Would you rather own a painting than a print?
You may have heard someone say: 'I wouldn't have a reproduction in my home. If I can't afford the original, I'd rather have nothing!' But being an art snob makes no sense. Better to enrich your walls - and your life - with reproductions of great art than with mediocre originals that were chosen because the price was right.

In my childhood home there were two original paintings. Bequeathed by a distant relative, they showed two slightly different views of an anonymous river. The colours had faded, the papers had darkened over time. It hardly mattered. They were so boring they might have put me off painting for life.

Fortunately, my parents also had chosen to hang two great works of art that showed me what a painting could be. They live in my memory. One was a landscape with a lone tree made noble by a single shaft of golden light. The other was of a vase of flowers that make you think of all that is Beauty. The still life was by the 17th century Dutch master Jan van Huysum. Who made the landscape is a mystery because the artist's signature had been cut off by the framer.

You see, these artworks were printed reproductions. It's true that no technology can reproduce in full the brushstrokes, the richness of colour in an oil painting or subtle changes that occur with a change of the light that falls on an original. But a good quality reproduction can come very, very close.

Some artlovers collect only Prints
This is an ideal option for those with a limited decorating budget but with a desire to surround themselves with beauty and quality rather than settle for the mediocre. So let's talk now about What Is A Print? What's the difference between a Print and a reproduction; a Limited Edition and an Open or Poster Print? Today's art market is filled with so many choices, it's easy to see why so much confusion has arisen.

Printmaking is an ancient way of producing multiple images. On cave walls in Australia, the oldest artworks known - dated at 40,000 years - are the hand stencils of long-gone Aboriginal artists. Stencilling is used in sophisticated forms today, which include silk screen printing. Kids are introduced in kindergarten to intaglio or relief printing with halved potatoes or cardboard. It's a primitive form of the processes we call woodcuts or lino cuts. Many masters - Rembrandt for one - extended their body of work with etchings, made by a complex process requiring  help from a skilled metal worker.

A highly regarded form of printmaking is the lithograph. Using a greasy ink or crayon, the artist draws an image on a smooth stone. Put simply, this process depends on the fact that grease and water don't mix. As the treated stone is dampened with a sponge and ink is rolled across it, the ink is deposited only on the greasy drawing, not the wet stone. The preparation and the printing is a more complicated affair than I've described here, and calls for the help of highly skilled technicians, under the close supervision of the artist. Allowing for the use of a greater number of colours, it produces a more 'painterly' effect than other printing techniques and is favoured by certain collectors.

Also, there are rubbings, the drypoint, mezzotint, aquatint and many other sub-categories of prints. The "purest" form of all is called the monoprint (or monotype) because it gives a single, unique print. It is produced by painting onto metal or glass, then transferring the still wet image to paper. In this way, the artist can achieve a luminous quality that is quite unlike the result of painting directly on paper.

All of these Prints come in necessarily small quantities, at high prices. None looks even remotely like an oil painting. So, the next question has to be: What is a reproduction?

The quickest way to cut through the fog
Anything that looks exactly like the original painting is a reproduction. (We are not talking here of copies made by art students, learning techniques of the Masters, nor of forgeries made for illegal gain.)

Recently, a popular business has been developed in which images of art by famous painters are printed onto paper or canvas and then over-painted by a technician. Depending upon the skill of the technician, this can result in a convincing facsimile of an 'Old Masters' original, called a reproduction. The practice is not illegal, since the makers do clearly state the nature of their product. But I leave it to you to decide whether you consider it ethical. For this reason, most people today call anything else a print.

Art prints are made by photomechanical - or recently, by digital - processes. Usually, they are made on paper but sometimes produced on fabrics such as canvas or silk. Their editions, ie the total number produced, are relatively large, and their prices are comparatively small. They come in these types:
Open Editions (also called Poster Prints),  Giclées,  Limited Editions.

Open Editions  are so named for the fact they can be produced in any quantity and are priced cheaply. Giclées (pronounced as zhee-clays) are produced as required by order and are often made on canvas to resemble oil paintings. They can be pretty pricey, as their production costs are somewhat higher.
Limited Editions  are available in a number decided by the artist or publisher, after which their printing plates should be destroyed. Proof of this may be documented by some artists, such as myself, but in many countries, including Australia, it is not yet a requirement. Regulation is still erratic but some rules are constant.

1. The artist signs each print (usually in the lower right corner)
2. The artist numbers each print, above the number of the total edition
3. The title of an original artwork may be included (usually in the centre)

How do you know you've bought a genuinely Limited Edition?
Until a stringent form of regulation is agreed by all nations, you'll have to rely on the honesty of the artist and/or the publisher. (This is one reason why the highly principled artist is often the publisher as well, nowadays.) It's a fair bet, though. No artist lightly risks his/her reputation.

Is print-collecting a good investment?
Any collectible you buy becomes an investment only when you re-sell it. If you sell at a profit, it was a wise investment.

Everyone knows cars and jewellery depreciate in value the moment you leave the showroom with your purchase. Art will generally increase in value by about 10 percent a year or higher if the artist's profile has been raised by publication in books, or with the release of  fine art prints.

Quality of manufacture is vital for the long-term survival of art prints. The acid  in cheaper wood-pulp papers will cause unsightly orange spots called 'foxing' or burn the image. Works on paper have a much longer rate of survival when they are produced on archival (ie acid-free) papers. The specialist art printers who make my Limited Editions won a national award - the Silver Medal - for Excellence in Print for reproducing my oil painting Snowy Mountains Man   horsemen 1 

Because the fine art print is deemed a multiple original artwork, many people build their whole collection on Limited Editions. When an edition is sold out, collectors looking for that missing piece in a series can raise the price on what is called the 'secondary Market' to many times the original price. It's just the same game as played by collectors of stamps or any other collectible. So, as always, it's best to get in early.

Although in reality the last print in a run is as perfect as the first, and has cost the same to make, low numbers attract a premium. So does a set of same-numbered prints in a series. If you ever decide to re-sell, you'll make a nice extra profit.

The Care And Feeding Of Your Print
Here are some precautions you can take to protect your print and keep it looking good for a lifetime. Never hang your print where it will be exposed to strong, constant, sunlight. Or to the intense light from halogen spots such as are often used in showrooms or offices. Some printers' colours are 'fugitive' or unstable under these conditions. A print properly framed under glass will last a lifetime in the normal environment of your home.

Insist that your framer use a mat of pure rag board, deep enough to keep the print separated from the glass. It will protect the print if temperature changes cause condensation to build up, encouraging the development of fungi on the underside of the glass. A very good preventive measure in damp climates is to attach small corks, or those plastic 'bumpers' used on kitchen cupboard doors, to each corner of the back. This keeps the frame away from the wall and it allows for a proper circulation of air.

I hope I've whetted your interest in print-collecting. You can create your own world of art, right in your home. Prints look best when you hang them in groups, selected by artist, subject, style or basic colour. A mix of sizes will look great if you stick to a plan; a series of images by the one artist makes this easy and effective.

A last word. Ask yourself this:
Don't you prefer a song you've heard many times before? A song all your friends recognise and like? How did that song become so popular?
Would the Mona Lisa be the best-known painting in the world if its image had not been reproduced countless times in print?
So, enjoy the print you've chosen, knowing that you have helped to improve the standing of the artist who created it.

If there's any question not covered above that you'd like more info on, just let me know. I'll do my best to answer   (see below)

©Dorothy Gauvin

PS Sometimes, really interesting queries are sent to me but I cannot reply because the person has forgotten to enter his/her own E-mail address.