New Prints in Stock Today

After our busiest ever Xmas I have finally got some cataloging time to process some of the dozens of new prints that have arrived at our warehouse over the past few weeks.  It has been all hands to the deck to get prints shipped around New Zealand and the world in time for Christmas day.

Summary of new prints added today.

• Keith Haring pop art prints from a leading French publisher
• Print of the famous Charles Ebbets New York depression era photograph of Lunch atop a Skyscraper 1932
• A couple of great posters by Klimt - also available framed
• Tony Ogle sold out print called Still in Service - Tony has found an artists' proof when he moved from his long term residence in Bethels Beach to Gisborne
• Dick Frizzell - several new original prints including Overnight Success (the print of Frizzell's mum's pavlova recipe) and Leger Demain III
  
• A large good quality poster of a painting by master American abstract expressionist Jackson Pollock for just $20
  

Queen with Moko Print

One of our prints - Queen with Moko by Barry Ross Smith has hit the national news via the Manawatu Standard's article that has been picked up Stuff.co.nz - the main news website for Fairfax media. Over 60 comments on the article already - mostly positive so far.  We'll see where this goes...

Very special limited edition print from Otis Frizzell

After a much longer than expected journey from Wellington thanks to CourierPost I have finally been able to catalogue this morning a much anticipated print from one of our favourite contemporary artists, Otis Frizzell. This large and colourful print is both an exciting visual treat and an opportunity to raise money for our disaster relief in Samoa following the devastating Tsunami early this year.

In October 2009 Otis Frizzell (pictured left) was commissioned to complete an artwork to capture the generosity and response of donors to the New Zealand Red Cross Samoa Tsunami Relief Fund with the encouragement of New Zealand’s online giving website Givealittle.co.nz

The large mural, entitled "God Bless Samoa", was created by Otis in the foyer of Wellington's Te Papa over four days with members of the public watching the progress unfold. The resulting 8m by 2m artwork will be gifted to the people of Samoa once a suitable home is found. To keep a slice of this unique work in New Zealand a very small run of limited edition prints are now available with 100% of the proceeds being donated to the New Zealand Red Cross Samoa Tsunami Relief Fund. New Zealand Fine Prints are also donating all credit card transaction fees to ensure that the Red Cross Samoa Tsunami Relief Fund gets the full amount from each sale.

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Canvas Prints - New Zealand range expands

An increasing number of New Zealand artists like Diana Adams are making prints of their paintings available on canvas. At New Zealand Fine Prints sales of canvas prints have tripled over the past year now that we have finally been able to offer New Zealand prints printed on genuine artists' canvas rather than the canvas transfer system we tried a few years ago (and dropped as some of our customers weren't satisfied with the results).

Canvas prints can vary widely in quality from a plastic "poly canvas" which is just plain horrible through to extremely high end archival standard canvas. With canvas prints you truly get what you pay for - the cost of good quality materials (canvas and ink) is very high per canvas print partly because there is no economies of scale as each print is printed one at a time. Our studio uses an acid free canvas with a neutral pH factor. The canvas has great colour gamut and low dot gain. Based upon laboratory testing it is estimated that pigment inks will last 35 - 100 years without noticeable fading.

We have listed all canvas prints at the price for the loose canvas ready to carefully rolled in acid-free tissue and delivered in very sturdy packaging anywhere throughout New Zealand or around the world. We also offer a stretching service where the canvas prints are wrapped around a wooden stretcher frame with the border of the image going around the edges. This is ready to hang on the wall - finished with a clear lacquer across the print's surface and with a hanger on the reverse of the print. Stretched canvas prints can be ordered by calling us toll free on 0800 800 278. Shown here is the new canvas print of the popular painting by contemporary artist Diana Adams of New Zealand's highest mountain Mount Cook/Aoraki.

Art Deco Prints

Today we have been putting together the start of a collection of Art Deco prints.  We used to have an Art Deco gallery but it dwindled to an embarrassing small offering of prints.  However recently we have got new prints in stock by Rita Angus and Hamish Allan that have been enough for us to at least offer a few works from this popular style.  We also hope to source some more Tamara de Lempicka prints shortly.

