Arthur BOYD painting 'Bride Running Away' sold for $1,680,000, 'The Frightened Bridegroom' sold for 1,200,000 and 'Bridegroom Waiting for His Bride to Grow Up' sold for $1,057,500.

AWARDS: 1956 Signatory to Antipodeans Manifesto; 1970 Officer of the Order of the British Empire; 1971 Britannica Award; 1979 Officer of the Order of Australia; 1979 OBE London UK; 1992 Companion of the Order of Australia; 1995 Australian of the Year Winner of the Australian of the Year Award; 1998 Australia Post honored series of postage stamps

Video BOYD, Australian National News, ABC TV

Video BOYD Sunday Afternoon, ABC TV

Video BOYD Sunday Afternoon, ABC TV

COLLECTIONS: National Gallery of Victoria, National Gallery of Australia, The Vatican,  Artbank, Parliament of Australia, Earl of Essex Edward, Powerhouse Museum, Metropolitan Museum NY, Musée national de la Marine Accueil Paris, Joan Sutherland Performing Arts Centre, State Library NSW, Parliament NSW, Mitchell Shire Libraries, State Library NSW, Governor NSW, Westmead Hospital, Charles Strut University, University NSW, Family Court Australia, Bundaberg Regional Gallery, Tamworth Regional Gallery, Dubbo Regional Gallery, Bathurst Regional Gallery, Wollongong City Gallery, Comalco Rio Tinto

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AWARDS: 1991 the Queen's Birthday Honours, 1991 the Order of Australia, 2006 the Companion of the Order Australia's highest civilian Honour

Margaret Hannah Olley is one of Australia's most distinguished artists.

Garry Shead is Australia's highly acclaimed artist. Shead belongs to that group of artists including Brett Whiteley and Martin Sharp.

AWARDS: 2004 Dobell Prize for Drawing (Winner), Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney ; 1993 Archibald Prize (Winner), Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney 17 September 2016 ; 1986 Mahlab Art Prize (Winner), New South Wales Law Society, Sydney ; 1967 Young Contemporaries Prize (Winner), Blaxland Gallery, Sydney

Techniques & Terminology - Making Authentic Fine Art Graphic Artworks

Each of the various methods of Graphics-making yields a distinct appearance. Artists choose a specific technique in order to achieve a desired result. The choice made by the artist to produce an image “in Graphic” is the same as choosing to work in oil or any other medium. The only difference in Graphic lies in the possibility of producing a number of near identical images.

Then the plate may then be destroyed or changed completely.

This is the first proof that meets with the approval of the artist and is used as a yardstick by the Graphicers so the edition is consistent.

A multiple of colours is then applied to the surface of the plate and re-Graphs-iced until the final image is captured. The textured surface more closely simulates the painterly effects of the original artwork.

A designation for paper and paper based materials with a pH value of 7 or greater (based on an acidityalkali scale of 0 to 14. Using acid-free matboards, backing and Graphicmaking paper prevents acid burns (yellowishbrown burn lines) and discolouration from appearing on your artwork over time.

Papers used in fine art artworks that are acid-free and specifically made to last over time. These papers, which often have textured surfaces and extra heavy weight, are particularly conducive to accepting Graphics-making inks for contrast, colour saturation and image longevity.

Historically paper was made in the west using cotton and linen rags. Today the term rag paper is sometimes applied to paper manufactured using cotton linters as its base fibre. It is usually neutral Ph, hard wearing and long lasting. Pulp paper made from trees is more acidic and less reliable and tough to withstand Graphs-icing pressure.

Areas where tone is not wanted are blocked out with a varnish. Acid bites around each grain of rosin giving the plate a tooth to hold ink by increasing the surface area of the plate. There are various methods of aquatint and they allow the artist to paint an image on the plate to create a gestural effect that resembles a brush stroke or spill. 

The artist paints the acid, sometimes mixed with spit, directly on a plate. This plate is already prepared to bite as an aquatint. This gives a spontaneous effect varying in depth of tone and the amount of acid used.

Colour is achieved when several plates are Graphiced one on top of the other. A separate plate is required when areas of different colours overlap one another.
A-la-poupee is another method of colour Graphicing in which several colours are inked on a single plate or plates.
Sometimes colour is rolled on a surface through a stencil to facilitate the Graphicing off the surface as well as from the ink in the lines. Some artists enhance their artworks with watercolour which is not a Graphicing process but an add on referred to as hand tinting. 

