 | | Gallery Wrap-Soft reflection | It's fair to say that the digital printing industry has exploded over the past 10 years, and really taken off over the past 2-3. When one thought of what could be done with an image it used to be just prints on photo paper, matte or glossy. Now you can print on canvas, metal, wood, Watercolor paper...heck almost anything.
A couple of years ago you couldn't find more than five webistes that sold Giclées.........Wait a minute what is a giclée and is that really what you call a digital image on canvas?
Well the funny thing about a new industry is that there really is no "Bible" to go by. Everyone is kind of making up terms and using them interchangeably to describe the same thing. (thus making things even more confusing).
Giclée is probably the most common term used.It describes a piece of art reproduced on canvas, not necessarily a digital photograph printed on canvas. More often than not, though, you will see a photo on canvas referred to as a giclee. It's officially pronounced "Zhee-Clay" with a French accent, but since most of us can't pronounce French words properly, we just say "Gee-Clay". To make the meaning clearer, we say "Giclée, a digital image on canvas." Some people just avoid the term altogether and call it a gallery wrap. Whichever term is used, the technique of transferring a digital image onto canvas stretched and wrapped on a frame allows photographers, amateur and professional, to display their work on the walls of galleries, homes and offices. Giclees make it possible for photographers to reach larger and more appreciative audiences.
So already from the beginning we have confusion. Now let's get to terms and terminology about how that canvas gets wrapped around the edges of the internal frame (aka stretcher bars). A Gallery Wrap just refers to the fact that the canvas doesn't end on the side of the frame, but gets wrapped around the sides and is stapled in the back. This makes for a nice clean look. If you notice amateur artists works, usually hanging in coffee shops, you'll see that they just staple their canvas on the side of the stretcher bars. I guess in hopes that their works of art will sell and someone will quickly purchase an external frame to cover up that ghastly look of a million staples down the sides.
More on terms and terminology to come over the next few days...
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