Antony Ellis

Antony Ellis (who occasionally writes for us here at New Zealand Art Print News) has a new website at www.antonyellis.co.nz. At Antony's website you can more learn about what he does apart from the work he does for New Zealand Fine Prints. Antony has been at the core of our online marketing strategy for over ten years and we wish him well as he continues to broaden his base of clients.

Do prints typecast painters by freezing their artwork in time?

Christchurch artist Hamish Allan is well-known for his weatherboard houses and contemporary landscapes and in an article in the Press promoting his latest exhibition of paintings he made some comments about his work that are similar to the sentiments expressed privately to me by many artists over the years.  His latest exhibition was described as featuring a variety of paintings that follow "Allan's signature themes of nostalgia and New Zealand icons with some updated twists."

However I noted with interest that Allan is quoted as saying he doesn't want to be "pigeon-holed as a painter of weatherboard houses or bungalows in a landscape setting, so there is an [increasing] awareness of that which makes New Zealand buildings within the local landscape unique, such as their architectural details, and I've introduced vehicles and the like".  This highlights a conundrum for artists - art buyers want their work to stay the same (eg Stanley Palmer's prints of Nikau Palms on the West Coast are what we are always being asked for with hardly any enquiries for his other paintings and prints) whereas the artist wants to keep progressing - or to simply change the focus or theme of their painting.

Prints exacerbate this dilemma when an artist finds their lifetime's artistic output represented in the public's eye by reproductions of paintings that they have moved on from both through time passing and in terms of the development of their artistic style.  Print buyers keep buying prints of the paintings that they are best known for (eg Bill Hammond's paintings inspired by Buller's Birds of New Zealand) when they may represent just one phase of an artists career.  Jane Puckey even had to be dissuaded from shredding her popular prints a few years ago so eager was her desire to not be frozen in time in the public's eye with a certain style of painting!

Is Hamish Allan afraid of being typecast like an actor who plays one role so convincingly they are forever forced to re-hash their performance in similar roles?  If he is I hope he succeeds in evolving from his current style and would personally be delighted if his portraits of Captain Cook etc sell as well as his Robin White inspired landscapes.  We have never understood why prints of famous New Zealanders (or people connected with New Zealand) are not more widely available.  It is only recently that we have started to sell portraits of eminent kiwis like Ed Hillary and Barry Crump  - good on you Fane Flaws for seeing that New Zealanders are just as interested in pictures of important historical figures as eg Americans are in hanging pictures of George Washington.  Now if only we could find a good re-print of that famous photograph of Michael Joseph Savage that used to hang in sitting rooms across New Zealand....

New Prints in Rick Edmonds' Marlborough Sounds Series

Peaceful and contemplative views of water, hills and sunlight playing on natural surfaces - it is no wonder that Rick Edmonds' prints are so popular with New Zealanders.  Rick confesses that he is "mad about sailing" and sea scenes dominate the views that he paints from his studio at Moenui Bay in Queen Charlotte Sound. Rick grew up in Pelorus Sound, after graduating with fine art and teaching diplomas Edmonds spent seven years teaching Outdoor Education & Art and a further ten years as a Senior Conservation Officer with DOC. He is now a full time professional artist.

Rick writes "After having sailed many seas, and scaled many summits, a calm day with clear skies and bright light, still sets my heart yearning to be out on the Sound. There is nowhere else that so compels me. This sense of longing, and of belonging, motivates my art. It is an attempt to celebrate the unique combination of light, land, wind, and ocean. In this sense my paintings are not "scenes", though they are of recognizable features, but rather a statement, each in its own way monumental, of what is the Marlborough Sounds."

We have a whole bunch of brand new prints by Rick Edmonds in stock this morning. Photo credit: The Marlborough Express.

