From CanvasPop with Love!

A large box has arrived with a pink sticker in a shape of a heart saying “Made with Love” and indeed it was. Being carefully packed in multiple layers of cardboard and three layers of bubble wrap a framed print has finally immerged. Quality and attention to detail is striking. The print was carefully placed under the glass in a thin black wooden frame, ready to be hung on the wall by a solid metal string with two little buttons attached to the inside of the lower part of the fame to prevent it from touching the wall. The glass had one more plastic protection layer and the label on the back of it had the name of the quality controller.

One word comes to mind – perfection.  

 

 I am not surprised as since 2009 CanvasPop has been absolutely obsessed with providing its clients with quality prints framed or on canvas.

 This fast paced business has already acquired more than a hundred thousand lucky customers who enjoyed their prints.  As an artist I can only say that any painting or  photograph put in a frame looks somehow different, a frame serves as a “window” into another world of the image, which gives you a feel that you are there, inside, being part of this world…  

Oh yes, another word can characterise this company – Generosity!  

I guess the popularity of CanvasPop is also due to the fact that, in spite of high quality products they have always been generous, offering discounts up to 30% to new customers, running contests,  giving and sharing , spreading their love across the globe.

They are always ready to go that “extra mile” providing their customers with a team of talented photo experts who would bring uploaded photographs to perfection, adjusting colours and contrast, if necessary removing red-eye and so on and all this at no extra cost. 

 

Their solid guarantee of the quality includes reprinting your photograph should you feel not 100 percent satisfied or otherwise you would have their 100% Love Guaranteed. 

Their Personal Designer is always there to make your special picture perfect. 

  

This Tall Ship print, framed by CanvasPop, is now proudly decorates the wall in my living room above the fireplace.  They can share their love with you, too! With a click of a button you can upload your favourite picture and participate in their new Contest to get a chance to win a free print from this amazing company. 

 

What are you waiting for? 

                                                                                                                                                                                

Print Framing – How to choose the best frame for your print.

Being an artist and a photographer I have had to acquire experience in framing pictures and photographs, too, which I would like to share with you today.

I will not talk about framing of oil or acrylic paintings on canvas as they will be framed by a specialist in one single frame. As for framing photographs and pictures on paper, such as watercolour, drawings, prints etc...one should have a different approach.

Here there are some tips of how to choose the right Mount and Frame for your Prints.

1 Choosing your Mount.

Every paper based picture should be mounted first. Mounts are light cardboard borders which surround the picture before glass and a wooden frame are applied.
Mounts vary in colours but for most pictures white, creamy, pale colours or sometimes black will make a good match. Some photographs or pictures might not need a mount at all as all this is down to your preferences. Mounts can be only complementary. If your print has pale colours you can match a pale mount, as darker mounts can overshadow the image, though for a picture with really dramatic colours this option might work.

2. Choosing your Frames

Nowadays you are spoiled for choice for frames. All you have to consider before choosing a frame is

a)      It's material .

Frames can be made of wood, plastic with wood imitation, metal etc...

So, if you have an image which has more classical flair, then traditional wooden frame can go well with the theme of your picture. And vice-verso, for modern, even abstract images with bright colours more modernistic style of frames would be more appropriate.
Contemporary Art images may require black, bronze or metal frames as more classical themes go well with silver, gold or even plain wooden frames.

Here are some examples of modern framing for images:

-          Canvas wrap

-          Float frame

-          MDF Wall Block

-          Edged Hover Frame

b)      The style of interior design of your room. 

If the theme of your interior is more classical, then you can choose a piece of art or photography with a frame, reflecting and supporting this style.

If your house has modern look and you only buy contemporary photography or art then a frame should reflect the general modernistic style of your room.

c)      Size and Thickness of your frames.

Photo Focus Studio Gallery-Shop online offers an interesting range of modern framing where photographs can be printed on a range of canvases.
Here are some examples of modern frames:

Canvas Wrap

Currently you can acquire a print on a canvas stretched around the frame – Canvas Wrap ( the name says it all...where the canvas is getting wrapped around a frame, stretched around it, allowing no frame to be shown or applied afterwards).

