Help - Buying a Photo on Canvas

BBdude · Aug 16, 2011

Hi All!

Perhaps this isn't the best forum or area to raise this question, but was hoping someone might point me in the right direction.

I am on vacation and my wife and I visit a local gallery and a local photographer is selling some of his photos on canvas. The one we liked was perhaps 24" x 36" on canvas, but not yet gallery wrapped. The gallery rep seemed to have a lot of information, but being ignorant as I am to photography most of it seemed like a gimmick.

Details:
Local Hawaii Photographer
Photo on canvas is not gallery wrapped, but is 216 of 888 prints
Gallery rep mentioned the ink used is a "art museum" level/"gallery level" ink and the canvas photo should last 150 years
Photo is of a local beach we like ... showing the coastline, waves and the mountains etc - here is the photo from the photog's website ($85)

They want $450, but we talked and then they brought down the price to $350. This still seems very high to us (we've never spent more than $100 on art). What say you knowledgeable folks? Is she selling us snake oil? If we buy the print from the Photog's website he mentions it's simply on "heavy paper" - would canvas rise the cost from $85 to close to $350? Seems absurd.

Thanks in advance for any thoughts or opinions.

Big Mike · Aug 16, 2011

Sounds like a fair price to me.

DiskoJoe · Aug 16, 2011

its art. the price is subjective. and yes, the gallery will try to rape you. This is why most of us make art as opposed to buying it from others.

but if you can buy direct from the artist then do that. thats better for them anyway bc the money all goes in their pocket.

KmH · Aug 16, 2011

The photographer will be getting backlinks here to TPF every time someone clicks on your "here".

I agree with Mike, even $450 is a very fair price for a 24 x 36 gallery wrap. That's less than half what I sell mine for at that size.

You've researched what is involved in getting a photo onto a piece of canvas, and then doing the gallery wrap, right?

Big Mike · Aug 16, 2011

I think they are talking about just buying the print on canvas, without any mounting, stretching or wrapping etc. $450 may be a little pricey for that...but again, this is art so the price is whatever someone's willing to pay for it.

There are a few options for displaying the canvas, once you get it. The popular thing now seems to be the gallery wrap, where the printed canvas wraps around the frame on 4 sides. This is usually hung directly on the wall with no additional framing etc. My lab offers two thicknesses of frame, 2" and 1" (might be 3/4").
You could also have it stretched onto a frame, but not wrapped. You would then frame this like a typical painting on canvas.
You could also have the canvas mounted onto a substrate, like wood or masonite.

You could probably stretch/wrap the canvas yourself (with the right tools) but if you don't do it well, it won't look as good on your wall...and that's the whole purpose right? When I order a wrapped canvas from my lab, I've always had them do the stretching etc. Their guy does an outstanding job, although it's rather expensive.

g-fi · Aug 16, 2011

I don't think the price is crazy, but before you buy, you might want to Google "Clark Little", his work is in the same genre and frankly, it's stunning. His pricing for unwrapped prints is about the same. Canvas prints can be expensive, even wholesale they're not cheap, you can't really compare the price of a canvas to a print. You just have to ask yourself if you are willing to pay that much for artwork, because not only are you investing in something for your home (or whatever), you're investing in the artist.

BBdude · Aug 16, 2011

Thanks everyone for the responses.

The ~$360 price is for the print on canvas, NOT WRAPPED. We will not wrap it our selves, but rather take it to a local place near our home that can do it and they charge about $75 or so I believe.

Sounds like $360 is a bit high, but not unusually so - better than what I suspected. Thanks again for your thoughts. Would love to take photos like this ourselves, but it's not #1 on the list (but it is on my list haha).

Thanks again.

BBdude · Aug 16, 2011

g-fi said:
I don't think the price is crazy, but before you buy, you might want to Google "Clark Little", his work is in the same genre and frankly, it's stunning. His pricing for unwrapped prints is about the same. Canvas prints can be expensive, even wholesale they're not cheap, you can't really compare the price of a canvas to a print. You just have to ask yourself if you are willing to pay that much for artwork, because not only are you investing in something for your home (or whatever), you're investing in the artist.

After some more research I believe what we looked at was a 24x36 limited edition unwrapped Canvas Giclee. Looking at Clark Little's website - the print we found appears to be a pretty good deal. A comparable photo on Little's site goes for $850 unwrapped. We may end up purchasing - it is a beautiful print of one of our favorite beaches.

Where can I find a quality place in Philadelphia that can do a gallery wrap? What price should I expect to pay?