New Zealand Xmas Gifts

We can't believe that our warehouse staff are already seeing the first orders coming through in mid-October for prints being sent as Xmas gifts.  Admittedly these are for non-New Zealand delivery but Xmas does seem to have arrived early this year.  I am personally amazed at how organised some people are to be arranging their xmas presents so far in advance.  Many years ago we use to offer delivery by "surface" rather than "airmail" outside of New Zealand so maybe some people don't realise that we always "ship" (what an Americanism!) their prints by air in around 10 days!

We are working on special collections of prints for customers to browse when they are looking for presents - however this can quickly descend into cliche... Eg maps for guys, Pop Art for under 30s and a nice bird print for Grandma so we are not advancing very far without getting into arguments about stereotyping.  We'll have to get this finished before Christmas actually arrives!

Artist on £500 000 a year drops Art in Motion as distributor

Here in New Zealand we are at the receiving end of Jack Vettriano's decision to drop his Canadian distributor Art in Motion in favour of setting up his own publishing company.  Some of New Zealand's best selling imported prints are by Vettriano - eg The Singing Butler, Elegy for a Dead Admiral and Dance Me to the End of Love and these popular prints are now suddenly no longer available.

Just like a band who dumps their record label so they can have complete creative free reign on their next album we wonder whether this short-sighted decision portends a steep decline in the fortunes of this artist...  We have only two or three copies of the prints shown in the Jack Vettriano gallery left as there is now no distributor for this artist in Australasia. 

Dick Frizzell's book inspires new print

A new Dick Frizzell print arrived this morning.  It is a collaborative work with Fane Flaws called "Cover Art".  It celebrates the fact that well known artist and designer (and good friend of Frizzell) Flaws worked on the design for Dick's new book "Dick Frizzell: The Painter".

We are really looking forward to buying our office copy of "Dick Frizzell: The Painter" as soon as it is released on October 2 2009.  From the publisher's blurb it promises to be a great read:

"Dick Frizzell's images populate our world - you find them on t-shirts, on TV ads, in shop windows, on wine bottles, on cushions and t-towels, and in art shows. People appropriate (or borrow) his images in much the same way that he too appropriated many of the images he has painted over the years. He's reached iconic status in NZ - we love him, he's one of our own. As Dick himself says with a surprised chuckle, "I'm just like the Topp Twins now - I can do no wrong, they all love me!"

Dick has a great story: After going to art school he found himself in his 20s married and with a young family to support. He worked in advertising until 1974, when his artistic urges made him leave the ad agency to take up working in the vege markets in the early hours of the day so that he could pursue his art.

His paintings combined the pragmatics of an adman's need for a compelling motif with the visceral pleasures of expressive modernist paintings. His first images of gaudy fish-tin labels and comic strip characters caught everyone's imaginations. Dick's talent, energy and his deadpan humour meant that his art was highly successful.

Dick Frizzell: The Painter contains all of his major paintings, the story of his life in his own thoughtful and highly articulate words, and an essay by Hamish Keith on Dick's work and its place in the New Zealand art world."

We'll post a review as soon as we get our hands on a copy!

Weston Frizzell - New Prints by Mike Weston and Otis Frizzell

Weston Frizzell is the collaborative identity of artists Otis Frizzell and Mike Weston. 


Art and branding collide again with Weston Frizzell's new series of prints. According to Mike and Otis their new prints represent "the next level of the Weston Frizzell strategic evolution applying a combination of approaches, styles, and ideas to explore the iconography of NZ fine art art and popular culture." Subversive commercialism and the outright audacity of their appropriated subject matter in their latest prints shows the fearlessness that the Weston Frizzell brand has come to signify.

In nine years of working together Otis Frizzell and Mike Weston’s creative partnership has evolved from celebrity artist and his art dealer into a full blown art collaboration.

Described by Artnews as "a high performance art partnership", their Warhol influenced production line methods and an entertainment industry honed promotion and management strategy has taken Weston Frizzell from the street art and pop culture melting pot of Auckland's K Rd into the fine art world. Their output draws heavily on appropriated imagery, style and content presented with satiric and often ironic subtext - Weston Frizzell prints challenge notions of authorship and originality.

Both artists have their roots deep in New Zealand's counterculture . The range of skills and influences they share is diverse and eclectic. The Weston Frizzell partnership equally acknowledges contribution of ideas, craft, celebrity, management, and labour in the production and marketing of shared output of works and in the division of the proceeds.

