How to Hang Wall Art Like A Pro | NZ Fine Prints

How to Hang Wall Art Like A Pro

Having art prints in your home is a great way to express your creativity and personal style, and making an extra effort to thoughtfully hang your favourite images will only help maximise the aesthetics of your home. This guide will provide a few tips on arranging your art to get the most out of your walls.  

  

Determine Your Location

Once you have collected your pieces of print art, you'll want to start to think about the best place to hang them in your home. As most canvas prints are susceptible to damage from elements like temperature and humidity, it's recommended that they hang in a cool and dry area of your home. Some optimal areas include living rooms, bedrooms, and hallways where the temperature stays consistent.

Luckily, within these areas, there are so many different places to hang your wall art, such as above: 

 • a bed
 

 • living room furniture
 

 • a fireplace
 

 • a desk
   

You can ultimately much hang your art anywhere in these areas that there is a blank wall available. The choice is yours!  

 

Consider the Arrangement

But before you even think about hanging your art, it's essential that you consider the arrangement of your pieces. This step will help you to avoid any unnecessary holes in your wall.  

We recommend gathering your art prints, placing them on a table—or even the floor—and moving their positions until you find an arrangement that you like best. This process allows you to get creative and try different layouts without committing to one solution. Once you have made your final decision, take a photo of the arrangement so you can refer back to the picture as you begin to hang them. 

This technique is especially valuable for prints in a series. Some pieces of art are designed to be hung together—in a triptych for example. On the other hand, you might take three pieces from completely different artists, and decide that you want to make a series out of them! Art that uses similar colours or themes is ideal for matching like this.

 

Hanging Multiple Prints

If you are working with an extensive collection of art, you might find yourself needing to create several different series of prints—perhaps a series for each room. When you have a lot of art to arrange like this, it's important to treat them as a gallery to achieve a balanced look. 

When you are arranging wall art with groups of prints, you can really get creative. Try a few different techniques like hanging them side-by-side, slightly staggered, symmetrically, or even asymmetrically. Whatever layout you decide on, we highly recommend using low adhesive tape to plan out your arrangement on your wall and help you determine your optimal hanging position and nail placement.   

 

Judge the Distance

Measuring your available space and the distance between each print will help keep the correct spacing between them as you begin to hang them on your wall. Ideally, the space between each piece should be in the range of 5cm to 15cm. This, as a general rule, is the sweet spot.   

Another helpful recommendation is that your art arrangement should not span wider than the piece of furniture that you're hanging it over. While these "rules" are certainly solid advice, feel free to experiment with different measurements, especially if you want to achieve a different effect.  

 

Hang at Eye-Level

Most people tend to hang their wall art too high on the wall, and it's widely accepted in the art world that the optimal position to hang a piece is at eye level. To be exact, you should look to hang your print at the height of 5'7, which represents the average human eye height, and is also a measurement that is regularly used in galleries and museums.  

 Of course, there are a few exceptions to this rule. For those with low ceilings, you will have to calculate the optimal position based on the available space, and if you intend to hang your art over a couch or a fireplace, these prints will naturally be placed higher on the wall. 

 

Reach Out to Us for More

For more information on how to hang your art like a pro, reach out to our team of experts—we are more than happy to answer any of your questions. If you are still searching for your dream prints, check out our stunning range of canvas prints and framed wall art in our online store. 

The NZ Fine Prints Christmas Gift Guide | NZ Fine Prints

The NZ Fine Prints Christmas Gift Guide

From canvas paintings to woodcuts and giclee prints, art makes a great Christmas gift for any family member or dear friend! Finding a print of something they love truly shows how much you care about them. Plus, art is a gift that will remind them of you whenever they see it hanging on the wall. It’s not something that they’ll feel guilty about not using, because it doesn’t need to be used! Art exists to brighten the world around us, and by finding that perfect piece for your loved one, you’re doing just that for them. You might think that buying art is expensive, especially if you’re interested in giving a print of a famous piece, but that isn’t always the case. In fact, here at New Zealand Fine Prints, we have prints available at a range of prices, which you can sort by budget. Just open the left-hand menu, and select ‘gift budget’. If you’re not sure what you’re looking for, don’t worry! Below, we’ll go over a few of our top picks for gift art in 2020.