 

 

 

Float frame

Float frames (also known as the Box Frame) give a modern, minimalistic look to the traditional canvas.

This Box Frame is light and comes without glass. Float Frames are designed to hang flat on the wall giving a boxed floating effect to your image.

They are made from beautiful wood and painted with great care and are available in various colours usually matching the picture itself. The floating frames are placed spaciously around the print so your photo on canvas would really stand out. 

 MDF Wall Block.

MDF block mounted prints will give your picture a contemporary look, ideal for your home or office. These stylish frames comes with 18 mm deep MDF wall blocks which include hand painted edges with all prints finished with either a matt or gloss laminate for protection before being mounted to the MDF block, finished with brass hangers. 

EdgedHover Canvas Frame

This amazing ultra-stylish light weight innovative design places a print a few millimetres away from the edge of the frame giving the impression of hovering away from the frame edge and a few centimetres from the wall. The Edged Hover Frame is the statement of minimalistic presentation of a stylishly presented canvas wrapped around a wooden frame. The canvas is mounted to 5mm MDF before being embedded by a frame and printed on high quality photographic paper, finished with laminate. This new and modern way to display your prints will create significant impact in  your home or office.

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Monoprinting – Exclusively Original Prints.

What is Monoprinting? 

Monoprinting is a form of printmaking that has images  that can only be created once.

http://www.nadinegallery.co.uk/art_shop/

With other printing technique you can create a basic plate first (it can be a piece of lino, wood or a metal plate (lithography, woodcut or etching) and then create multiple originals,which are really copies from the same template. But only Monoprinting actually creates unique originals.
Since I learnt the Mono printing technique, I was drawn towards this type of art. This is a real “paradise” for creative people. I produced a series of different images with people, animals etc. using a variety of “tools” for adding “special effects”, making prints interesting and exciting.

I would like to give some insight into Mono-printing for those of you, who have never come across this amazing technique before.

    

It does not allow you to make multiple copies of a single image. Only one impression may be produced by printing or making a collage on the surface. With the Mono-print technique an artist may alter the image in between impressions so that no two prints are absolutely identical. Mono-prints might also have additions of collage or hand painted elements.

My technique of Monoprinting.

("Smoker"- Monoprint by Nadine Platt)

To start with, I usually apply a thick blob of printing ink spread on any convenient flat surface, then make a drawing on it with a sharp stick as quickly as possible while the ink is still wet. After this, I put a piece of paper to cover the image and transfer the ink onto the paper, applying even pressure with a roller on the covering sheet of paper. I can never predict one hundred percent how the final image will appear. Sometimes I would have to remove the previous ink with the drawing upon it all together, re-apply another layer of ink and re-draw the whole picture again to achieve the desired result.
Mono-prints can be made by changing the type, colour and pressure applied on the ink to create different effects.

To make my print more interesting  I like using different printing colours such as black, blue and dark brown inks.


In my work, I am trying to catch details of the images and, at the same time, make them look free and spontaneous. Yes, spontaneity, unpredictability and different combinations of printmaking, drawing and painting all in one is what makes Mono printing an exciting and sometimes challenging process for me. One really has to be creative in the approach to producing images in mono printing. Once it’s imprinted on the paper, there is no turning back – you like it or hate it, destroy and start again.
There can  NEVER be  two identical prints.


Among other artists who used this this technique Georg Baselitz, a Contemporary German Artist and old masters Rembrandt and Degas. Rembrandt used to alter ink as “surface tone” where Degas produced hand painted etchings (although they would be considered to be more monotypes than mono prints), but still being referred to as Mono-prints.

 ("Golfers" -  Monoprint by Nadine Platt)

If you have questions regarding Mono printing, please contact me and also leave your comments and suggestions about other topics you would like to read about on my Blogs.


Please visit www.nadinegallery.co.uk website to see more images. 

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Enjoying Art - meet Scott Bridgwood!

Last night  I had the pleasure of seeing a Solo Exhibition of a British Artist Scott Bridgwood organized by the Open Door Gallery. It is in a beautiful old English town named Market Harborough.