According to Mike Weston and Otis Frizzell their combined skills and the diversity of influences express an aesthetic that is positioned at the "very high end of the low brow".

We were delighted to receive three new prints, Aotearoa, Aroha and World of Love from Weston Frizzell's latest series this morning.

Tony Ogle Print of Matheson's Bay

We have just listed another great new Tony Ogle print this morning. It is of a homestead overlooking Matheson's Bay - a popular holiday spot just north of Auckland.

New Zealand Contemporary Landscape prints by Hamish Allan

We are noticing an exciting new trend of New Zealand prints being produced both on fine art paper and printed directly onto canvas. (Although it does make it harder to catalogue new artwork though because we don't want to clutter up our galleries with multiple images in different formats. We have therefore decided to catalogue the prints on paper and add the information about canvas availability, price etc to the main image page).

Christchurch contemporary landscape artist Hamish Allan is part of this trend releasing a series of six prints available both on fine art paper and printed directly onto genuine artists' canvas in the same size.

Allan worked as a physiotherapist before working initially as a sculptor before starting painting fulltime in 2002. Hamish writes that his "approach to painting and design is clear - less is more. Keeping imagery clean and simple, use deeply contrasting tones and texture to add natural quality and visual impact. Local stylised landscapes are integrated into blocks of colour and texture and lifted by perspective and detail. The horizon is used with striking effect as a focal point from which the painting emerges. Horizontal and vertical plains are integral and emphasized, drawing the viewer into the work."

Shown is the delightfully named print "Yawning" by Hamish Allan - another print featuring New Zealand's iconic cabbage tree...

Rita Angus' Painting of Cass - Who is the person standing on the railway station platform?

The question of who was the model for the lone figure standing on the platform of Cass railway station in Rita Angus' famous painting may have been finally answered by a recent letter to the editor published in "Your Weekend" Magazine on August 8 2009 in response to an article on the settlement of Cass that was published the previous week.

"I read with great interest your Heartland column on Cass. The man on the station in the painting by Rita Angus is my late father, Percy Harold Morey. He was District Engineer for Railways from 1924 - 1945, in Dunedin, the West Coast and Canterbury. He travelled the lines inspecting washouts and slips, and frequently stayed at the Railway House at Cass. During the 1940s he build a bach that still stands to the right of the gate as you enter the settlement, and I have wonderful memories of exploring the surrounds while staying there during school holidays - Pamela Gray, Rolleston."

Are there any other candidates that have been put forward over the years?

Printmaker Annie Smits Sandano told to boycott prints.co.nz

Auckland contemporary print-maker Annie Sandano is today under pressure from her high st galleries to stop promoting her original prints through www.prints.co.nz

This is the first time we have heard of conventional gallery owners pressuring artists to stop selling their work through companies like New Zealand Fine Prints that primarily sell New Zealand artworks online. Is this something to do with the recession squeezing conventional galleries paying those high st rentals to be in the right suburbs we wonder?

Many conventional New Zealand galleries have superb online stores, lots of artists now sell direct from their own websites and companies like New Zealand Fine Prints, TradeMe and Artfind have helped artists grow their sales enormously over the last ten years.

Times have changed and of course artists should be reaching the largest possible audience for their work using the internet.

We say lets see who can sell the most prints for our artists and we'll continue to focus on our customers rather than our competitors - as we know that's what generates ongoing sales in the long term!

Auckland Painter Steven Sacatos - Art Prints & Canvas Prints

Auckland painter Steven Sacatos has released a series of prints of contemporary Auckland that are printed onto either fine art paper or directly onto genuine artists' canvas. Sacatos says he has spent the last twenty years "doing the starving artist thing" and returned to Auckland in 2006 after spending many years painting in Crete.

Sacatos' prints bring a fresh eye to some of Auckland's favourite places - pictured are Steven's views of a Sunday morning in Ponsonby and of Mt Eden. We are delighted to add Steven's work to the Auckland Prints collection at New Zealand's specialist art print store - we now have just on 90 different prints of Auckland in stock.

