Art print publisher devastated by arson attack overnight

We were absolutely shocked to learn that local art print publisher Image Vault was the victim of an arson attack in the early hours of this morning.  The current owners had only purchased the business back in July of this year.  Christchurch businesses have been through a lot over the past five years, and this event is yet another of those unpredictable "black swans",  but also one that couldn't come at a worse time of year for a business that supplies the Xmas gift market and are at the height of their print production schedule.  We are heartened by the fact Carl and Nicola are reported as saying they were fully insured and able to start printing again at temporary premises and our staff will be offering every assistance to them in the coming days.

The first thing my mother said when she heard of this was to text me that this was the same time of year as our "factory fire".  This reminded me of one of my earliest memories - which is of the fire that gutted our family's picture moulding factory back in the late 1970s. Not arson, this was caused by thinners spontaneously igniting in the dangerous goods store and the intense heat was such that it melted the steel girders of our building in Carlisle St. I remember being lifted up to look into the cab of the fire engine and the smell of the fire.  This was the second time Avon Fine Prints (as New Zealand Fine Prints was known as back then) had been hit by fire, their office above the National Party headquarters in Christchurch had also caught fire when my parents were on an overseas trip in the late 1960s, they returned home to find that their staff had relocated back to the sitting room of their house!

I hope that our business's experience of recovering from similarly devastating fires a long time ago means that the path back to normality for Image Vault will not as long or as hard as it must seem from the vantage point of today for Carl, Nicola, Jen, Amanda and Tony at Image Vault today.

Print on demand and hopefully cloud storage of their catalogue of files that they need to print canvas art prints will mean technically they can be back in business quite quickly, but the framing side of Image Vault's business may take longer to recover due to the loss of equipment and supplies - we may not be able to offer the standard box framing on their titles for at least a few weeks.  We are also concerned that because their back stock of off-set prints will have been lost many of their older titles from artists like Grahame Sydney, Diana Adams, Barry Ross Smith, Jason Kelly etc may not be able to be re-printed on demand as the contracts with the artists last only as long as physical stock was on hand.  NZ Fine Prints hold a few months worth of stock of most of these titles but this may mean some popular prints may be deleted well before the editions would have sold out naturally.

The earthquakes were incredibly disruptive but print buyers were overwhelmingly supportive and understanding of delays as we all juggled frantically behind the scenes to get their orders shipped. In the weeks following the Feb 22nd quake we had just one customer cancel their print order. This is another of those times that we will do our very best to let you know immediately if there will be a delay in shipping your order and in return ask for a bit of leeway if your print is delivered outside our normal delivery guidelines due to this devastating fire at one of our favourite suppliers.  

Image Vault News

The news that we reported on our Facebook page and Twitter feed three weeks ago concerning the pending sale of NZ art print publisher Image Vault has today been officially confirmed via email to all their stockists today.

"Dear All,

As most of you will already know, from July 1st Image Vault will be under new ownership. 

Due to an unfortunate glitch in our system, we were unaware that this formal notification had not been made, so we apologise profusely if this news had not already reached you!

The new owners are Nicola and Carl Church - and they are so excited to be embarking upon this new adventure! They bring fresh energy and ideas, and are hoping to meet with you at the Auckland Gift Fair in August. 

Many of you have been our loyal customers for many years, even dating back to our start in the top floor of Windsor Gallery! We want to acknowledge and express our gratitude for your support - it is your encouragement and feedback that allowed Image Vault to grow into the company it is today. Jane and Nathan will continue their association with IV by advising on product development and design, and Hamish will be on hand to ensure as smooth a transition as possible.

Again, a huge thank you to you all.

Nathan Secker, Jane Secker, Hamish Bayly"

NZ Fine Prints was the customer they referred to in the email, this writer used to walk around to their High St gallery

Early Image Vault print - Coastal Breeze by Diana Adams

from our building in Hereford St to collect the first bundles of prints.  Image Vault had a great run with prints by artists such as Grahame Sydney and Diana Adams, riding the kiwiana art boom with prints like the Sweet As series by Jason Kelly whilst making the transition from offset printing to print on demand.

We wish the new owners the best of luck and look forward to promoting all the new artists and artworks they will publish in the future.

