I have joined up with Fine Art America to make my paintings available as prints – and the results have been fantastic! Having seen a few of Fine Art America’s prints of my work, I have been extremely impressed by the quality of the printing and how close the match is to the actual painting… to the point where I have even purchased a print of my work for my own house!
One of the nice things about Fine Art America is the number of options they have for prints and other products – but it can also be a little intimidating to navigate. To help, I have outlined some suggestions based on the prints I have seen.
First, you can start from my site – right at the “prints” tab. Here, you will see images of all the pieces available. You can click the image you want to start the process.
Once you select the image you want, you will see on the right all of the different products available. All of the print quality is excellent, so you can’t go wrong – but if you want the print to look as much as possible like the original, I recommend the “canvas print” (the final product looks just like a painting!).
After selecting “canvas print”, the next step is to choose the size. Fine Art America limits the maximum size available based on the resolution of the image – so no matter what size you choose, it will be high quality. As a result, the size is a matter of preference. As most of the originals are larger, the bigger sizes better represent to the painting, but it is fine to go smaller to fit your budget and/or the space where you plan to hang the print.
As a next step, go ahead and skip to “canvas” (which is listed as step 3). Here, you can select either a glossy finish canvas or a matte finish canvas. Both options have their benefits. The glossy finish can make the image pop a little more, but the matte finish does not have the same issues with glare that the glossy finish can have. If you will be hanging the print in an area that gets bright light at any time of the day, I recommend going with the matte finish.
Now go back to the “frame” step, where you can say “yes” or “no” to having the print framed. Either way can actually look great! Depending on which you choose, it will change what you should do in the “wrap” step. The “wrap” refers to the depth of the canvas stretcher and what is printed along the sides.
If you say “no” to the frame, I recommend the “Gallery Wrap” which is thicker than “Museum Wrap” and is a little more substantial – which is nice if you opt to not have a frame. For most of the images, I also recommend the “Mirrored Sides” – which makes it look like the painting wraps around the edges. The only image where this doesn’t work is “September Afternoon, Olson House”. For this one, I would recommend the black sides to give it a nice finished look.
If you say “yes” to the frame, I recommend the “Museum Wrap” because it gives you many more frame options and reduces the cost of the frame. The frame choices they show are a good representation of what you can expect in the final – and the quality of the frames is good!
A number of prints have recently sold (including Charles River Reflections, below), but almost all of my recent paintings are available!