Seraphine Pick Art Prints

New in stock at www.prints.co.nz this morning are prints from important contemporary New Zealand painter Seraphine Pick. The artist has said about her art, "My imagery is quite weird anyway, but I wanted to convey an uneasiness." According to one reviewer Pick "has haunted the New Zealand art world with a constantly changing stream of emotionally charged paintings for more than a decade." [TVNZ] Her subjects are often faces, figures or domestic objects, alone or in surprising collage, sometimes fragmented as if strained by memory. (We had trouble catergorising them - in the end we have put Seraphine's prints in the surreal prints gallery.)

Pick was born in Kawakawa, Bay of Islands, Northland and graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in painting from Ilam School of Fine Arts, University of Canterbury in 1988. In 1994 she was the recipient of the Olivia Spencer Bower Foundation Art Award, and in 1995 she was the Rita Angus Artist in Residence in Wellington. Her art is held in the majority of public art collections in New Zealand including Te Papa Tongarewa: Museum of New Zealand, McDougall Art Gallery, Christchurch, Dunedin Public Art Gallery, Govett Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymouth, Chartwell Trust Collection, Auckland and the Fletcher Challenge Collection.

These are the first two prints to be made of Seraphine Pick's artwork - the paintings that have been reproduced are a 1995 work called "High Rise" and a slighter later work called "Room" (see picture above). Both are extremely high quality prints - both editions have been personally checked and approved by the artist before being released for sale this morning. [Artist Photograph Credit: HB Today].

Barry Ross Smith

Barry Ross Smith (1964 - ) was born in Northland, New Zealand. Barry's mother was a school teacher and his father worked at Affco Freezing works and they lived in a small cottage on his uncle's farm. Barry trained as a sign writer and also worked as a commercial artist overseas for many years. Ross-Smith has now been painting professionally for nearly a decade and prints of his farming series have been among our most popular prints for the last few years. His art has also been acclaimed by critics including a terrific review that called Ross-Smith's paintings "hymns to rural New Zealand ... tellingly observed and cleverly rendered" [NZ Herald].

We are delighted to now have Barry's new series of giclee prints in stock - these extremely high quality prints continue his farming theme but there are also new beach, open edition and limited edition prints of Ross-Smith's work. Pictured are "Weathered" and an intriguing new print of the Queen with moko.

Contemporary Maori artist Steve Hikaiti - new prints

Ngati Po artist Steve Hikaiti draws strength from both the hardships he has endured in his life and his Maori lineage. Steve has raised himself through the adversity he has faced and through his artwork has found a release for his talents. His contemporary Maori art prints display an unrivaled attention to detail and a passion for perfection.

Shown here are two of his new limited edition original prints, Patu and Discovery of Life.

Otago Poster Launch

Today is the official launch of a new poster simply called "Otago". The creators of this poster went on a mission and took thousands of photos that represents for them the real Dunedin as is experienced by students and true Dunedinites. After much deliberation and the consumption of several crates of the local beverage the intrepid photographers narrowed it down to the 275 photos included on the poster. The result is an "Otago" poster that offers a lot to reminisce over and features the "real" Dunedin that scarfies and locals alike experience. Take a close look and you will spot iconic Dunedin features such as a "flat taken" sign, Poppa's Pizza, a clothes rack, Critic, a couch, togas, a recycled shopping trolley, the Mothras, the Dundas Street sign, the Empire, a pie, the Captain Cook Tavern. Below are three close-ups of the poster's detail:

Who is Arty Wright?

Arty Wright is the pseudonym for the artist who is probably New Zealand's most experienced printmaker. With over 50 years experience in the art of screenprinting Arty has collaborated with New Zealand's leading artists including Gordon Walters, Pat Hanly, Michael Smither, Dick Frizzell and Stanley Palmer. Here at New Zealand Fine Prints we are really excited that after all these years Arty has finally decided to put his thoughts and vast experience into producing a unique series of screenprints - the Trademark Series.

