Enjoying Art
 

As art collectors ourselves, we know there is enormous pleasure derived from having nice images around us.

From time to time, we like many of you, will have moved home, and I am sure you have discovered that once you take the art off the walls, the property you have been in for some time no longer seems like home and the new place only starts to feel like your home once your art is hung.

Think about other homes that you have visited, which ones appealed, and which were perhaps cold and uninviting, and you will realise that the absence of art or display photographs of some type, creates that sterile, unlived in environment that we would all like to avoid. Similarly with businesses, those that will strike you as the pleasant places to visit, will usually be those that have art on the walls.

Some will go far further and suggest that children growing up in a home with art generally do better, be happier and that there is less depression and unhappiness in environments that contain art. I am not totally convinced of this, perhaps its more to do with the whole environment and family that children grow up in and generally the more stimulating and pleasant the surroundings and family the nicer life is for everyone, what do you think?

 

For centuries now, the better off have had art on their walls and realizing that life with no art would be poorer, so endowed public galleries for the wider public to be able to get to see works. While we may all like to visit galleries occasionally, it can in no way compare with having art on your own walls.

Many have chosen to fill the void by using cheap litho prints in economy frames, to start they may not be too bad, the reflections from the cheap glass is annoying, as well as dulling the images, and the lack of any real mounting  perhaps overlooked,  but within weeks the image fades, but perhaps those living with it just don't notice they have become used to this ghost of its former self. The advantage is that it came at a disposable price, but as they have got to enjoy the image they have been reluctant to dispose of it.

Over 20 years ago, I worked on a project that would allow quality art to be available to people at prices they could afford. This was before Giclee was available and the only real way at that time to get near to an original was to reproduce limited editions by copying. In order to be able to do this economically we looked around the world for artists who could be involved, but living in developing countries at a price that would be affordable.  Few artists could actually reach the standard we were looking for, but a small number were found. We commissioned several to produce quite large versions based on Constable paintings. It turned out to be impractical to implement, the time taken to produce each to the quality we required was such, that we would have been unable to have made volume deliveries, in anything like the timescale that people would expect, so the project was shelved. The work that were produced, was the finest and some of it can be seen today, together with other brush art and photographic art in our training centre used to train photographers.

Several other ways are possible today.

Litho printing involves splitting the image into fine dots, and printing these in 3 colours plus possibly a black, and the optical illusion is of colour. The ink is thin, and result is exactly as you see in magazines, that are produced by the same method. By using a better quality paper, an image that is acceptable by many can be achieved. Extra gloss overprinting and some other techniques can also be employed. To do this really well is expensive and often only cost effective when very large runs are involved. The cost of the first copy is very high and cost of additional ones at the same time very low. They however have a short life expectancy if put in direct light.

Giclee, is a printing process where you have 8 or more ink containers each connected to heads that spray very finely, through several hundred nozzles. The paper or canvas creeps forward at a rate where sometimes it appears not to be moving at all. You then have to allow it 7 days to dry completely, to appreciate it fully, and over this time the colours fully develop. The result that you get, if done well, is so near an original in colour and brightness that you have to inspect the texture of the surface to tell the original from the reproduction.  Producing a perfect print by this method involves many factors including profiling the printer ink and paper combination, as well as the general quality of colour management throughout the process. The cost of all copies are about the same, and individually very many times the cost of a litho print.

Today just about all the best limited edition fine art both based on painted and photographic originals are produced by the Giclee process, although some printing equipment manufacturers and others may call it by another name. Giclee printers come in a variety of sizes, generally the price going up very steeply with the increase in size. Many and all larger printers print on roll fed material. Smaller printers can print on sheet fed material.  The printer consistency can be further improved by selecting the ink, ink flow control and other materials used.

Currently we have a Giclee printer that prints up to what is called super A3, this will produce an image of sheet fed material up to 13 inches by 19 inches (495x329 mm) by the time this is mounted,  we have a glass size inside the frame that is well over 20 inches by 25 inches (657x518), large enough for the majority of people. At some point we hope to install a far larger printer, allowing us to add much larger sizes.  The other reason to get the larger printer is that we will also then be able to produce Giclee canvas prints once we are happy with the quality. We have not been happy with the methods being used by others, so have to develop this area further before we can confidently offer these with the guarantee we would want to give you.  Although we can print canvass on our current printer, by the time you allow for the wrap around to put around the stretchers, as canvas prints go right to the frame without any mount, they generally need to start at a far larger size. We will not be announcing any editions using the larger printer until we have it fully calibrated and material/inks profiled and are happy that we can produce work to the same standard  that we can now. Although in theory we could subcontract printing to others, and this is what most artist and photographers do to get larger sizes, we have not been happy with much of what we have seen and feel that we need to be in full control of the entire process to produce the very finest work to the standard that we require.

We are of course too critical, the vast majority of people have never seen, and not initially require work to the standard that we insist on, if they did a lot of other work would just not sell. Art after all is in the eye of the beholder and what some may feel is art others have doubts about.  In a similar way many, are happy with photographs from any camera and lens, while we insist on using the top end Nikon DSLR cameras and lenses to get that bit better image and more detail and then selectively choose only the very best of these. In a similar way we work in a way while editing that maintains the very most in the image, only converting it to a printable format at the very last stage. For many others information within the image is lost at all stages, be it in small amounts, but the compound effect of all these small losses is that even a person not accustomed to looking at these images can see a noticeable deterioration.

For general family snaps, you can get away with using most cameras and lenses, not bothering to colour balance, saving in a compressed mode that looses detail, editing on uncalibrated systems and having it printed on unprofiled systems. Most people in any event only require small images, while quality tends to be far more noticeable as the image size increases. Blow up the image and put it next to a well produced  limited edition work of photographic art and of course the two in no way can be compared, one reminds you of an event, while the other is a work of art to enjoy.

Property as we all know is hugely effected by location and the view. Some photographic art provides the same effect as a shift in location, it may not be practical for you to move to the country, or the coast, but you can always use photographic art to provide a window to various places and situations for you, perhaps reducing stress and improving your general well being.

Whatever form of art you choose, we hope not only that it brightens and improves your life, but that you discover the effect is so strong that you will want to share this with all your family and friends. You won't have to point our images out to them, and when they walk into your home the first time you have hung a new work, you can expect to hear "wow look at that". There is nothing else that has no running cost, appreciates in value and has this impact.

When you can have the best, why settle for anything less?

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