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.

Grahame Sydney on Landscape & Art

Famous NZ landscape painter Grahame Sydney (in his role as outspoken opponent to Meridian's proposed wind farm on the Lammermoor Range in central Otago) has been saying some interesting things in recent interviews that give a revealing insight into how he views his artistic relationship with the NZ (particularly Otago) landscape.  For instance in his written submission on behalf of the Maniototo Environmental Society to the Environment Court hearing back in 2008 Sydney wrote that "landscapes had a power and a meaning which was real, mysterious, andvital to many people's sense of identity.  They play a vital role, aesthetic, cultural and spiritual, in the lives of New Zealanders." Sydney also claimed that "Central Otago landscapes had a greater capacity to affect people's imagination than most others in New Zealand." This could be the matter of some debate as arguably many NZers relate at least as strongly to a painting of a pohutukawa fringed beach or a view of Mt Cook as they might to a landscape in Central Otago.

In another interview with the Dominion Post the painter is quoted as saying "What people don't get is that beauty does not have to be scenic majesty like mountains and lakes. There are many different types of beauty. Some people would look on this and just see bleak barren wasteland, but I see it as something unique and something very particular and special to Central Otago. I love it up here. I find it absolutely exhilarating."

The picture shown here is Grahame Sydney with the graffiti style defaced print of Timeless Land - a 2008 fundraiser for the "Save Central" campaign formed to fight wind-farm development in the Central Otago landscapes that he loves to paint. [Photo Credit: Diane Brown ODT].  His defaced artwork was "a way of delivering the extent to which I feel the whole energy push is an insult to landscapes - especially ones I love the most, and the feeling that we have to make better decisions than this because the change to landscapes supposedly of a temporary nature, result in permanent damage, and there are better ways".

The wind farm debate is an interesting battle between the needs of business and electricity consumers and those to whom the aesthetic appreciation of a landscape is the over-riding consideration.  It is an intriguing twist in the story that artistic or aesthetic grounds would not have been made such an important factor in the opposition to the Central Otago windfarm development before the paintings of artists like Grahame Sydney!

NZ Prints Video - New Zealand's Top Selling Art Prints in 2009

We have just created a short (1 minute) video celebrating NZ's top selling art prints by New Zealand artists in 2009.  Showcases the artwork of NZ painters and printmakers like Dick Frizzell, Ralph Hotere, Rita Angus, Bill Hammond, Grahame Sydney, Diana Adams and C.F Goldie.  Find out what was New Zealand's most popular print in 2009!

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...

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.