has anyone thought of putting on a public exhibition of the works exhibited in here?
eg... i live in a capital city and (with the permission of the artists) could exhibit x number of images in a public place (example only). the goal of such a showing would be to promote the artist and display the great work that i have seen in here.

what do you think? pie in the sky thought .. or could we expand on it ?
Russell

i had actually thought of it a lot lately - more so as im curerntly in the process of looking for new premises for a gallery for one of my businesses.

Russel It's a good idea and like Phi I've been considering the very same thing for awhile now.. all the way through university we were displaying our work in gallery environments, but now after university its a bit tougher as an individual to set up.. But myself and monkeypuzzle (avi) have been working together towards this end.. we can repoduce our work in A0, 841 mm x 1189 mm. If Any one else is interested in the prospect of displaying work like this they should please get in touch especially if your in the UK anywhere near Bristol! or if anyone has, or is setting up gallery space ( HINT HINT Phil ) and would be interested in displyaing Caedes images.. please let me know!!

well - finding the right location is hard and is going to take some time but in the mean time we will be starting selling giclee prints up to B0+ (44") wide online with our newly acquired fine art proofers. If any members would like to offer there work through this medium please PM me so I can offer you more details. bear in mind to successfully sell an image it has, to a certain extent to be a little more commercial and/or mainstream than some desktop designs, also, originals supplied either photographic or created would have to be much higher resolutions than images submitted here to allow for extreme enlargement.

Sounds interesting Phil, but I shoot with a 3MP digital, and I don't imagine that most folks around here with digitals have more than 5 or maybe 6MP. Is there a good way to print 6MP at 44"? It seems like that would still be too large of a print for any present day digital photo. Are you only looking for high resolution scans of film photography then?

6MP would be more than adequate as for extreme blow ups like that you use a process known as 'dimming' rather than scaling. 'dimming' is dimensional scaling where you increase the physical size of the image by reducing the dpi. it is how images are enlarged in the trade for exhibition/billboard graphics etc. i have done some quick tests on my proofer with 1600 pixel images from here and they can be blown up to more than A2 size with no apparent optical degradation. basically the rule of thumb is the higher res the original the better however this does not exclude smaller files which can be offered for purchase at regulated output sizes.

So how large would you say I can make my 2048's using dimming before they suffer degradation? I regularly print 1600s at 8x10 and can't see anything wrong with the quality, but that is only about 150dpi after cropping, and I have always heard that is not sufficient (more like 300 necessary). Does that just depend on the printer, or are my eyes just not seeing the difference?

thanks for your thoughts ... i think that between many of the members in here we could come up with a fantastic gallery ... the variation, the expertise and the broad culture difference in this site would make for a fantastic gallery with a wide appeal in the general community... but i think that it would also take a lot of planning to come up with the "ultimate gallery" and one that could be shown in many different locations around the world

Lets get technical then Phil.. what minimum pixel dimensions would you recommend working in and at what dpi?? For caedes i normally work straight at the 1600x1200 at 300dpi

I have been following this discussion and it sounds interesting.
My question is; What's the cost to print 'em?

graeme - for blowing up art or photography up to max size double that res would be ideal.

tom - cost depends on type of material used - a wide variety is available - im currently testing Photo Lustre (ilford and epson) for photos's (natch) and Somerset Velvet and Smooth fine art for anything else. i'll be firming up a price matrix soon when ive determined ink usage per sqm etc as the material involved don't come cheap :-) Ill have to scout around as well as comparable papers can be sourced cheaper from paper mills direct

Phil,

Sounds interesting. You will have to give me more details on the whole printing thing.
What weight paper? What is the printing process, ink-jet, bubble jet, etc...? What is the color fastness rating of the inks used?

print is in 8 colour inkjet - paper is any stock upto 1.5m thick - lightfastness is minimum 75 years colour 100 years greyscale double those figures if images are framed behind UV barrier glass or are laminated with UV barrier soft laminate

edit: UV ink can be used instead but it has a severly reduced colour gamut so i prefer not to go down that road.

The printers i was looking into provided the choice to print onto canvas.. anychance?

canvas as in actual canvas? i dont think so

canvas as in canvas paper or canvas board? yes

i was thinking more like having puters set up with a slide show where people could order from.... as well as the actual prints

If anything like this actually goes ahead I would certainly want to be involved. I am planning to eventually set up my own gallery in my own house (after I move obviously) but I think it would be great if we could all help each other out by offering other members work for sale as well. I guess this could work on some kind of commision system? I probably wouldn't be ready to set up anything myself for at least 6 months, but the idea has real credit.

