The challenge to me is how many ways could I have finished this piece. The concept is not new, we encounter it daily when we rethink a project, when we reevaluate our lives and when we look for alternate solutions. We are challenged to grow, to use more of the gray matter that occupies the cavity in our brain.
Embellished prints give me the space to explore those questions, to venture down the “what if road” and prolongs the adventure that drives the creative process.
What is an embellished print? It is a reproduction the artist repaints. It will not be the same as the original but will have some different highlights or some feature that is altered. The process is threefold. Firstly one has to create and original piece of art work, for me that is usually florals and more often than not florals which exist in my garden or someone I know. I prefer intimate contact with the flower I am painting, when I use pictures I feel distant and most often do not get the life force of the flower (fig1 Rose Hibiscus-Original)
Secondly because I have such an intimate relationship with my subject I feel compelled to paint many renditions of the flower, which I most often do and then you will see names coming up such as hibiscus infatuation and phaleonopsis fascination. Then there are times when I will see a flower which looks very much like one I have painted before but two different petals or a deeper shade of red creates such an enticing view that if I change a few petals I’d capture the effect. At this point I prepare a giclee print, seal it and begin to alter those elements that deliver a new rendition. Calypso Hibiscus is one such print. In this instance I have emphasized the darks and lightened the petals with a yellow glow making the flower more yellow than orange.
Thirdly I believe that each rendition must be described. With each embellished print I am careful to describe the changes and focus of the rendition. An artist statement recounts for my buyers the process and reason for this piece.
The embellished print is not the original; not all of the painting has been altered and therefore I would not describe it as an original. To quote one gallery owner who believes that it is original “ there is no other piece like it, so therefore it is an original” Two conflicting points of view but two perfectly acceptable opinions. These embellished prints carry two distinguishable markers firstly, the signature is original (I re-sign each one). Secondly, the date of the original is hand painted over the number of embellished prints I have done (fig 4).
There is the question of durability. My embellished prints are first giclee (reproductions of an image using inkjet printer and archival inks. The process and the prints are called giclee) on canvas. This means that the best materials and processes have been used. I use acrylic paints (plastic base) which have as long a life time as the plastics which now pollute our oceans and streams but which in this instance carries no harmful vapors and which uses water rather than solvents to clean. You would take as much care with this painting as with the original and it will last just as long.
The pricing questions are always a challenge. To quote Chase of Art Business News “As the economy slows, I think that dealers are finding hand-embellished graphics to be a vital product for those collectors who are ‘hedging’ on originals but don’t want to buy ‘just a graphic’. Hand-embellished works offer something unique but at a more affordable price”.
This leads me to the final point. There will never be many embellished prints of a particular piece and very often there will never be more than one or two on the market at a given time. The embellished print is less expensive than the original but you can be assured that there is no other one like it out there, it is unique.