 

Pohutukawa Cave

Pohutukawa Cave by Diana Adams

What better way to celebrate Christmas than with a print featuring New Zealand’s own Christmas tree—Pohutukawa! This print is a fine example of NZ canvas wall art, originally painted by Diana Adams, known for her bold, clear paintings in acrylic.  Golden beaches like the one in this painting have long been a favourite subject of hers. This is a large, more expensive print, ideal for a big gift for someone with a lot of wall space. Canvas prints of paintings like this are typically delivered rolled in a tube, but if you need it delivered ready to hang, you can select “stretched” on the main image page.

Nympheas 1913

Nympheas 1913 by Claude Monet

A great example of a classic piece at an affordable price, this faithful recreation of Claude Monet’s impressionist masterpiece is in our $30-$50 Gift Range. This painting is part of the wider ‘Water Lilies’ series by Monet, which includes a total of about 250 oil paintings. They were created during the last three decades of his life, and many were painted while Monet was suffering from cataracts and losing his vision. This is a great but affordable piece for the classic art aficionado in your life.

 

Kiwi Print from ‘Birds of NZ’

Kiwi Print from "Birds of NZ"

This print is a great pick as a stocking stuffer or Secret Santa gift, available for under $10! The original of this print is a lithograph that was published in 1873. It was created for ‘A History of the Birds of New Zealand’ by Sir Walter Lawry Buller, who was born in New Zealand just before it was colonised by Europeans. He published several books on the native birds of New Zealand, including the aforementioned ‘Birds of New Zealand’. This book had a total of thirty-six lithographs of native birds, all coloured by hand!

 

Find the perfect gift today!

For more great gift ideas, browse our galleries to explore the huge range of classic and contemporary art we have on offer. No matter who you’re buying for or what your budget is, we’re sure to have something that will catch your eye. Give the gift of art this Christmas, and make someone’s world that little bit brighter!

Picture framing - layout options for online product pages

Framed print - black boxframe style - (Rita Angus' Cass)

Eagle eyed shoppers at prints.co.nz may have noticed that along with the good folks over at our long time ecommerce partners Miva NZ Fine Prints have been testing several different layouts of online product pages over recent months.

Testing Picture Framing Options

As we move onto Miva's next generation responsive ecommerce platform our user experience team are working out the clearest way of showing the different mounting and framing options available on prints that we stock on the new responsive page template designs.

(It feels like we have been testing framing options on all our prints for so long, partly this is due to working on the behind the scenes systems to be able to frame (or stretch canvas prints) in a timely and efficient manner after we had our physical premises much reduced in size following our post earthquakes relocation to a different part of Christchurch.)

We also have not been able to resolve whether each main product page should have the same basic layout or if we should have three templates (for reproduction prints/posters, original prints and canvas prints).  The split testing on our site was designed to resolve this question as well.

A core belief is that we don't want to interrupt customers browsing the site for artwork with cross-sell demands where they are prompted to frame prints before they can checkout.   We have thousands of happy customers who have been content to purchase their prints directly without NZ Fine Prints necessarily framing their order as well.  Our aim is to offer a standard frame that suits the artwork rather than a custom frame with a multitude of options for a customer to configure.  We don't want to offer much beyond a good quality relatively timeless style of frame in black, white or natural timber.

For customers who want hundreds of options of moulding type, mat colour and framing styles we can't recommend custom framing heartily enough.  Having your prints laid out in a framing studio with framing samples in front of you means you can see both colour and relative size of the framing components in relation to your art print or poster.  We support the custom framing industry in NZ to the tune of millions of dollars annually and are only offering framing to cater for the percentage of customers we have identified who only want to purchase artworks ready to hang (an obvious customer is someone purchasing a gift).

Custom Framing still recommended for the majority of customers

Custom framing means that you can match an artwork more closely to the room where the print is going.  Since artworks are no longer built into the physical fabric of the room (yes, pictures were originally placed in built in frames and were part of the actual wall! We've written previously about the surprisingly fascinating history of picture frames back in 2010) we think there is greater value in placing most emphasis on the frame's relationship to the picture than to its surroundings as a picture can be moved multiple times or go through several re-decorations over the typical life of a modern (long life ink) reproduction print.

