LIMITED EDITION PRINTS INFORMATION
Colin Bailey
ARTIST & PRINTMAKER
SEE MY WORK ALSO AT:
Limited Edition Prints
The terms Limited edition print, original print and reproduction print are often confusing Artists have always sought to find a wider audience for their work and in the days before modern media made art accessible to almost anyone this meant prints.
Many artists developed various printmaking techniques to produce multiple images of their work, separate and often stylistically quite different from their unique art. The quantity of images produced was at the mercy of the practical constraints of the media used, and the price reflected that. The development of photography and the technology to reproduce images accurately and in almost unlimited quantities posed a dilemma. Printmaking as a means of expression for the artist became separate from printing - the much broader means of producing multiple images from a variety of sources in almost unlimited quantities.
Artists now had two choices:
1 Reproduction prints
Have an original piece of artwork photographed and reproduced in limitless quantities by printers, ensuring a much wider audience but lowering the perceived value, or produce limited edition re-production prints; Limit the amount printed to a specified amount and sign and number each print each print accordingly
2 Original prints
Work directly in the traditional printmaking media as before, exploring the strengths and weaknesses of each printmaking medium separately from any other one-off medium and then limiting the edition as above.
Recent technology now means the boundaries have become blurred. Artists now have access to computers and can print their own giclée prints. The term printmaker generally refers to an artist producing prints by traditional “hand pulled” methods; is an artist producing digital work entirely on a PC and then printing it out on a giclee printer producing an original print and can he or she be called a printmaker? By the criteria above I would argue yes - but there are many etchers, lithographers and screen-printers that would disagree with me!
Numbering of prints and
Artists Proofs
Limited edition prints are traditionally signed and numbered in pencil with the edition number on the bottom left, the title in the middle and signature on the right. It is generally accepted that the printmaker can mark A/P (Artists Proof) on up to ten per cent of the edition So an edition of 100 would have numbers 1/100 - 100/100 and an extra ten marked A/P.
Etchings (original prints)
Limited edition fine art prints: Signed and numbered by the artist. Etchings available in editions of between 25 and 100. Printed by hand on 225 GSM Rives paper off hand-drawn copper plates etched in “Dutch Mordant” Some editions are hand coloured by the artist using professional quality Schmincke watercolour paints. See What is an Etching?. Prices: from £75 - £125
Giclée (Reproduction prints)
Limited edition fine art reproduction prints: Signed and numbered by the artist. Giclée prints available in editions of 250. Original artwork scanned at 1200 dpi and printed on 310 GSM Hahnemühle "German etching" Archival quality paper at 360 dpi using waterproof and light fast inks. See What is a Giclée print?. Prices: from £30 - £45
7 limited edition prints
6 limited edition prints
5 limited edition prints
8 limited edition prints
9 limited edition prints
8 limited edition prints
3 limited edition prints
Colin Bailey is an artist and printmaker living and working in Hastings, East Sussex after living in Rye for ten years and Kings Cross, London for fifteen years. Originally an etcher, and still with a printmaker’s instinct for multiple images, Colin has embraced the advance of recent technology through the use of digital photography, high resolution scanning and archival quality giclée printing.
As a popular Rye artist Colin Bailey realised the wider appeal of this small picturesque area of the south east coast and set up this website as a showcase for his Rye and Kings Cross etchings. Now in Hastings, with a growing reputation as a Hastings artist he has expanded his portfolio and has produced a series of paintings which he scans and reproduces as limited edition fine art giclée prints, handling this whole process himself in order to maintain artistic integrity.