FAQ

Art FAQs

What is an original print? Aren’t all prints the same?
All prints aren’t the same by any means. An original print is one made by the artist in their studio, by hand. Printing by hand is a time consuming process in which numerous printing blocks are first hand carved. Inks then have to be mixed to the right colour, rolled onto each of the printing blocks, registered so that the various colours line up perfectly and then each colour is printed onto the image in turn. Printing 12 original prints can take a whole day to do and every original print will be slightly different. Each original print will be part of a limited edition and signed by the artist.

Mass produced prints are done digitally on a printing machine. The machine can turn out thousands of images at a time and these will all be exactly identical. The artist is not involved in the printing process and none of these images are signed.

What is a reduction linocut?
A reduction linocut is a more complicated process that normal linocutting. The normal process involves cutting a block for each colour and printing each colour separately. Reduction linocutting uses only one lino block. This block is used repeatedly: first cut, then inked, then used to print one colour and then cut and inked with a different colour until the image is finished. There is no margin for error with this system so it is the mark of a real expert an edition numbers will be small often only 25.

What is a traditional darkroom photograph?
Darkroom photographs involve several stages. In Peter’s case he starts by processing the film that he has exposed while taking photographs. This is done in complete darkness. After processing and drying, he has a negative suitable for use in printing. Under ‘red light’ Peter places high-quality silver gelatin coated paper under an enlarger, which allows him to enlarge the negative to the desired size. He exposes the negative to light for a given period to transfer the image on the negative to the photographic paper. The silver in the paper is light-sensitive and so will absorb varying quantities of light depending on the opacity or transparency of the negative.

Once exposed the paper is placed in a number of chemical baths, which develop and fix the image before it is washed. Peter then often chooses to tone the image using further chemicals because toning can give a warmer or cooler feel to the photograph. The final image is then washed, dried and mounted for framing. Printing a single complicated darkroom photograph can take anything up to three days to finish.

What do you mean by alternative photographic techniques?
Peter is a specialist in unusual forms of photography. Many of these, such as pin-hole photography, shadowgrams or cyanotypes, date back to the Victorian era and were some of the earliest types of photography. The images are exposed by sunlight and can be made outdoors rather than in a darkroom. This allows photographers to make the photographs in the landscape that they are photographing

How do I know my artwork is going to arrive safely?
We have been shipping works with glass frames for a decade and have never suffered a single lost or damaged piece of glazed artwork. We use lots of padding, lots of stout card and special boxes. To see how we package just have a look at the packaging section in our Buy Online gallery.

I can’t really get a sense of the size of the work
Have a look at the opening image in each artist’s gallery, there you can see it against a real wall with every day objects, so it should give a better idea of the size. The best way to get a good idea is to look at the dimensions of the framed work on its gallery page and then fold up a bit of newspaper to the same size and hold it up to the wall.

What happens if I don’t like what I have bought?
No problem just give us a call and we can sort out how you can return it to us in good condition so we can swap for another piece, refund, or give you vouchers to the same value to spend in the gallery.