Our conclusions & what's left to do before rolling out framing on every print site wide

Thanks to all our customers who have feed back on the different designs.  We have decided to have just one product page template for both art canvas and paper prints, the mounting options will be referred to as "Framing Options" even if the "framing" is actually stretching a canvas print around an internal wooden stretcher frame.  It just seems to cause less confusion than using technical words like "unstretched" and "stretched",  awkward when a customer orders a canvas print that arrives carefully rolled in a tube rather than ready to hang if that was what they were expecting - or vice versa a gift being taken on the plane abroad is not rolled in a tube but in a rather large and cumbersome box!

We have some minor work to be done around a new mini FAQ that will go onto every product page plus a bit of programming behind the scenes to manage and inform the delivery timeframes on framed prints - we won't be carrying all the prints in stock pre-framed! Delivery timeframes should be less than 10 days for a framed print around NZ, a pretty quick turnaround but not like our standard delivery of 3-5 days nationwide.  There is also the issue of delivering framed prints outside NZ in a cost effective manner, unless the print has very large overall dimensions we can physically ship the order but the cost of air freight - particularly to the US and Europe - is pretty daunting.

Vintage Maps of NZ - new ranges of prints

New Zealand by Captain James Cook

The recent acquisition of the entire range of reproduction prints of some of NZ's most famous antique maps from Wellington publisher Thorndon Fine Prints is not the only news on the map front here at New Zealand Fine Prints. Although the decorative antique maps based on the charts of Captain Cook are consistently among the top selling prints in New Zealand we knew that there is another rich vein of highly decorative vintage maps in official government publications and commercially produced atlases.

Maps have been framed as wall art for hundreds of years, although the original maps are very expensive due to their rarity and age superb quality reproduction prints can be re-printed where the original maps are in good condition.

The decision of whether to clean up the wear and tear of the antique maps is one that each publisher wrestles with, our view is that reproducing the fold lines on an original map does not detract from its decorative appeal on the wall - the patina of age does in fact add interest and authenticity (without pretending to be an actual original antique map of course!).

The new print in stock from Thorndon Fine Prints of the highly decorative chart of NZ drawn by Cassini (shown here) is a great example of an exact replica/facsimile that reproduces folds, foxing and of course the unique hand colouring of the original map.

Vintage Wall Chart Style Maps on Canvas

The wall chart style vintage maps that have been printed on canvas are an interesting new product.

Vintage NZ Map, Wall Chart Style

Customers appreciate purchasing a map that is ready to hang - and the old school aged wooden hangers and rope together with the just the right shade of canvas colour works really well.  We like the fact that because we can still roll these vintage maps on canvas up to place in our standard mailing tubes we can deliver them at our standard delivery charge ($6 NZ, $15 worldwide) rather than the framed print shipping cost of $20!

However as with all new products our catalogue manager's enthusiasm for the category may not be matched by actual sales (this writer is looking at all those vintage letterpress posters). We have sold a couple of dozen of the wall chart style vintage maps in the past couple of weeks so we are hopeful that this is a good start that will build as more people see the maps in real life hanging on the walls of homes and offices.

Our complete collection of vintage maps, prints of antique maps and of course a modern day NZ map poster that we have for sale can be viewed here in our map collection.

Framed Prints emerge from our stockroom

NZ vintage poster. Wooden frame (black) $NZ 209.95

Listed today were lots of new framed prints, a couple of one off picture framing examples and some clearance sale items.  It's still just $20 delivery for any number of framed prints shipped to one address.  Although we offer picture framing for all prints in stock with a turnaround of just over a week plus shipping time we are adding to the selection of framed prints and stretched canvas prints that we have on hand ready for immediate shipping (or pickup from our Christchurch gallery) as we come up to the Xmas gift buying season.  

In the 1970s NZ Fine Prints owned a picture moulding factory here in Christchurch (it was the time when "vertical integration" was a popular business strategy - I'm surprised the previous generation didn't invest in a tree plantation to grow the frames). This changed during the 1980s when our focus on to the mail order rather than the retail gallery side of the business meant we gradually dropped the framing operations, the slack taken up by the excellent network of custom picture framers that we continue to deliver to throughout NZ.  

