I’m an emerging Whanganui-based artist who enjoys playing with the myriad forms of printmaking.

I’ve especially come to enjoy making drypoint prints and then hand-colouring them using other mediums, such as coloured pencil.

Other printmaking techniques I’ve tried my hand at so far include woodcut, linocut and, most recently, monotype (using the ‘light and fun’ gel plate technique) and collagraph.

Artistic inspiration for me comes in many forms, but includes animal and human companions, nature, emotions, mythology and more.

I find our native New Zealand kunekune pig very inspirational, both in terms of their characterful looks and their beautiful natures.

Read on for a word or two about prints . . .



What do I mean by the word ‘print’?

Well, there are prints and there are prints and there are prints . . . right?

Yes, it can get very confusing talking about prints.

This is because the word ‘print’ can refer to so many different kinds of . . . well, prints!

In my following explanation, I’ll try to clear up any confusion about what I mean in my product listings when I use terms such as ‘original handmade print’, ‘art print’, ‘digital art print’ and ‘Giclée Fine Art print.



Printmaker / printmaking / handmade prints:

First of all, let’s clear up one major source of confusion.

I’m a printmaker.

‘Printmaking’ is the form of art I practice.

Printmaking is actually one of the oldest forms of art practices around.

The term ‘printmaking’ in itself can cause confusion, with some people thinking I just sit at a computer, clicking buttons and printing my art on an office printer, or something vaguely along these lines, anyway.

But, no.

In reality, I make ‘handmade’ prints using the very physical, hands-on techniques I mention above (drypoint, collagraph, woodcut, linocut, gel plate, monoprint.)

(As an aside, please do look up these printmaking technique terms on the World Wide Web if you’d like to know more about them. If you’re like me, you’ll quickly get hooked!)

So, getting back to the point . . .

My handmade prints are ‘original works of art’ which I make with my very own hands and which I put my time, effort and heart (and sometimes blood, sweat and tears!) into.

And quite often, I make a whole ‘edition’ or ‘series’ of handmade prints. Editions and series are prints which come from the same printing block or plate and so are very similar in appearance. They are however, all unique ‘original’ works of art.



Reproduction prints:

Sometimes, I produce an original handmade print which I really, really like.

But, once you sell your original artwork, that’s it. It’s gone for good, right?

So, before I sell it, I go to the trouble and expense of getting it professionally photographed / scanned.

This is so it can be turned into high quality electronic files which can then be used to make high quality ‘reproduction prints’ of my original artwork.

I then take these files to a professional printing individual or company to get them made into actual paper reproduction prints.

But there are options here.

And they relate to quality, expertise and cost.



Art prints:

One option is to take my artwork files to my local printing house and work with them to produce good quality art prints using good quality inks and papers.

I call the prints I get produced here ‘art prints’ or sometimes ‘digital art prints’ to highlight that they have been reproduced from digital files (i.e., they are not the original works of art.)

These are good quality, long-lasting prints.



‘Giclée Fine Art’ prints:

Option two is to take my artwork files to a professional individual who specialises in producing ‘Giclée Fine Art’ reproduction prints.

The terms Giclée / Fine Art means that the archival inks and papers used are the best you can possibly get for longevity, colour matching and clarity.

However, this level of premium quality and specialist expertise obviously comes at a higher cost than option one, highlighted above.



Virtual prints:

As an aside, there is also another kind of print sometimes called a ‘virtual print.’

These are in fact prints that are not actually printed!

Ha, yes, really confusing, right?

Well, some people prefer the option of buying a digital / electronic file of a reproduction print, as oppose to buying an actual ‘printed’ paper version (often at a cheaper price than the paper version might be.)

So, some artists and art print dealers opt to sell prints as ‘virtual’ files to fulfil this demand.

I don’t currently offer ‘virtual’ prints, however, so we don’t need to deal with that confusion just yet. Phew!



Hope this helps:

So, when you’re browsing through my product listings and you see me use terms such as ‘original handmade print’, ‘art print’, ‘digital art print’ and ‘Giclée Fine Art print’ you will hopefully now know what I mean.

But, if not, please just give me a shout and I’ll be happy to try clear up any confusion to the best of my knowledge.

Happy browsing! :)