Mickey to Tiki now available in two new sizes

Dick Frizzell with Mickey to Tiki
(Image via NZ Herald Photo: Greg Bowker)

With the closure of the Christchurch Art Gallery shop for at least two years the art gallery has given the exclusive right to reproduce several prints from their collection to Christchurch publisher Image Vault for the next three years.

This includes the right to reproduce NZ's top selling print of the last few years, Dick Frizzell's "Mickey to Tiki Tu Meke" (the story behind how this print originally came to be in the collection of Christchurch Art Gallery is here).  Because of this new arrangement we are now able to offer Mickey to Tiki in two new smaller sizes at lower price points (265 x 400mm at $49.50 and 365 x 550mm at $77.50).  Prints in the original size (735 x 480mm) are still available but we are not sure for how long at this stage.

Saluting a NZ art publishing success as Grahame Sydney quits prints

Nighthouse II by Grahame Sydney

New Zealand's most successful art publishing collaboration of the past two decades is coming to an end.  We have been told by Christchurch publisher Image Vault that immensely popular contemporary NZ landscape painter Grahame Sydney is withdrawing copyright permission to reproduce his paintings digitally (so called giclee printing) and we understand that other editions previously available as off-set only will not be re-printed once these sell out.  This affects several popular titles immediately that are printed digitally - including Nighthouse II, Evening at Ben Ohau and Albatross at Deborah Bay which will no longer be available once our stock on the shelf is sold - and the other titles will progressively be discontinued by NZ Fine Prints as the publisher deletes them.

This marks the beginning of the end of one of the most successful publishing relationships in our industry's history as for several of these past few years Grahame Sydney was the top selling NZ artist for New Zealand's galleries, picture framers and other retailers selling prints.

Grahame initially self-published prints in the late 1970s - reproducing his paintings Rozzie at Pisa,

Evening at Ben Ohau by Grahame Sydney

Dog Trials Room, Auripo Rd and Wilson's Boys Boat [when you see an interior shot of Sydney's house on television or in a magazine the image of Rozzie at Pisa on the wall is actually one of these prints - the original is in the national collection at Te Papa!].  The first editions in the Grahame Sydney series from "Image Vault at Windsor Gallery" date back to before the time the Secker's sold the gallery to concentrate on printing and publishing under the Image Vault brand.  The "Grahame Sydney Series" (that eventually numbered prints of over 50 different paintings) was one of the foundation publishing projects of Jane and Nathan Secker back in the days that they still worked at the family owned Windsor Gallery in High St, Christchurch. This writer remembers collecting bundles of these first prints wrapped in brown paper after climbing the narrow stairs to where the Secker's embryonic publishing company occupied a warren of small rooms above Windsor Gallery in an old building now demolished following the Christchurch earthquakes! 

Tens of thousands of Grahame Sydney prints were sold during the late 1990s and the first decade of the 2000s with Grahame's original paintings climbing in value as well in no small part due to the wider appreciation of his work that large scale reproduction delivered. Grahame's contemporary realistic (but, he insisted, never photographic!) scenes fell comfortably into the tradition of New Zealander's decorating with landscapes devoid of people but with their modern more lightfast inks and large format they showed a clear technical advance from prints printed in NZ in the 1970s and 80s for print purchasers (until Image Vault began printing using wide format inkjet printers in-house all the Sydney prints were printed using off-set lithography by Christchurch's Rainbow Print).  

The Sydney series was a publishing milestone - the first time that a single contemporary NZ artist had had such a large number of paintings reproduced and simultaneously released as art cards, mini prints etc. It also marked a change in the distribution model to a complete framed product being sold into non traditional retail outlets such as gift and furniture stores rather than unframed prints via small owner operated frame shops ordering for customers via catalogue.

Albatross at Deborah Bay by Grahame Sydney

We will certainly miss stocking prints by Grahame Sydney but we'd like to take this opportunity to offer our congratulations to the artist, publisher and printer for creating one of the most successful art print publishing partnerships in our industry's history. Well done! 

Illustrating this article are the first three Grahame Sydney prints that we have had to move into our "endangered" gallery today (our collection of prints about to sell out) - we have between five and twenty copies of these titles left in stock today (early June 2013).  As always please order promptly to avoid disappointment as once these prints have sold they will not be available to buy again.

