Art Terminology

1. Original Art - A one-of-a-kind painting or sculpture created by an artist. The artist may decide to reproduce the work as a limited or open edition print or sculpture. If you purchase an original, the artist still owns the copyright and is the only one who can reproduce it, with or without your consent. However, if you are lucky enough to own an original that gets published, it will only increase the value of your original.

 2. Limited Editions - A set number of copies made from an original work which is often, but not always, signed by the artist. Each print is numbered to show how many prints were made and the number in the edition of each particular print. [For example 5/20 indicates print 5 out of an edition of 20.] Limited editions have documentation giving specific details about the print medium and size, edition size, etc. This document is known as a Certificate of Authenticity. Limited editions are the next best things to the original after a Remarque.

3. Remarque (pronounced remark) - A limited edition print to which the artist adds a small drawing. The artist signs and numbers the image, adding the letters R/M to indicate the type of print and how many were produced. A Remarque costs more than a limited edition because the artist drawing in essence makes the print a one-of-a-kind. 

4. Artist Proof (A/P) - When a limited edition is produced, 10% of the edition may be designated as artist proofs and signed as such. These pieces have the letters A/P next to the edition number and cost more than a limited edition because there are fewer of them.

5. Open Editions - Open edition prints may be produced in any quantity and size, and for however long the publisher wishes to produce the print. They may be signed by the artist, but never numbered. This is the least valuable type of art, but it is a good way to start collecting. Use them to enhance the walls in your home or office. 

6. Original Lithography - Instead of creating a painting with a brush on canvass, the artist draws the image in an oily substance on the printing plate. A different plate is created for each color in the image. Each plate is then etched or set by chemical process and printed to create the image. These prints cost more than offset lithographs.

7. Original Serigraph - Working from the artist original, the image is cut into a screen, not a plate. Serigraphy (silk-screening or screen printing) is a "direct" printing process. The image is not reversed from the screen to the print. A screen of silk, nylon or wire mesh is tightly stretched across a frame and a design is stenciled into the screen. Ink passes through "open" areas on the screen onto paper to create the image.

8. Offset Lithography - A photo-mechanical process using powerful lenses to provide the basic "breaking down" of the artists' blend of colors into a graduation of four inks; magenta, yellow, blue, and black. Craftsmen then make "color corrections" by hand to capture some specific shade or tone. 

9. Intaglio (etchings) - "Intaglio" is Italian and means to "cut in" or "engrave". The areas which print on the paper are cut, scratched or chemically bitten into the printing plate. Ink is forced into these lines, and excess ink is removed from the uncut surface of the plate. Dampened paper is then placed upon the printing plate and both are run through a high pressure, press to print the design. 

10. Giclee - (zhee-clay, French word meaning to spray) This digital process uses an iris printer to take an image which has been scanned onto a disk and transfers it onto fine art paper or canvas using an extremely high quality ink jet printer. The results are an impressively high image detail and brilliant color density and saturation