Commissions

Does your home need that extra touch?

Is your office lacking that personal look?

Do you want to buy something unique for yourself or as a present?

Whatever your requirements, a commission for an original piece of art can put the finishing touch to your space.

The advantage to commissioning a piece is that it can be whatever you want it to be.

It can reflect your personality, your business, or maybe your favourite colours or subject.

I work in a range of mediums and styles to turn your ideas into a stunning piece of original art.

You are welcome to contact me to discuss your requirements for a commissioned piece of art.

Prints

Most pieces displayed on this website are available to buy as Giclee prints. Please email me if you are interested in purchasing a Giclee.

Technical Information

Iris or Giclee

Giclee (zhee-clay) is a French term, in this case meaning "spray of ink". An Iris ink jet print on watercolour paper is known as a giclee.

A giclee is a means of reproducing an original. It is not an original graphic but a fine quality reproduction print. In many cases, that quality is high enough to reproduce an original in a way that many find superior to that of a serigraph or lithograph. Many artists have chosen giclee prints precisely for this reason: they want the finest rendition possible of their originals,

It is an amazing print technique that truly captures the essence of an original painting. With watercolour, the washes flow onto the paper, and the colours can be as bold or subtle as you want them to be, Even the white of the paper shows through in the same way as the original.

With oil, the process captures the true texture of a piece. The giclee process really saturates the colours, and accurately presents the textures found in an oil painting, allowing viewers to feel the quality of the original in the giclee print

The professional workmanship provides a high level of quality. The apparent resolution of the digital print is 1,800 dots per inch, which is higher than a traditional lithographic print and has a wider colour gamut than serigraphy. Giclee prints render deep, saturated colours and have a beautiful painterly quality that retains minute detail, subtle tints and blends.

A variety of substrates can be used. This includes archival watercolour papers, such as Arches, Somerset, glossy paper and cotton duck canvas The prints may be hand embellished by the artist using paint, ink and gold foil stamping for a mixed media effect.

Iris Giclee prints have an impressive exhibition record. They have been shown in museums and galleries throughout the world.

The production of a giclee print is not an automatic process. The human touch is critical in several phases of the giclee process. First giclee prints begin as original art. Second the work is scanned into the computer, where it is colour corrected. That colour correction requires an experienced eye and touch in making the proper adjustments in tone, contrast, sharpness and other factors to produce a print that faithfully reproduces the original. Third in matching the computer image with the final print, a practised eye must make adjustments for the best results. And last, the printer itself needs steady attention to produce consistent quality results. In short the human hand is part of every step of the giclee process. Indeed, the difference between a quality printer and one that is not lies almost entirely in the human involvement and craftsmanship.

When it comes to fine art prints, giclees are not alone in the use of computers. The difference between print media is less than you may think. For example, virtually all images reproduced as offset lithographs are scanned into a computer where they are colour corrected before being output as film and press plates. Similarly, a growing number of serigraphs are being printed with silkscreens generated by computer, from scans made from transparencies or the original works. The true difference between giclees and these other types of prints lies in the printing device. For offset lithographs, that printing device is offset press. For serigraphs, the ink is applied by hand over the computer generated screens. For a giclee print, the printing takes place on an Iris continuous tone ink printer.

With giclees, the tools have changed as the technology has changed. There' is still plenty of human involvement, from the creation of the original, to the choice of using giclees by the artist and publisher, and the maintenance of quality throughout the production cycle by the printer. Specialist light fast inks are guaranteed for 100 years and seal the quality of the product.

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