If I could, I would have written this article with only five words, 'be careful when buying prints' Unfortunately it wouldn't be a fair evaluation of why you shouldn't buy certain art prints and you probably wouldn't take my word for it. So I will explain why you should be careful when buying art prints, especially canvas prints.
The current trend associated with the general modern art buyer who wants to make their house look nice with some artwork is to spend as little as possible. I can understand why people get scarred at the idea of spending a fortune on a painting but I can't understand why people are prepared to spend only £30/$40 on a print.
The reason why I can't understand this is that cheap prints are manufactured with poor quality inks and cheap plastic sheets that are made to look like canvas. This process results in an image/print that has poor resolution and looks lifeless. For only an extra £40/$70 you could buy a high quality print, on canvas, from an online art gallery. Your art canvas will have much more depth and will make your room come alive!
The resolution of a canvas print for around the £70/$100 mark should be high quality and breath taking! The printing process would have used expensive inks, the colours would be vibrant using a colour range which dwarfs that of cheap colour prints. With high resolution prints you can sometimes see that the brush strokes are visible which creates enormous character compared to a subdued low grade print which has no depth and is lifeless.
The inks used in high grade prints are usually guaranteed to last for around 100 years, online galleries tend not to advertise the fact as it is only a simulated process performed by the ink manufacturers
When buying canvas prints you must be careful that the online art gallery has colour profiled the image you see on screen with the image they print. You must also accept that your screen that you're using to view the image might be lighter or darker than the print.
I hope that the above comments have helped you understand that not all canvas prints are the same. Just consider that if you were to spend a little more money, you could buy a print that you will fall in love with!
