Giclée prints are the blending of fine art and state-of-the-art technology. Printed on the highest quality archival paper, giclées have all the continuous tone characteristics, color saturation, and detail of the original artwork.Many are also hand-embellished by the artist, making them original art in every sense of the term.

Tom Noble’s giclée replications begin with a scan of a high quality transparency of the original watercolor. The file that contains the scanned artwork is downloaded onto a computer loaded with technologically-advanced graphics software. The printmaker and artist collaborate in front of a high resolution monitor to “tweak” the artwork scan, cropping, sizing, adjusting color and tone, and perhaps selectively manipulating areas of the image. A series of proofs is printed (not unlike the proofing process used in other printmaking techniques) until the final, satisfactory proof is created.This final proof – the bon-a-tirer proof – is then signed by the artist.

The word “giclée” is French, from the verb “gicler” which means “to splatter” or “to project”.Controlled by the computer and the final proof file, the giclée printer projects the inks onto the paper to create the giclée print.

Giclées are not impersonal, mechanically-produced computer art.The artist’s involvement is essential beyond the painting of the original artwork. Tom spends hours with his printmaker in Taos to ensure the integrity of the final products, which are printed using permanent, pigmented inks.

Be assured that you are buying a museum-quality print: major museums, such as the Metropolitan Museum, the British Museum, the National Museum of Art to name a few, have exhibited giclée art. Furthermore, the Smithsonian Institution will be using the giclée technique to reproduce many of its vintage photographs.

This use and promotion of the giclée technique by prominent museums worldwide has assured its success in the art world.

* From the article “But Is It Art?” originally published in the August/September 1998 issue of Giclées Today magazine.