sell their work, it was only a matter of time before the online galleries starting forming.

These galleries come in many different shapes and sizes but the basic idea is we, as consumers, can go to one centrally located Web site and view or buy hundreds and thousands of pieces of art.

Art.com (http://art.com) is a great place to start. They have a powerful expanded search feature that would really make it easy to find a piece of art for a specific place in your home.

Another online gallery I like is PaintingsDirect.com (http://www.paintingsdirect.com). Their focus is more on original, one of a kind pieces from smaller, less known artists. In fact, they dedicate a portion of their home page to inviting fresh artists to display their work on the site.

If you prefer to check out what some of the bigger galleries have on display, most of them have sites as well.

At the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (http://www.sfmoma.org), you can find current and some past exhibitions as well as a cool online gift shop.

The Museum of Contemporary Art in San Diego (http://www.mcasandiego.org) has a great Web site with general information and specifics about current exhibitions.

Now, for the want-to-be artist that lives in us all, here is a cool site that gives you free space to show off your pictures to your friends or anyone else who many want to check them out.

PhotoIsland.com (http://www.photoisland.com) has built their site with the intention of giving you all the features you need when working with your digital or scanned in images. Their big selling point is to give you free space so you don't have to hassle with e-mail attachments and the problems with sending images through e-mail.

And, they offer other features like secure areas where only you and your friends see your photos, auctions if you want to try and sell your photos, special effects and enhancement capabilities to apply to your pictures and a place to learn all about the latest information concerning digital pictures.

So, the next time you need a little culture, want to add some decorations to your home or just feel like sharing some pictures with your friends, turn to the Web and you'll find plenty of art online.