Many of us who would like to own original artwork simply do not have the luxury of paying high prices for non-essential items. This is why much of my work is available in limited edition fine art reproductions, also known as IRIS/Giclée prints. As an artist my first priority is to preserve the joy of creating and second, find a way to share it with as many people as possible without compromising the quality. For a color pencil artist, this means doing what it takes to bring forth the finest work possible with a difficult and time-consuming medium. Because my work is often very detailed, and I care about the quality of my product, I have chosen to follow the same suit in my reproductions. I use the finest process available today to reproduce my work. All originals are scanned on Scitex flatbed scanners, and printing is done on IRIS printers.

Giclée (pronounced "zhee-clay") is a French term meaning "spray of ink". IRIS refers to highly sophisticated printing equipment, modified for fine art application that is capable of rendering images with a visual resolution of 1800 dots per inch. This is a higher resolution than a traditional lithographic print and a wider color gamut than a serigraph print. Giclée fine art prints have the look and feel of an original piece of art. The extraordinarily fine spray of ink delivers more than four million droplets per second. Each droplet is about the size of a red blood cell, resulting in the appearance of a continuous-tone print. The beauty of the Giclée printing process is its stunning accuracy. The Iris/Giclée system renders deep saturated colors that have a beautiful painterly quality. It retains minute detail, subtle tints and blends and rates the term “collectable print”.

Key to this process is the scan of the original artwork. The finest printer in the world cannot overcome a poor scan. Many types of scans are available to artists today and the price range is significant. “Direct” scans are without question the highest quality scans available, however, they come at a high price. The original work is placed on a flatbed scanner under which a high-end digital camera rests. The art is scanned in one-inch tiles – each one-inch tile being scanned at 300 dots per inch - resulting in a very large digital file that is used to create the print. It is a lengthy process and the larger the piece, the higher the fee. Having seen the output from a variety of scanning processes, I have committed myself to staying with the highest quality. Why? Because I don’t want to sell a product that looks different than the original work. I want the accuracy of color, hue and contrast that a quality scan can produce. Further, I prefer to have the option of printing editions up to twice the size of the original without losing detail and color saturation. A lesser scan is incapable of holding up to this standard.

All of my work is reproduced at Opus Editions in Van Nuys, CA, a publisher who is firmly committed to the highest quality fine art reproduction. Be assured that when you purchase an Elizabeth Patterson reproduction, you are obtaining a museum quality product that is as close to an original piece of art as possible. Widely accepted by galleries and museums, you will be the owner of a collectable print. Because my editions are small, your Giclée print will be a more valuable addition to your art collection.

On a final note, the Giclée printing process is environmentally safe since the inks are water-based and the paper is archival and acid-free. Thus, a Giclée must be treated as fine art and placed away from direct sunlight, even though prints have an extra- strength UV coating