I have also been discussing the possibility of setting up an online shop where several members work would be available with another member... I won't mention who at this stage as I don't know how he wants to publicise this. But hopefully this will be in place in a few months. Very exciting if any of these ideas come to fruition!

ty everyone so far ... my experience with promotions tells me that with something of this nature it has to be very well planned and professionally executed ... you have to make the public want to see more.. which is harder than you may think ... done right it could be a match winner ... done wrong it could be a disaster. but with the expertise here i'm sure that we would be on a winner

Phil,
This certainly sounds interesting, what other surfaces can images be printed on? hardwood sheets(say about 5-6mm thick)? or MDF?

as i said - the maximum print thickness is 1.5 mm however most papers can be bonded onto just about any flat surface. some papers are also available with adhesive backing on them already allthough these tend to be either synthetic or vinyl based - if i can help it i prefer not to use MDF as it is ( a ) very toxic and ( b ) very messy to use when cutting to shape which is why it is outlawed in most countries outside Lawrence Llewellyn Bowen's studio :-)

Ok im going to start producing my caedes images at size you've suggested.. so i will have Print size copies of all my future work... please keep me informed as of if/when you develope the plan any futher! For a long time now i havebeen looking for ways to make my artistic habits support me a little..Doing some recent commissioned art work has made me realize how much i'd rather be paid for doing my artwork.. than for my day job!

I agree with Phil on the matter. Producing art graphics is a complete different animal. If you convert it to inches it in inches. Say as in the USA. Blowing a 1600x1200 image up to say a 26X 32-inch poster size would be impossible. You have to realize 1600x1200 conversion is translated to 23.0 pixels x 18.75 pixels per square inch at 600 hundred DPI and 46.15 X 37.5 Dpi Which is not a high enough resolution for art graphics. You would have to convert the image as Phil has said. Or create it in full dimension image, as it would acutely be seen.
And Phil there is a new canvas that is designed specifically for printer now that is really great. The manufacturer is in Irvine, California in the USA. Actually they print old masters on to canvas and bill a $1600.00 Americans price tag for them. Which has prompted me to think more seriously about the whole idea of modern graphics sales.
At this point I am looking into a 24 inch Hp graphics printer they start at about $2100.00 American and eventually a 42 Inch printer they start at about $7000.00 American. But you’re looking at printer that output at 16 to 27 hundred DPI.

i've bought epson stylus pro 9600's which are B0+ (44") wide by 50 metres long - they are fast become the defacto standard for fine art proofing - with a decent RIP your looking at the thick edge of £6 - 7,000 ($12,000) each here. Inks are the excellent 7/8 colour ultrachrome system. I'm looking at prepress flatbed scanners now to complete the set but the prospect of shelling out another 3-4 grand is making my bank account shake nervously.

I know the feeling. But in the long run I’m looking at the print cost. My peasant printer source charges me far too much for printing and mounting on to a good sturdy acid free back. I end up sending to high of a cost to the purchaser at this point.
Besides I will be looking a the added cost of adding external wells for the ink source so to eliminate the replacement of cartridges and going to permanent heads.

I wish you guys much success. Even I sometimes have had the idea of getting serious and attempting printwork. Should be interesting to see how you guys suceed if you get your work going.

Maybe before you start thinking about prints and studios you could try an online gallery. I recently set up a fairly basic one at www.jonshephard.co.uk, and have made £10 so far. Whilst this may not seem like much, it has already paid for the domain, and i didn't have to buy materials etc, as i sent the files by disc. This has the added merit of not needing physical supplies, however you have to decide if you want them to be able to use the pic more than once etc. Just an idea.

NEWS UPDATE

We have had an offer accepted on premises in Haworth in Yorkshire, which - for those of you who haven’t heard of it - is a little village which is the home to the Bronte sisters and all the associated literary paraphernalia that goes along with that. It’s a nice double fronted 3 storey building on the cobbled high street and is what I believe our American friends would call a ‘Quaint, Ye Olde Shoppe’. The bottom floor will be the gallery space with the upper two floors for admin and studio space.
However the current tenants have six months remaining on their lease so the refit cant be completed until Easter next year, so for those of you who were interested in showing work – I’ll let you know more closer to the opening date.

Definitely interested... keep me updated.

This is an idea that has a lot of possibilities .... and a lot of intrest

Hey guys, any updates to report on this?

well we have just had a structural survey done and needless to say it needs a lot of work doing to it including a virtually complete replacement of the roof. because the building is so old it is listed (protected) by the heritage commission which will make repairs costly and slow as you have to restore it using original materials where available. we've appoached the vendor with a view to reducing the price of the building to accomodate repair costs partially and hopefully we should still complete before christmas then it will be all hands on deck in the new year on the refurb.

wow sounds cool, best of luck with that & my fingers crossed for ur venture in the new year. & yes please let me know as i'd love to be in public space alongside the works from ceades. i will also look into potential gallery space rental in bristol. & let post here. :~)