"Piha 1969"  Framed reto print $NZ 129.00

However we realised several years ago that offering basic framing saves our customers the time and hassle of getting a print framed once it is purchased but this writer was surprised to discover that NZ Fine Prints have been testing a picture framing service for over three years but it is only now that we are about to roll out a complete "ready to hang" state to browse prints.co.nz (apart from showing only prints that have a framing option this will also change all canvas prints to the stretched canvas versions that are ready to go on the wall, not delivered rolled in a mailing tube).  It hasn't just been the Christchurch earthquakes, we had to spend a lot of time researching what kinds of frames print buyers actually wanted, and then source frames and picture framers whose work would last for decades (because our company's label will be on the back). A couple of examples from today's arrivals include the first of the retro views of NZ available framed (Piha, 1969 by Contour Creative Studio) and one of the vintage travel posters in a standard black wooden frame, the fly-fishing poster "New Zealand: For the World's Best Sport" designed by Maurice Poulton.

Printing & selling canvas prints - advice for NZ artists from Christchurch painter Linelle Stacey

The trend for artists to reproduce their work as canvas prints either instead of or alongside traditional paper prints has (along with the migration from offset to digital printing) been one of the major changes in the reproduction prints part of our industry over the past ten years.

Artists contact us regularly to ask how they go about making and selling prints of their paintings on canvas so NZ Art Print News spoke to one of the most successful sellers of reproductions on canvas in New Zealand to find out how she does it.

Christchurch artist Linelle Stacey who publishes
a top selling range of reproduction canvas prints
of her paintings

We asked Christchurch painter Linelle Stacey what made her decide to publish and sell prints in the first place. She told us that she had "painted a little through my teens and even exhibited my work in my early twenties but then marriage and a family took precedence and I put my art aside until my family was grown.  Five years ago I gave up a full time job to be an artist and soon found it was difficult to provide an income from painting alone. Having prints as well as paintings for my customers to purchase has allowed me to continue to paint full-time and gives my customers a lower priced options for buying my artworks."

Stacey did not choose to publish prints on paper because she painted on stretched canvases and by printing on canvas the artworks would be "as much like the originals as was possible".

To achieve the level of sales that Linelle has she didn't simply reproduce prints of her favourite paintings to see how they would go. Her first step was to research the market, both to see how prints were being made and find out what subjects and scenes were popular. She told us "I went to as many galleries and print retailers as I could find to see what prints were currently available and asked questions about the printing processes that were involved. I used the internet and also rang printers and again asked a lot of questions."

A lot of artists get stuck trying to find the right printer (we wrote about the options available in NZ digital printing market from a more technical point of view last year here) so we asked Linelle how once she had decided which images to print how did she choose the printer to print her canvases for her? She told us that "I spoke with a large number of printers, telling them what I was looking for and eventually found around half a dozen that I felt could possibly provide the kind of prints I was looking for".

Her next step was to compare canvas printers.  "I invested a little money at this point in getting samples from these print companies so I could physically see what their prints looked like. I was then able to compare quality, the materials they used, prices and delivery timeframes." Linelle ranked the results of her sample printing with quality being her number one priority, but always balanced against price. "In the end", says Linelle,  "I think it came down to a desire to work with me to provide the kind of print I wanted at a price that was acceptable. There are a lot of companies who simply say – this is what we do and this is the price. They didn’t particularly care or even listen to what I was trying to achieve."

In the end the printer Linelle chose is based in New Zealand.  She said "I ordered some samples from overseas printers. This was a very expensive time consuming process and the quality was rubbish compared to the NZ companies I’d trialled."

"Routeburn Stones" Linelle Stacey's latest canvas print
1000 x 400mm $NZ 199.95

We asked Linelle how she went about selling the prints once they had arrived, and what are her most popular subjects. She told us "I sell through the internet, through retail outlets (and of course you can buy all of Linelle's canvas prints from NZ Fine Prints' canvas prints collection) and my studio. My most popular subjects are the same with my prints as with my paintings, beaches (especially towards the end of summer), winter mountainous landscapes, monochromatic images and landscapes with dramatic lighting such as the Lindis Pass."

Finally what are Linelle's hot tips for NZ artists considering printing and selling reproduction prints on canvas?

