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!

Artist Print or Reproduction Print? Spotting the difference in the era of Digital Printmaking

Are Prints by Digital Printmakers Reproductions or Original Artists' Prints?

Prints created on a computer or printed using an inkjet printer (the giclee process) can sometimes be classified as an "original" or "artists" print, just like a print made using a more traditional process such as etching or handmade silkscreens.  We agree with artist David Hockney who says bluntly "the computer is just a tool" and exhibits inkjet (or giclee) prints drawn on a graphics pad because clearly the image only exists in printed form, there is no "original" therefore it is an original work of art (in multiple form).

However many high priced digitally produced prints are not original prints, they are (albeit very high quality) reproductions.

When giclee/digital prints first appeared the high cost of materials and hardware created a blurring of the price signal differentiation between artists prints and reproduction prints. The print buyer was also paying for a higher quality product than an offset print (in terms of longevity of inks, colour fidelity and the option of reproduction onto canvas as well as fine art paper) but the prices for early digital prints were often further amplified by the premium for a more exclusive reproduction, the infiintely flexible "limited edition" being exploited by early adopters of the giclee printing process who were reproducing paintings.

Original digital print by NZ printmaker Alec Tayler

High prices being asked for  reproduction giclee prints has made the path for acceptance of pioneering digital printmakers like NZ's Alec Tayler just that much tougher. Tayler's work passes all the tests for an original artists' print but at $350 (for an edition of 180) they are still priced below some reproduction prints of a similar size.

There used to be an obvious distinction between prints created by hand (original prints) and prints made by machine (reproduction) and some straightforward tests for informed buyers to classify the value and rarity of a printed artwork they were purchasing.  But our conclusion is that the advent of digital printmaking processes is making some of the previously useful rules of thumb for making the distinction between "artists prints" and "reproduction prints" less useful and possibly obselete.


Why doesn't NZ Fine Prints call reproductions of other artworks "reproductions" and reserve the term "print" for original artists' prints, produced digitally or otherwise?

This writer has previously been taken to task for New Zealand Fine Prints' policy of calling copies of artworks in other media (such as oil paintings or watercolours) "prints".  For instance Kerikeri printmaker Mark Graver took exception in both an article in the Artists Alliance Magazine #76 and in his book "Non Toxic Printmaking" (you can read a copy of his article here) when he was told by me in an email exchange that he was ‘fighting a losing battle’ in terms of trying to educate the public, and that ‘the terms art print and art reproduction, even poster are seen as pretty much interchangeable by the general public’.

Our response is that because the terms are used interchangeably it does not make sense from a business perspective to fight this battle.  Our artists and publishers rely on us to get sales and we operate in a competitive marketplace. Mercedes tried for years to promote "pre-owned cars" but nobody was looking for them, they now call them "used cars" like everyone else.

In our catalogues we have reproductions alongside screenprints or giclee prints next to limited edition reproductions of antique prints if they have a common theme or topic as we believe clear labelling, detailed descriptions and expert articles in NZ Art Print News will keep print buyers educated and informed.

"Cracker Biscuit"
Screenprinted reproduction of a
 painting by Michael Smither

[However as the series of prints by famous NZ artist Michael Smither we are cataloguing at the moment demonstrates classifying prints is still no easy task - Smither's range includes original prints AND handmade (screenprinted) prints that are based on original paintings].

As the shift to digital printmaking by fine art printmakers gathers pace it is more useful to ignore calls by printmakers like Graver for government regulation and to instead listen to his more sensible advice based not on regulating the process but on understanding the artist's intent. As Graver himself concedes "A Giclee… can be as much an original print as an etching or wood cut, it depends on the artist’s motive."

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.

Photographer Fiona Pardington says Inkjet prints are exciting, powerful and extending her artistic practice

Fiona Pardington is at the forefront of New Zealand's current generation of fine art photographers.  Much has been written about her use of "pure" analogue darkroom techniques such as hand printing and toning so it was a revelation to hear the following excerpt from her interview with Kim Hill on National Radio's "Saturday Morning with Kim Hill Show" on Saturday.

Kim Hill asks, "A couple of technical questions, what's Hahnemule cotton rag paper?"

Fiona Pardington: "It's a beautiful, you know if I was a watercolourist or someone like [NZ Painter] John Reynolds I'd be using that."

Kim Hill: "What is it?"

Fiona Pardington: "It's this lovely rag paper, it's just a paper a big thick chunky beautiful watercolourly looking paper and it's archival and, ahhh, inkiets great. It's for me, I kind of treat it like its a kind of historical photolithography process."

Kim Hill: "And is this what you are using?"

Fiona Pardington: "Yes, I have sold my soul to the digital world. "

Kim Hill: "...and you are using inkjet on cotton rag paper?"

Fiona Pardington: "Yes, it's sexy, I am. It is beautiful."

Kim Hill: "…and would I, if I knew about these things, would I look at your photographs and say yes, they are made by inkjet prints?"

Fiona Pardington: "No, well actually a few people haven't really known how I'd done it."

Kim Hill: "So what difference does it make?"

Fiona Pardington: "So it ranges, to me its a kind of… when you can find a new material that extends your practice and takes all of the qualities that you have had with them but they are transformed through another substance in a new unique way that has your aesthetic integrity intact in that transformation - that's when you move materials and for me I'm just like a pig in mud, it's so exciting. It has allowed me to think and see differently and to experience a lot of the qualities and talents that I have in a new and more powerful way."

With one of New Zealand's leading contemporary photographers in both the academic and artistic worlds embracing the new world of digital printing  as not only preserving her artistic integrity but also being so excited with the possibilities that she is like a "pig in mud" we think that serious collectors of New Zealand photography can embrace digital editions by photographers like Craig Potton with total confidence.

Coromandel series art prints by Rosemary Mortimer

Rosemary Mortimer is an artist whose work is both political and decorative. In her paintings she juxtaposes classic New Zealand landscape scenery (of eg Coromandel's Matapaua Bay) with subtle tiles of subdivision plans for the same pristine areas of New Zealand coastline. Rosemary prints her limited edition works using the giclee method with museum quality inks onto archival quality 310gsm Hahnemuhle German etching paper.

Mortimer (1959 - ) graduated from Wellington Polytechnic School of Design in 1977 and has exhibited widely in solo and group shows including the Goodman Suter Biennale, Wellington City Art Gallery, Downlands Art Exhibition (Queensland) and the Pataka (Porirua Museum) Opening Exhibition. Mortimer was an 'Artist in Residence' for the QE11 Arts Council in 1988 and has won a number of prestigious awards including the BNZ Art Award for Printmaking. We have three prints of her Coromandel series of paintings in stock this afternoon.

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.

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).

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.