“To Gicleé or not to Gicleé “ is a question I answered for myself in the early 2000s, when I made my first set of limited edition gicleé prints of my ‘Everyday Use’ series of watercolors of quilts I wished I owned as well as a few that were portraits of quilts that actually exist. This series celebrates the art and artists I grew up knowing who did not consider themselves to be artists.  I wanted to share the work widely.  Later I would add some of my nature prints to the mix, and now all my larger works are professionally scanned or photographed in high resolution formats for documentation, publication, and to allow me to make prints

Giclée (pronounced zhee-clay) is a term created in the early 1990’s to refer to digitally reproduced fine art print and is based on the French verb “gicler” which means to squirt or spray a liquid, which is how the ink from the powerful inkjet printer is applied.  Gicleés are high quality digital reproductions which are different from original hand pulled artists’ prints in mediums like intaglio or lithography.

Giclée has come to mean any high-resolution inkjet printed reproductions produced on large format printers from a digitally generated file. These printers use extremely fade-resistant, archival inks with multiple variations of each color.  This increases the resolution and color accuracy and allows for more delicate color and value transitions that can represent a watercolor well.

As a watercolor painter I am delighted I have the advantage of living in the era of giclée printing. Giclee prints are high quality inkjet or digital prints.  They offer artists ways to make and sell art at reasonable prices.  Excellent giclée printing offers a brilliance and luminosity that represents the watercolor painting better than any other reproduction technique I have found.

When printed from high-quality, high-resolution photographs or scans of the original paintings, and printed on heavier archival paper, the reproductions rival original artwork in beauty and detail.  (I always make the gicleé prints smaller than the originals for that reason). Having access to this high-quality printing process has meant I can make my artworks available to a larger audience with a range of disposable income and I am not limited to selling my work only to people with the most money. (Though I often sell my original watercolors over time to make original art available to those who are called to take them home.)

When I first started creating limited edition prints of my some of my most popular watercolors around 2003, consistent excellent gicleé printing was not available locally. I finally found my printers in Richmond, Virginia.  Many of my prints are still done to order to at what is now Parsons Fine Art Services. They were the first giclee printmaking atelier in the country to produce all gicleés exclusively with a pigment-based archival ink system.  I still work with Parsons Fine Art Services to maintain the 20 or so limited-edition series I asked them to create for me.  If you are on the East Coast, check them out.  They are professional and very responsive.

Now I also work with excellent printers closer to home for my gicleés.  Picture Salon Fine Art Gicleé Printing Services in Madison, Wisconsin have been great to work with.  They offer a full line of services from high quality scanning and photos to printing, as well as drop mailing services.  They are professional, prompt and wonderful to work with.  I give them my highest recommendation.

Some of my watercolors are quite large, and their size and price put them out of reach. One of my newest prints is a good example. I worked with Picture Salon to create a 17×38″ one-sheet gicleé print of an original water color triptych that is 40×120″ when the three panels are side by side. Few people have the space for this piece. The original is likely to ultimately be placed in a public building or a larger home. The print, while still relatively large, is a size that can be accommodated in many more spaces.

Sacred Grove Triptych imagines how the circulatory system and nervous system of our bodies echo that of the planet. Throughout the world there are people who are re-imagining what it means to be human, what it means to lead a good life, and what it means to be good stewards of the earth at the same time. I seek to acknowledge the meaning and magic that is inherent in our everyday experience as a part of nature and to notice that nature is watching, and wondering how long it will take us to see ourselves as a part of its interconnected web. We will someday realize we ARE nature. What we do to our bodies’ we do to the earth, and what we do to the earth’s body we do to our own.

I appreciate being able to make my art available to people who would like to have it in their homes in a size and price that makes it more accessible. I now have over 30 pieces available as gicleé prints. I invite you to see the rest of my giclee prints and my original art here at Helen Klebesadel Art