1. Great images of your artwork are key.  Linelle has a very talented photographer who produces the most amazing digital copies of her work. Have a look at our article by Auckland photographer Bret Lucas on "How to photograph a painting" if you would like to learn more on this vital first step.

2. Don’t be put off by information from any one company. There are many different printing services out there and with perseverance you will find the right one for you.

Thank you Linelle for sharing your experience with publishing canvas prints with NZ Art Print News.

How to photograph paintings to make perfect prints - a discussion with Auckland photographer Bret Lucas

At the Beach, Auckland Artist: Simon Williams
Fine Art Canvas Print 450 x 320mm

Auckland painter Simon Williams' first series of fine art canvas prints has just been published.  These superb quality reproductions printed on canvas right here in New Zealand (Simon's new print At the Beach, Auckland is shown at right) are an excellent example of the kind of technically accomplished reproduction that is now possible for NZ artists looking to sell prints of their paintings.  We have written recently about the vibrant digital printing scene in NZ but the arrival of Williams' particularly fine quality prints made us realise that we hadn't covered the vital first step in reproducing a painting as a print - the photographing of the painting.

So in this article we talk to Auckland photographer and lighting expert Bret Lucas of Fstopstudios (company motto "Light it Right"!) about how he ensures artists like Simon Williams will be able to create the perfect prints by expertly photographing their paintings at his specialist studio in Penrose.  NZ artists contemplating publishing prints will hopefully find the following discussion with Bret a valuable in depth technical explanation covering the techniques and experience that an artist requires from their photographer to ensure they successfully navigate their way over the image capture hurdle on the way to printing the perfect reproduction of an original painting.

Whether the end product is a canvas, offset or digital/giclee print the printing process nearly always now begins the same way with capturing the image digitally. We are very grateful to Bret for taking time out of his busy schedule to explain to NZ Art Print News what a professional photographer considers when photographing paintings at an incredibly high resolution so the artworks can be faithfully reproduced down to the smallest brushstroke like they are in modern reproduction prints.

NZ Art Print News: Photographing the painting correctly is such an important part of getting a good reproduction print or print on canvas.

Bret Lucas: Yes, this is often overlooked by many and it really is the difference between selling a few prints and a lot of prints.

NZ Art Print News: How do you make sure the painting is photographed perfectly? Light and reflection are so problematic. And how do you get a square picture! [I know from photographing prints for our catalogues at NZ Fine Prints that this is really, really hard to do - I sometimes end up having to crop corners off the pictures of the prints at pre-press time!].

How to light a painting so it photographs correctly
(Image courtesy Fstop Studios)

Bret Lucas: It's all about the light and how it's placed and reflected off the art work. All sorts of things come into play including the surface being photographed, the "family of angles", incident and reflective light, the lights depth of field, white balance, just to name a few.

I'll break this down and describe what I mean. Firstly the surface that's been photographed. If the painting or art work has physical depth due to paint brush strokes this can cause a problem with allowing unwanted specular reflections onto the final image. Understanding the family of angles allows the fix. It's a little bit like playing billiards with light. Aim the light at the surface and make sure it doesn't land in your lens when reflected off the artwork. If I'm photographing a large piece of work I'll back the light sources away to allow for the light to have less falloff across the painting. I'll also use an incident light meter to make sure the strength of the light is consistent across the entire surface of the artwork. White balance is also very important when captured a painting. The ideal is to have the colours of the painting the same as the colours in the print or canvas. I have a very good understanding of colour management and this comes in handy to make colours true both in print and on a monitor.

Getting the art work square is another thing that I pay particular attention to. Not only does the camera need to be lined up perfectly both horizontally and vertically to keep all vertical and horizontal lines true, but the distance the camera is to the artwork is equally important. Too close and you end up with a type of barrel distortion, too far away and you get a sort of pin cushioning effect. Both can be corrected in post processing, but why not get it right in camera first. The Hasselblad lenses I use allows for distortion free imagery.

NZ Art Print News: Do you have to take the painting out of the frame?

Bret Lucas: Ideally I'll take the picture out of the frame, but if that's not an option I can work around it as I have a very thorough understanding of light and how it works on surfaces.

NZ Art Print News: Do you photograph in your studio or where the painting is hung?

