The Art of Print
Ethos
Printing artworks beautifully for artists and creatives is important to us. We thrive on positive feedback and work hard to ensure clients are delighted with the results. The end print is the most important aspect but it is an attention to detail and care in all the elements which help to provide a happy result. We have a friendly and professional approach and are highly skilled and experienced in reproducing artworks and printing digital/Giclee/pigment art prints.
We print for clients looking for a single image for their interiors to artists and photographers looking for printed editions of their work for selling and for exhibition requirements. We also provide bespoke services for creative projects where less straightforward printing is required such as pasted graphics or large scale backdrops for theatre or audio visual display companies. Whatever your requirements we are happy to try and provide as much or as little assistance and knowledge as is required.
Our aim is to provide the finest prints available with a service that is efficient and enjoyable.
The Art of Print is headed by artist Kevin Leary, who having graduated from Duncan of Jordanstone Art College in 1994 has decades of artistic and printing experience. He has been running this print studio professionally for over 5 years and takes care of all the technical aspects of art and photography reproduction.
Printing
”The Art of Print has developed over many years from the desire, as an artist, to effectively manage colour and tone when recreating artworks in print. I was initially having some paintings published as limited edition prints using a traditional lithographic offset printing process. These machines were huge and prints ran through them at startling speeds. Large photographic transparencies were required to make the metal printing plates and the only colour corrections were to the amount of ink (cyan,magenta,yellow or black) that was applied.
Print runs also tended to be relatively large with a minimum of 500 prints being viable. Fast forward 20 years and digital printing (in the right hands) can add huge improvements in colour accuracy, lower print volumes, and archival quality with a wider and far superior choice of paper and canvas substrates (the papers we use are lovely).
Having used several pigment ink based printers (Giclee printers) and various high resolution cameras and monitors we now have a set up which includes some of the most cutting edge technology available and a method which uses colour calibration and ICC paper profiles accurately.
We are very adept in the post production phase of managing colours and tone with software and have a lot of power to manipulate all aspects of an image. Combined with an excellent judgement of colour and tonal values we are able to produce print reproductions of exceptional accuracy.
It is a pleasure to produce a print which the client is delighted with. Please see our reviews for examples of this and we hope to get the opportunity to create a beautiful print for you.
Kevin LearyThe Art of Print
Please read on for some more information about Kevin’s artistic history.
Art | Portraits
In 1996 I was approached by an advertising agency to paint a portrait of the Rangers Football Club player, Richard Gough for his testimonial year. The resulting painting was auctioned at his benefit evening at the Hilton Hotel, where I was invited to attend and fortunate to be seated beside now ex footballers Charlie Miller and John Robertson amongst others.
Andy Cameron hosted the evening and unfortunately Bernard Manning provided supposed comedy. The portrait was a success and since then I have painted over 100 portraits of International footballers. Recent portraits have included Christiano Ronaldo, Ibrahim Ibrahimovich and Mohamed Salah.
Mo Salah
By Kevin Leary, Oil on Canvas (122 x 92cm)
Christiano Ronaldo
By Kevin Leary, Oil on Canvas (75 x 60cm)
Zlatan Ibrahimović
By Kevin Leary, Oil on Canvas (130 x 100cm)
Art | Theatre
From 2003 to 2016 I worked for the Royal Lyceum Theatre Company in Edinburgh as a scenic artist. As well as building and painting the numerous large scale theatre sets (around 100!) this post involved erecting the sets on stage and inspired me to create an archive/series of images detailing this process and its end results. I documented it with photographs for years and the subject matter offered some beautiful and interesting images and provided work for some exhibitions.
The theatre work was also my first foray into the techniques of digital printing. To make a set the workshop was provided by the designer with a precise 1:25 scale model of the set complete within a black box model of the theatre stage. Beautiful works of art in themselves!
We had an older style large scale printer which was only used to print cad scale drawings and I started to realise that many of the traditionally painted backdrops and set pieces could often be printed at the larger scale and pasted like wallpaper to the timber constructions. It was still nice to paint many aspects traditionally but with Photoshop software and this large scale printer I was able to save huge amounts of time and labour with certain sets.
Designers were usually very precise about colour and I learned a lot in this time about digital colour reproduction. I aquired my first Giclee printer during this time, an Epson Pro9600 to start printing some of the work documenting the theatre sets and shows.
Beauty & The Beast
By Kevin Leary, Print (48 x 35cm)
A Taste of Honey
By Kevin Leary, Print (48 x 35cm)
The Guid Sisters
By Kevin Leary, Print (48 x 35cm)
Art | Projects
In 2015 I was chosen by Scottish artist John Byrne and commissioned by the Capital Theatre Trust to paint his design onto the huge domed ceiling of the Kings Theatre Edinburgh. The work was completed during a short downtime in theatre shows and whilst the rest of the auditorium was being restored. Atop a vast amount of scaffolding was a huge white dome (78.5 m2 / 10m diameter) with 34 days to paint it before the opening of the Edinburgh International Festival. An intense work experience and great to paint alongside the charismatic and highly skilled John Byrne.
Following this I was commissioned to design and paint another large domed ceiling and wall in a building in Glasgow. My photography and image manipulation skills along with the printing equipment were fundamental to the success of this and further details can be found on my art site at kevinleary.co.uk
In the latter half of 2017 I worked with a production crew on building the set for the film “The Outlaw King” in the converted studio of the previous Motorola building at East Kilbride and on location at various sites across Scotland including Craigmillar Castle, Blackness Castle and Mugdock Country Park. A tough but thrilling experience.
I complete a significant amount of work for audio visual companies installing sets with large stretched printed canvases (largest over 16 x 3.5 metres) for corporate companies and brands.
After Callet
By Kevin Leary, Oil on Dome (Large)
Kings Theatre Dome
By Kevin Leary, Oil on Dome (Large)
After Matout
By Kevin Leary, Oil on Canvas (Large)