Intaglio means to cut or incise. Intaglio and etching are interchangeable terms for an inscribed Graphicing plate process. It describes a number of Graphicing processes including engraving, etching, dry-point, aquatint, and mezzotint. A metal plate is incised, coated in ink that is pressed into the incised areas. It is then wiped clean with gauze, called Tarleton, and finished with the palm of the hand. The inked plate is laid on the flat bed of the etching press, covered with damp paper and layers of felt and then subjected by the press roller to many tons of pressure, transferring the image to the paper. The Graphic is carefully dried to keep the paper flat. 

Relief Graphicing is a process where protruding surface faces of the Graphicing plate or block are inked while recessed areas are ink free. Graphicing the image is a relatively simple matter of inking the face of the matrix and bringing it in firm contact with paper. The ink is usually rolled on with a suitable roller however some relief Graphics use water based, rather than oily ink and usually a barren or firm wad is passed over the back of the paper and is sufficient to make the transfer of the inked image to the paper. 

Lithography is a Planographic Graphicing process that makes use of the immiscibility of grease and water. In the lithographic process, ink is applied to a grease-treated image on the flat Graphicing surface of a stone or plate. Non-image areas, which hold moisture, repel the lithographic ink that is greasy or oily. Ink from the greasy image area will be transferred to the Graphicing paper.

As the name implies a mono-Graphic is generally considered to be a single Graphic that is taken from a surface that has Graphicmaking ink, or in some cases paint, that is applied directly to the surface of a matrix by an artist. It is transferred to paper using pressure.

A plate is coated with wax or varnish, called a ground or acid resist. A sharp tool called a needle is used to scratch away the ground. The plate is immersed in acid which attacks (bites) the areas that have been scratched away, incising lines that are later filled with ink and Graphiced. A hard line is characteristic of a hard ground etching.  The extent of the acid bite is controlled by the length of time the plate remains in the acid. A deeper bite yields a darker line or tone. Massed lines and cross hatching also gives tones. 

A wax ground is made soft enough, by adding Vaseline or especially soft wax, to act as a resist on a metal plate This ground can be removed by pressing something into it. It is traditional for paper to be laid over the waxed plate and for pressure to be applied with a pencil, fingers, pen or crayon transferring this positive art work to the back of the paper and exposing areas of the plate to be etched. When Graphiced, soft ground lines are similar to pencil of crayon lines.

No ground is used to create the image. The plate is not submerged in a tray of acid. This is a direct linear process involving force. The artist draws with a sharp tool directly on the metal plate. The lines produced are characteristically soft and furry because the displaced metal creates a burr that holds ink along the incised groove and it produces a dragged, soft look. This process is often combined with an etched plate to give emphasis to an area that is intended to be rich and dark.

The artist works from dark to light. A solid black plate is usually created by working a shaped tool, known as a rocker, over the plate. Its many little spikes rough up the surface of the plate and when inked will Graphic solid black. The artist scrapes away the tooth in varying degrees to create areas that become white when Graphiced or various shades of grey.

An image is put on a plate photographically, the plate is bitten to different depths and tone or tooth is applied with aquatint and then Graphiced in intaglio. Direct gravure is a variant without the use of a camera in which the artist draws an image on a plastic film for transfers it to the plate.

Photographic images are applied to the plate using a plastic ground and a halftone screen to create tooth instead of aquatint, as in photogravure. 

A linear process in which the artist cuts directly into the plate with a diamond faceted tool called a burin to produce a sharp line.

Plate mark is the indented impression of the edge of the plate in the paper caused by the pressure of the Graphicing press as the paper and plate pass under the rollers. If the bevelled edge of the plate has been smoothed by polishing, when Graphiced it will leave a clean indentation. If it is left rough it will carry some ink and be dark. 

This technique is often referred to as 'serigraphy', it is a term coined to distinguish between commercial and artistic silk screen making.

What is the difference between hand made limited edition artwork and digital Graphics?

Most artists will continue to use mediums such as etching, lithographs, silkscreens and others because of its astonishing sensitivity to the papers involved and because each Graphic is an artwork in itself and collectable.

No two Graphic artworks are completely the same, each Graphic artwork is unique and that’s why they are so collectable.

Computer generated images are newish and some artists use them to make limited or open edition reproductions. They are generated by a digital Graphicing process.

You can frame your Fine Art Limited Edition or connect us to help you with the framers we use directly. Like us, they are experts and will ensure your Fine Art Limited Edition is presented in the best way possible.

This means that the signature is both a sign of authenticity and also a sign of the artist’s approval.

The acid free papers, properly stored show no such degredation, even after many years.

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