Bret Lucas: I have a 5000 square foot studio and shoot all types of work from cars and large sets to paintings. I have no problem shooting paintings on location but prefer total control over the environment so favour in studio shooting.

NZ Art Print News: What equipment do you use to photograph paintings?

Bret Lucas: I used to only shoot with a professional DSLR camera and still use it outside the studio but for all work in studio I use a Digital Medium Format Hasselblad camera. It has many times the resolution of a DSLR camera and provides perfect colours right out of the camera. A good example of where a DSLR falls short is how it captures reds, they are often overcooked and look nasty. The sharpness of a DSLR is also a compromise and is soft in comparison to medium format photography. The Hasselblad is the perfect camera to shoot art work and will guarantee perfect results every time. My lighting equipment is Profoto. The colour of the light is perfect from shot to shot and doesn't shift like many other brands of inferior studio lighting equipment.

NZ Art Print News: Once the painting is photographed is further processing of the image required before you hand the file over to the printers?

Bret Lucas: I use a tethered shooting process which involves hooking the camera up to a large monitor and viewing the images on the screen as they are captured. This allows for quick and easy post processing. I'll jump into Photoshop for the last bit of retouching.

Mt Eden View Artist: Simon Williams
Fine Art Canvas Print 450 x 275mm

Bret went on to tell us that although he has always photographed digitally he "found it hard to find professional photographic lighting courses that went into immense detail on lighting. New Zealand and Australia just didn't cut the mustard so I spent 5 years learning light on my own. Four years ago I purchased my own warehouse and now work from the studios I've built on a variety of projects." Bret's dedication to understanding the way that light affects the way a camera photographs a painting certainly shows when you view the brilliant new series of canvas prints from Simon Williams that illustrate this article.

As an artist having your painting photographed correctly by a professional photographer is a critical part of the process of reproducing a painting as a print, particularly with the extremely high resolution giclee prints and prints on canvas that print buyers are becoming used to buying.

More about the artworks from Simon Williams that illustrate our how to photograph paintings article:

Simon Williams has printed a selection of fine art canvas prints of his most admired paintings from a decade of successful solo exhibitions held mainly at Auckland's prestigious International Art Centre. "The contemplative beauty" of paintings by Simon Williams, writes International Art Centre's Director Frances Davies, "quiets the mind and refreshes the soul, reminding us of what we love best about New Zealand".  You can purchase Simon Williams' new prints exclusively from the canvas prints collection at New Zealand's favourite art print store.

Christchurch earthquake photographer releases canvas prints

Gillian Needham, the Canterbury designer who took the famous photograph of the Christchurch skyline at the moment of the February 22nd earthquake, has signed an international distribution deal with photo library Getty Images and NZ art publisher Image Vault. This means that the famous Christchurch earthquake photograph is now available in a larger range of print formats including a stunning range of stretched (ready to hang) and un-stretched large canvas prints.

New Christchurch Earthquake Photo Canvas Print

Christchurch Earthquake - City Skyline From Cashmere 12:58pm February 22 2011   Photographer: Gillian Needham © 2011

Prices and size options for the new canvas prints are as follows:

600 x 200mm  $84.95 or $129.95 stretched (ie around a wooden stretcher frame ready to hang)
1000 x 330mm $219.95 or $299.95 stretched
1.5metre x .5metre $349.95 or $659.95 stretched

To place your order please call New Zealand Fine Prints on 0800 800 278.

New Zealand Fine Prints have just a few of the original giclee prints in stock of the earthquake image today and this print will be replaced in our catalogue by the Image Vault publication offset print which is in a slightly different size once stock runs out.

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.

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...

Canvas Prints vs Canvas Transfer

Prints on canvas by New Zealand artists have finally started being published. The prints we have in stock in our new canvas prints gallery are different from earlier "canvas transfer" prints because they are printed directly onto a high grade artist's canvas using pigment inks.

With canvas transfer the print was bonded onto a canvas like backing using a process rather like laminating. This canvas is usually stretched onto a frame in a way that looks like the picture wraps around the edges. We have always offered eg Grahame Sydney, Diana Adams and Barry Ross Smith prints as canvas transfers ready to hang on the wall out of the box. But we are now looking forward to more true canvas art prints being published as the technology improves and customers start to appreciate the step up in quality that comes with printing directly onto canvas.