NZ Gift wholesaler Image Vault announces retail expansion plan

Widespread rumours that Christchurch publisher of NZ art gifts and decor products Image Vault are going to launch their own online store to sell directly to retail customers have been confirmed today by production manager Hamish Bayly.  In an email sent to New Zealand Fine Prints Bayly stated "all our products will be available for sale on line". He went on to say that "it will offer an on line option for people who wish to view and purchase from our complete range".

Image Vault, publisher of prints by some of NZ's top selling contemporary landscape painters like Diana Adams, Grahame Sydney and kiwiana art specialist Jason Kelly, has grown quickly to be one of the leading brands in the NZ gift market.   Launched by siblings Nathan and Jane Secker out of their Christchurch based family business Windsor Gallery (now sold) Image Vault sells a highly successful range of art cards, prints, canvas prints as well as decals and lampshades through a large network of retail stockists throughout New Zealand (including www.prints.co.nz).

This is a controversial departure from the business model followed by overseas art publishers such as Bruce McGaw or Rosensteils - or local design driven success stories like Icebreaker - who specialise in the publishing/manufacturing side and rely on a carefully cultivated network of retailers to get their products out to customers.  Do readers of NZ Art Print News think Image Vault competing directly with their loyal retail sales channel is good business or a bad idea? Leave your comment below.

Jason Kelly & Image Vault release Christchurch Earthquake Canvas Print

Jason Kelly: Credit Kirk Hargreaves/ The Press

Jason Kelly and art print publisher Image Vault have combined to commemorate the recent Christchurch earthquake with a new print on canvas called SevenPointOne.  In the announcement of this special new print today the artist writes "The date of September 4th 2010 will long remain in the collective memory of Cantabrians. In spite of all the fear, trauma and destruction the earthquake caused, Christchurch as a city pulled together, and comforted and supported those most severely affected. For most of us, as the quakes diminish, we survey the cracks and and start to move on with our lives. However, many residents are still badly affected, requiring both psychological and financial support as they try to pick up the pieces torn so suddenly and violently asunder."

In response to the devastation Jason Kelly - who is one of Image Vault’s best-selling artists - has generously donated a painting which will be auctioned with all the proceeds going to the Christchurch's Mayoral Relief Fund (see picture of Jason Kelly and his earthquake painting "SevenPointOne" above). According to Image Vault's press release today "With his ever quirky take Jason has created an artwork which commemorates September 4th and salutes the spirit of our community." For the painting's "canvas" Kelly recycled a piece of New Zealand beech that was part of a door damaged in a central city building during the September quake.

Image Vault is simultaneously releasing prints of the painting on canvas in three sizes with 20% of all proceeds going to the Mayoral Earthquake relief fund.  Kelly has asked that his entire royalty be donated, and Image Vault is matching his contribution.

The painting's poem reads

Christchurch's Way:
There came a day
The earth did say
I've had enough
of this fault's fray
So up it lift
A Christchurch rift
A Seven Point One
Of rattle and tip
Still here we are
Too strong to split.

Painter Barry Ross Smith Quits Prints to Focus on Painting

Popular NZ painter Barry Ross Smith has announced he is no longer going to be making prints available of his artwork. After a very successful series of farming prints such as Lot 18 published in conjunction with Image Vault Barry and his wife Leanne began producing their own series of high quality archival standard giclee prints based on Barry's most popular paintings including the controversial "Queen with Moko" two years ago.

Barry says "We believed that there was a market for high quality reproductions that would last and give rich colour clarity. With my participation in a MFA [Master of Fine Arts] degree program, helping with the children and the production and proofing of new prints etc I have found it increasingly difficult to find the time to devote to my main inspiration which is the painting of original artworks." Ross Smith adds that finalising  the printing of reproductions will "allow time for me to go forward in my career and dedicate more time to the painting and production of original artworks."

Here at NZ Fine Prints we have made sure that we have excellent stocks of most of the Barry Ross Smith print series on hand - enough to last the next few months - but we will eventually sell out of these titles and they won't be re-printed once these editions have sold out.