Wright tells us "the Trademark series brings to the public at large a glimpse of New Zealand nearly forgotten. The images on this series of prints date back to an era when the designs used on our manufactured goods were drawn by artists with pencil, pen, brush and ink. The artists largely remained anonymous, working either as employees of advertising companies or within the manufacturing company itself." In the spirit of the earlier anonymous artists Arty Wright has chosen to keep his identity secret as he salutes their bygone skills by producing this very special series of limited edition screenprints which are released today. Shown here are two of Arty Wright's new art prints, Salesman Tiki and All Backs.

Bill MacCormick's new giclee print series released today

Popular New Zealand painter Bill MacCormick has been publishing prints of his paintings for over twenty years. Bill's prints are enormously popular - we noticed during TV interviews that one of his prints even decorates the living room of (now ex Prime Minister) Helen Clark's Auckland residence! Bill has just released his first series of large limited edition giclee prints of four of his favourite paintings that have never been available before as prints. The print shown is a view of Berhampore Dairy in Wellington - a recurring theme in Bill's artwork is the emotional power of buildings in the New Zealand landscape that tell of those who have gone before us.

MacCormick's new giclee prints use the latest pigmented inks which offer incredible light fastness: 75 years for unframed prints; and 200 years for prints framed behind UV filtering glass. The images are printed onto beautiful paper made from clear spring water and top quality cotton fibre. It is manufactured to be extremely age resistant which means it is categorised as being suitable for lasting more than 100 years (this is the highest life expectancy category of any paper).

Whanau - a new print from artist Robyn Kahukiwa

Robyn Kahukiwa is arguably Aotearoa-New Zealand's leading contemporary female maori artist.

Her tribal affiliations include Ngati Porou, Te Aitanga a Hauiti, Ngati Konohi and Te Whanau a Ruataupare. Kahukiwa has an extensive record of sell-out exhibitions over her long career. She has been active in celebrating the strength and vitality of Maori ancestry and ideas and her art has always involved reflections on maori women and of motherhood.

Robyn Kahukiwa's new June 2009 print Whanau is a bold celebration of family identity screenprinted onto beautiful handmade paper. We have many low numbered prints from this new edition from one of our most popular artists in stock this morning.

Taranaki Artist Peter Lambert - New Prints

The artist Peter Lambert has been exhibiting for over 30 years. Lambert attended evening classes in painting and drawing at the Ilam School of Fine Arts (now part of the University of Canterbury) whilst competing his BSC in Mathematics. He also studied lithography at Elam School of Fine Arts in Auckland and at Long Island University in New York. As a full-time artist living and working in Taranaki since 1982 Peter has had many years experience refining his technique and his new prints that arrived today are particularly fine examples of contemporary New Zealand printmaking. Pictured is Peter's brand new print "Waiting Around" - a hand made edition of 22 screenprints.

New Zealand Landscape Painter Harold Coop releases prints today

NZ Artist Harold Coop

Well-known New Zealand painter Harold Coop has today released a series of prints. Coop is a popular painter in the field of New Zealand contemporary landscape and abstracted landscape. He has had 15 one-man exhibitions throughout New Zealand (so far!), and has also exhibited in France, England, and Australia. His paintings are well-known from his book "A vision of New Zealand" and his paintings are held in important public collections such as the Governor General's Auckland residence.

Harold Coop says that his "paintings radiate a love of the diverse unspoiled landscape and bright clear light with which New Zealanders find themselves surrounded. My paintings express the differing and often transient interaction of land forms, colour, and human contact."

Pictured is Coop's print of his painting Pohutukawa Abstract.

Pindrop Foundation Prints

The Art of Hearing is a fundraising opportunity for the Pindrop Foundation, the non-profit, public face of the Northern Cochlear Implant Trust that governs the implant programme. Their focus is to raise public awareness about the technology available and to provide people access to implants as a matter of right, ensuring that those in need receive one in a timely manner. New Zealand Fine Prints are pleased to assist the Art of Hearing initiative through the sale of prints produced for the Pindrop Foundation from leading New Zealand artists.

