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What is a Giclee?
Quite simply, your Edmund Sullivan GICLEE can't be told apart from the original painting!
Giclee is the result of a hands-on process that requires close collaboration between Edmund and his printer, a digital artist in his own right. Together they create and pore over numerous numerous proofs from a state-of-the-art giclee printer until both are satisfied that the brilliance and clarity of the work is impeccable. Edmund and his printer work very hard to make sure that the very special artwork that comes into your home is of the highest possible caliber even down to capturing the look of each brushstroke. Each giclee is then personally signed and numbered by Edmund.
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The “giclee” (from the French for ‘spray’) process was developed in response to the proliferation of reproduction of digital images. In order for the Fine Art world to distinguish their high end work from ordinary digital reproductions, artists and their specialized printers went beyond the standard inkjet printer and invented a new process.
Many things contribute to high quality images: a larger color range, acid free inks, and acid free paper or canvas.
Giclees have a greater range of colors and accurately match the full array of tonalities and colors in a painting, which makes for unparalleled vibrancy and detail. It also preserves the work for much longer than other printing methods. A print from a typical home photo printer would fade within a few years; it’s been estimated that a giclee can retain its vibrancy for 100-200 years! The original artwork for a giclee is also scanned on a large professional “drum” scanner that differs greatly from a flatbed or home scanner. These contribute to the increased expense to produce a quality giclee.
Giclee prints are produced using high-end printers with many more ink cartridges than ordinary home photo printers.
All color printers need at least four basic colors to print images: cyan, magenta, yellow and black. This is referred to the CMYK color system (“K” is for ‘key black’). Giclees, however, are produced on high-end printers with eight or more color cartridges, to finely match the tones, subtle variations, and colors of an image to the original. These high-end printers are often four feet wide. In addition, the ink itself is different and much more expensive; it’s acid-free, which prevents fading.
The canvas or paper used for a giclee is also acid-free.
Acid free ink and acid free canvas or paper are jointly called “archival” materials. All these variables contribute to the vast superiority of a giclee over a traditional print.
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