Tag Archive for "art"
- It is best to use only 100% acid free museum standard materials with a pH factor of 7.5 to 8.3 for any mounts or hinges that come into contact with the artwork. In the USA the term matt is used instead of mount where mountboard is a backing board only.
- Wood pulp mountboard is not acid-free which means it can discolour the board or paper the artwork has been printed on. Mountboard should at least have an acid-free backing in contact with the print but the inner edge of the mount will discolour over time. It is best to use removable acid free hinges attached from the back of the print to the back of the mountboard but failing this use only a low tack masking tape.
- Prints on a lighter stock should be only attached at the top of the mount and allowed to hang free. This should stop any creasing around the edges due to changes in environmental conditions. The alternative is to have them dry-mounted or fixed to a self-adhesive board (see other articles to follow).
- It best to use a small craftsman for the framing rather than high street shops that tend to be more expensive and of a lower quality generally speaking. These can usually be found by trawling through the smaller adds in your phone book or craft magazines. Wherever you go you’ll find the attitude of a real craftsman is different. They will take the time to examine the print and select the appropriate colour of mountboard and frame to complement the colours in the image. If you are there then you should find them keen to discuss these options with you. The basic approach is to look at the main background colour of the image and work with that but this is not always the best solution. Brightly coloured images like fantasy and sci-fi art images can sometimes benefit from a more creative approach to the use of coloured mounts. Black and cream are always an option for the mount but have certain drawbacks. Black will tend to make an image look more stark so it can entirely ruin a subtle picture … like a print of a watercolour painting perhaps. Cream can tend to be bland, bringing out the yellow tones a little but that’s all. Generally, with bold images darker mounts work better than lighter ones.
- Artists UK can supply your prints bought at Artists UK mounted and framed using high grade generic plexiglass which has the advantages of being lighter, practically unbreakable and more resistant to UV radiation than glass. We do not generally recommend the use of non-reflective glass as this is not completely clear and tends to dull the image, especially when it is mounted and therefore not flat against the glass (which of course is one reason for mounting anyway – to keep the print away from contact with the glass where humidity might cause it to stick to the glass in the long-term).
- Over the years prints can still be damaged by poor environmental conditions even when well-framed so it is best to air-condition or dehumidify any room that has dampness or is prone to excessive water vapours (hanging quality prints in bathrooms is to be avoided at all costs!). Very low humidity is also to be avoided as is siting the print directly over a radiator or other heat source.
- Flourescent lighting and sunlight have harmful UV rays so it is best to keep even light-fast ink printed Limited Editions away from these and prints printed without these inks (practically all those published before the mid-nineties and some later ones) will fade.
- If the artist has signed in ink rather than pencil then this can be prone to fading so keep it out of direct sunlight.
- Never use any cleaning materials on the surface of the print.
- If there is any form of damage, staining or discolouring at any time then seek professional assistance rather than trying to correct it yourself.
Following these guidelines should help to ensure that your Limited Edition print stays in good condition, provides pleasure for many years and possibly becomes a very good investment for you.
Any questions, then email us from the Contact Us button on the link below or write a comment we can reply to.
As promised, here are artist Ed Org’s dates for the rest of this year. He is doing two places on some weekends. He has not confirmed yet whether he has gained a yogic power to bi-locate or is going to be at one fair one day and at another on the other day or parts of each day or whether someone else is running one of the stalls for him. Or maybe he is actually twins with the same name or has been recently cloned. All will be revealed in the fulness of time and when we know we’ll let you know … 
Nov 17/18 Broadlands, Nr Romsey, Hampshire.
Nov 24/25 Ludlow Medieval Fayre, Ludlow Castle, Shropshire.
Nov 24/25 Loseley House Crafts for Xmas, Loseley Park, Compton, Guildford, Surrey.
Dec 1/2 Marlborough Xmas Fair, Marlborough Town Hall, High St, Wilts.
Dec 8/9 Knebworth Xmas Show, Knebworth House, Herts.
Dec 8/9 Caerphilly Medieval Fayre, Caerphilly Castle, S.Wales.
Dec 22 Xmas Dorchester, Dorchester Town Hall, Dorset.
Ed Org prints can be purchased here.
The link between art and music is very strong, probably more like a marriage really, especially where the production of an album is concerned. In the field of popular music and particularly with those bands who employed top artists to design their covers the end of the vinyl era meant the end of large packaging for albums and much of the artwork that looked so impressive on a gatefold vinyl album measuring some 12″ x 24″ didn’t look quite so impressive on the cassette or CD format. The tiny cassette format especially did no favours to sweeping majestic artwork.
When you think that artists like the legendary Roger Dean paint on huge canvases it really doesn’t seem as if art came off very well in the marriage does it? If you get to see a poster of his work (like one of those here for instance) then you’ll see what I mean. It is good to see that bands still use great artists for their album covers though. The work done by Dave McKean for instance is remarkable. Check out the Paradise Lost album covers he did - ‘Shades of God’ and ‘Draconian Times’ are particularly good examples of his work in this genre.
The problem of course is that for many bands the budget for the album cover is no longer as high as it used to be but given the talent out there it should still be possible to get a stunning cover even within a reasonable budget. The great thing about using the big names is, of course, the fact that people will recognise the work because they have seen it around so much. This can be very useful for tapping into a particular target market. No doubt Paradise Lost were well aware of Dave McKean’s work for Neil Gaiman’s Sandman series and well aware that the readers of that series would be in their target market. If they weren’t, it was indeed a lucky accident …
Maybe we will have a trawl back over the years before long and recommend some awesome album art … and maybe some awesome songs too!
Another first from Artists UK DotNet! If you are an artist (or even if you’re not) perhaps you have had a piece of artwork, painting etc (or several even!) reported lost or destroyed by a publisher or manufacturer with no evidence. Or maybe the artwork or painting was just plain stolen from your house or exhibition. Whichever it was, at Artists UK DotNet we are offering a free listing service to help in the recovery of such items. Someone out there must know something! Our new section for these listings is here.
This may be of particular use to artists who did not have artwork returned by publishers in the bad old days before the legal requirements came in to do so. Of course, it may be that the current owner has no idea that the artist was never paid and that the artwork still belongs to them. It may be that they acquired it through perfectly honest means as far as they know. But maybe they would feel uncomfortable enough to part with it or make some form of payment if they knew that it had not been legitimatelyacquired from the artist.
If your painting or artwork was stolen then it must be somewhere, someone must know something and the Worldwide Web must be the best of all possible places to try to reach that ’someone’. There are no guarantees so that is why we do not intend to charge for this service. What have you got to lose? Send us an email with as much information as you have and preferably a small jpg image of the painting or artwork that will come up around 3″ x 4″ on the screen. Make sure you tell us when and where the painting or artwork was lost or stolen as also who might be interested in owning it (so we can include relevant words in the listing to pick up on searches through search engines). We’ll also need your statement in writing in the email that you are the legal owner of this painting or artwork. If you are prepared to offer a reward for the return of this painting or artwork then please let us know how much.
We hope this new service will be of use to artists and art lovers in recovering their property. If you have any comments or suggestions about all this then please click the Comments link and tell us what you think.
Click on the Dark Dragon and see more great art by Ciruelo Cabral!