These original prints are from some of the biggest names in contemporary New Zealand art - Dick Frizzell, Shane Cotton, John Pule, Jacqueline Fahey, Judy Millar, Robert Ellis, Denys Watkins and emerging artists like Kate Small and Sarah Hughes.

Pictured are "The Clang is the Proof of the Bell" by Dick Frizzell and "Broken Water" by Shane Cotton.

Prints of Maori Portraits painted by Goldie, Lindauer - Should they be allowed by New Zealand Galleries?

Maori portrait by Goldie

Faced with the dwindling supply of prints of paintings by Charles Frederick Goldie we were talking in the office today about the problems publishers of prints are having with the publication of Maori portraits that are held in some major New Zealand public galleries.

For a long time paintings of Maori subjects have been reproduced as prints. Goldie himself did a handsigned print of "A Good Joke" in the 1920s (which now sell for around $1000 each on the rare occasion they come up at auction). However during a major Goldie exhibition at the Auckland Art Gallery in 1997 some Gallery staff became nervous about the use of Goldie's Maori portraits (on a large calender) after they were questioned about their right to do so by at least one descendant. Since then the idea of seeking permission from descendants of a [Maori] portrait's subject before a painting is reproduced has taken hold at at least two major New Zealand public art galleries. We have heard the term "moral copyright" being used to describe this new idea that if a print is being made of a painting with people in it there is an obligation to trace descendants of the subjects to ask their permission.

Because we stock all Maori portraits available as prints we have descendants of Goldie (and Lindauer) subjects emailing or calling on at least a weekly basis who want to purchase prints of their ancestors that are not currently in print. Print publishers are facing a gallery policy that is inventing a new form of copyright that is not recognised outside of a couple of institutions in New Zealand. We would love to hear views from all sides of the debate about the publication of prints of Maori Portraits - please add your comment to the discussion below.

Auckland Printmaker Mark Compton releases prints

Auckland printmaker Mark Compton works for one of New Zealand's leading fine art screenprinters. As a major part of Artrite's production team Mark has had the pleasure of working with some of the great names in contemporary New Zealand printmaking and producing many fine prints.

As a result of more than ten years experience producing screenprints Mark has a great technical and artistic understanding of the production process that informs the creation of quality prints of his own. We are delighted to stock all prints from Mark including the popular Recession and two brand new Tiki prints, Red Hot and Amigos.

Valerie Beale Pacific Prints

Valerie Beale has been a full-time professional painter for over twenty years. Her Pacific series of prints are inspired by her extended Samoan family and Beale's many visits to the Pacific Islands. She works from her studio in the Bay of Plenty which looks out onto a tropical garden filled with hibiscus, frangipani , palms, and taro. Her first series of four prints were very popular, the editions of Village Gossip and Too Many Mangoes have sold out completely and as of today we have only 3 copies of Friendly Disagreement and Warm Breeze left. I have enjoyed cataloguing Valerie's new signed collection of Pasifika prints over the past couple of days - they remind me of a very enjoyable visit to Samoa and remind me how much I want to go back to the Islands again!

Sarah Platt - Prints of New Zealand Towns

Sarah Platt's first exhibition was called "Our Town". She says that "that title pretty much sums up what my art is about. It's about our place, where we live and grow, where we come from and even where we are going. It's about who we are as a community." Proud to be a sixth generation New Zealander Platt has a keen sense of history, Sarah writes "when I finish a new print, particularly if it's of a place I've not painted before such as New Plymouth I have a great sense that I've produced something that is important. My work is a historical documentation. The more towns I cover, the more complete the documentation becomes". Platt trained as a teacher but now paints full-time.

This morning we have catalogued Sarah Platt prints of Palmerston North, Wanganui, Hastings, Wellington, Havelock North, Napier, Waipawa, Waipukurau and Shannon. I need local help to identify all the buildings and features in the prints please - post a comment below and we'll add your description to the print's listing in our catalogue.

