Original Art for a Little Scratch

You don't need a gallery budget to live with original art. You need to know where small, honest work is sold, and what you're getting when the price looks almost too good.

Small originals beat big reproductions

A 5-inch collagraph or a palm-sized painted study carries the artist's actual hand: the pressure of the press, the drag of a brush, a fingerprint in the margin. A wall-sized reproduction carries a camera's memory of those things. If the budget only covers one, the small original almost always gives more over the years.

Where small works live

• Open studios and art walks. Artists bring studies, sketchbook pages and print proofs they would never send to a gallery.
• Print editions. Making several impressions spreads the cost, which is exactly why printmaking has always been the people's medium.
• Student and faculty sales at university art departments.
• Exchanges and postcard shows, where every piece is the same small size and price.

The giclée question

"Giclée" is a marketing term for a high-quality inkjet print. When it's made with pigment inks on archival paper, it's a durable, beautiful reproduction. It's the right choice when the original is a large painting you could never afford, or when you simply love the image.

A giclée is not an original print, though, and shouldn't be priced like one. Ask three things:

1. Pigment or dye inks? Pigment lasts far longer.
2. What paper? 100% cotton rag is best.
3. Is the edition really limited? A digital file can be printed forever, so a "limited edition" is a promise, not a property of the medium.

Caring for what you buy

Frame works on paper with acid-free mats and UV-filtering glazing, and keep them out of direct sun. If you're starting to buy prints seriously, our guide to collecting artists' prints explains edition markings in detail.

Questions