The Gallery is run by a charming, knowledgeable and welcoming lady Janet Pelling,
who is constantly introducing new talents to the local community
and to all those who appreciate and support art.

Being trained in the UK (Chelsea Art College, London) and in Italy (Rome, British Cultural Institute) Scott Bridgwood has been moving in the direction of figurative art.

 His works presented at the Exhibition show psychological and emotional studies of a woman. Carefully applied brushstrokes with perfect precision are often used to communicate to the viewer the mood of the model’s inner world. Scott is following more modern approach to depicting a female figure in the interior using different techniques and materials he skilfully plays with surfaces and shapes. Across most of his works Scott is using a light colours palette.
He is also creative with shadows, often stepping away from classical rules applying both warm and cold colours regardless of using warm tints on the most of the lit up areas of the bodies. Contrasting horizontal and vertical lines often add to the drama of his compositions.
Scott primarily works with oil on canvas. Having the eye of a good draftsman he sometimes uses charcoal to define, with an immaculate precision, selected parts of a depicted body. Introducing charcoal also adds to the spontaneity of a painting, giving a feeling of something fresh and unfinished. In his works Scot is placing his female models in classical and natural poses adding to the realism of his paintings.

Scott is a well know artist. He exhibited at such venues as the ICA and Westminster Gallery and widely across the British Midlands. He is also a winner of the prestigious Windsor and Newton, “Art in Lyddington” and “The Sock Gallery” in Loughborough awards. He teaches Life Drawing and Portraiture at the Leicester University and at Rawlings College of Leicester.

 If you are thinking of perfecting your artistic skills you are welcome to attend Scott’s Classes and workshops which are coming soon at the Open Door Gallery. Please visit their website http://www.theopendoorgallery.co.uk/  If you have already attended the exhibition or acquired a painting please share your thoughts or just leave a comment.

The Exhibition is on from 10th to 23rd  of May 2015. All are Welcome!

Falmouth Regatta 2014

At the end of August 2014 I witnessed and had a rare chance to immortalise with my camera an amazing, rare and unforgettable spectacle of The Tall Ships regatta. Beautiful tall ships from remote corners of the world arrived in all their glory to take breath during their long and intense race. This event took place in Falmouth, a small town of Cornwall.

Falmouth is a small historic English town which managed to  acommodate a myriad of tall and small ships,  yachts with colourful sails and without,  boats and other vessels, in fact almost anything which could float on water. The small streets of the town itself were drowned in a river of tourists. There were around two hundred thousand visitors this year who came from all over the world to witness this amazing event.

Little shops with famous cornish pasties, atmospheric tea rooms, cafe shops, mini art galleries and boutiques hardly had time to take a breather during those three days.  Street musicians and actors together with thousands of colourful  large and small flags  created an atmosphere of fête and merriment. “Tall Guests” of the Falmouth harbour with high masts and spotless  manicured  decks felt the weight of hundrieds of curious viewers roaming up and down, backwards and forwards, from early morning till late evening.
The first day was gray and rainy. I went to take my first pictures but the sky was dull, people were hiding their faces underneath their rain coats and umbrellas but still  queueing stubbornly to be the first to pay respects to the slowly arriving “giants”.

 

I was using my camera and sometimes my mobile to “seize” those three unforgettable days.
The second day was sunny and allowed me to take better pictures of the tall ships. Next day I sailed around the harbour on a fishermen’s boat. Locals were seizing the opportunity to make a “couple of shillings” offering guests of the town little trips around its harbour.



The carnival atmosphere lasted till late, when after a caramel  august sunset, the sky turned dark navy,  pierced by colourful fireworks – sending their farewell salutes to the honourable ships.
People were gathering around the pubs on the opposite side of the harbour trying to chose best points to see the fireworks.  There was lots of laughter that evening.

Next morning we all witnessed this majestic flotilla slowly leaving Falmouth, taking course for London’s Greenwich – the place of their final destination. The race was on…..
Please click here to see more photographs of Tall ships. 

To acquire Prints form these photographs, please visit Gallery-Shop online here! 

Happy Browsing!