What is a Giclee?

What are giclees?

According to Wiki Dictionary,

Quote :

"Giclée (pronounced /ʒiːˈkleɪ/ "zhee-clay" or /dʒiːˈkleɪ), is a neologism coined in 1991 by printmaker Jack Duganne^[1] for fine art digital prints made on ink-jet printers. The name originally applied to fine art prints created on IRIS printers
in a process invented in the late 1980s but has since come to mean any
high quality ink-jet print and is often used by artist, galleries, and
print shops to denote such prints."

This printing process has pretty much replaced the more-expensive lithographic prints in today's market, although I still have quite a few lithographs available for sale because you had to order them in larger quantities.

The high-quality giclee prints are printed on archival paper with archival inks. With ink jet printers becoming more financially accessable, more people are making giclee prints, but they may not be as high a quality because of the inks used. They are of high-enough quality, however, for prints in the medium price range.

I saw you had made mention in another thread somewhere that you have only sold prints and not the actual paintings? So this is what you do - make prints of your paintings for selling? Do you have someone else do the actual printing for you? What sizes do you print? What do you do with all of your actual paintings?

I have an Epson Photo 1280 wide-format injet printer which I can print up to 13" x 19" or smaller. I used to have a print shop in Arizona who specialized in reproducing art work and did a wonderful job. They were all laser prints and held up remarkably well even in sunlight. I couldn't find a comparable company in northern NY so I got the printer and do them myself.

My first 4 paintings were pastels and I had lithographs made. I had to have a photographer do four-color separated negatives for each one and it cost about $100 for his services. The printer would only do a minimum of 300 lithographs at about $2 a piece bringing my entire order up to $2400...yikes. That was why I switched to the laser prints and eventually my own printer. The cost per print is about the same, but I can have one or 10 or any amount I want.

Since I'm not doing art shows anymore, I am using a service that handles everything. http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/judy-filarecki.html

So, you don't do art shows anymore - so who do you paint for? Just for yourself? Or do you still make a living off of your paintings?

This is all new to me - I started painting because it was something I have always wanted to be able to do, but I never gave much thought to where I want to take my painting, or what my goals would be. So I love hearing about what others are doing with their painting and where they have taken it. I loved reading Jim's biography on his website! It was encouraging that you don't have to start young in order to get good enough to "do something" with your work!

Now, I mainly do it for enjoyment plus make some money to support my hobby. If I had to live off it, I'd starve.

My walls are getting pretty full and some days I wonder why I'm doing it, but I enjoy it and I enjoy sharing with others

That's really cool! If I ever made any money off my paintings (in the future, of course), I would just about fall over! But it would be a great feeling!