Framed Prints

Customers have reacted favourably to our initial picture framing trial - where via one of our publishers we offered framed prints from a selection of popular artists like Grahame Sydney and Diana Adams. Just over 400 framed prints were shipped during this trial pre Christmas so we have had plenty of opportunity to refine our processes before rolling out the new picture framing service on a much larger scale. From March 2009 we are now offering affordable and elegant picture framing for all prints in stock. Please contact us or call 0800 800 278 for a quote for framing your chosen prints. New Zealand wide delivery in extremely sturdy packaging is just $NZ20 per order (for any number of framed prints or posters) and delivery is in ten working days. We deliver framed prints world-wide by Airmail at cost - around $NZ 30 - $NZ 60 depending on the destination and size/weight of the print.

The illustration shows how prints were framed during the trial period (this style is known as a "box frame") and we offered three colours of picture frame - white, black and cream. Black is by far the most popular frame colour choice so far...

Tony Ogle Prints

Tony Ogle is one of New Zealand's most popular contemporary printmakers. In his original prints Ogle shares his love of natural New Zealand - his view coloured by a childhood spent near the sea at Castor Bay on Auckland's North Shore where his enthusiasm for surfing and sailing developed. We are delighted to show Tony's new "Surf series" prints for the first time. There are more prints in this series plus all Tony's other prints here.

Liam Barr releases giclee prints

Liam Barr has already had three solo exhibitions at prestigious New Zealand commercial galleries and his paintings have also appeared in public exhibitions - "Tears For Tane's Children" at the Whangarei Art Museum and 'Mind Games, An Exhibition of Surrealism in Aotearoa' at Hastings City Art Gallery. Barr has produced very small run limited edition giclee prints of the original paintings which are now available through New Zealand Fine Prints.

What is a giclee print?

A lot of art print publishers and distributors (and many of our artists and customers) use the term giclee to describe all [non original] prints not printed off-set (ie for all prints printed on demand using sophisticated digital printers). We are interested in our readers views on the following questions:

1. Are all digitally produced prints giclee prints?
2. If not, what is the difference between an "ordinary" inkjet print and a giclee print?
3. How should artists describe prints that are not printed using off-set photo-lithography so the purchaser knows exactly what they are getting?

Please post a comment below.

What is an original print?

I have been having an interesting discussion with Tony Ogle and Brad Novak about how we can best explain the differences between original prints like screenprints and reproduction prints. They have come up with some suggested additions to our FAQ.

What is an original print?
Original prints encompass different media such as screen prints, lithographs, etchings, woodcuts, linocuts and monoprints. Within an edition, each print is individually pulled from a screen, plate, or block. Generally created as limited editions of archival quality, and because of the skill and effort required to produce them, original prints potentially have a high investment value.

What is the difference between a giclee print and an original print?
Giclee prints are created using the Giclee printing process which uses a very sophisticated digital printer to deliver a fine stream of ink onto archival paper. Original prints differ, encompassing several media such as screen prints, lithographs and etchings (amongst others). Each print is individually pulled from a screen, plate, or block to create limited editions of archival quality.

How is an original print produced?
Original prints are produced in many different ways, generally as limited editions. The main techniques include screen printing and lithography. Each print is individually pulled from a screen, plate, or block. Their creation involves the mastery of a printing press with the artist often solely or heavily involved in the process.

Brad Novak Prints

Stunning new screenprints by Brad Novak arrived this morning. Brad Novak (1976- ) is an emerging New Zealand painter and printmaker born in Auckland with Croatian heritage and he explores the relationship between colour, shape, and contrast through a fresh and distinctive style. He is following in the footsteps of several senior NZ artists like Tony Ogle and Dick Frizzell by creating archival quality limited edition fine art screen prints through collaboration with the Auckland-based printer Artrite. Brad is also a practising medical doctor, specialising in Public Health, and much of his artwork is inspired by the strong ethical basis underpinning this. Brad writes "I am extremely passionate about the prevention of illness, the importance of The Treaty for the reduction of health inequalities in Aotearoa, and the need for our heath system and wider society to focus more strongly on the upstream determinants of health."

Woodcut prints by Annie Smits Sandano

New in stock are contemporary woodcut prints by Annie Smits Sandano.