If you’d like to have a great canvas work on your wall in your home, you used to have two options. Either go out and buy one from an art dealer or an auction, which could prove very expensive, or paint one yourself. If you don’t have the money to buy an original canvas and you don’t have the artistic ability to paint one, you’d have to make do with cheaper photographs on your wall.

Now things have changed, as anyone can own an original canvas by having their photos printed on canvas. You don’t need to be an artist or an art collector to own your own canvas. You can take pictures with your camera and choose the best of your photos to print on canvas, having an original and unique artistic canvas print on your wall.

The best thinking about transforming your photos to canvas is that they’re your own personal images. You’re not having someone else’s pictures displayed on your own; they’re special to you because you’ve taken them. They can be of your friends, your family, your children or even your pets.

Have your own photos printed on canvas for personalised art in your home.

Andy Warhol would have been eighty years old this Wednesday, had he not tragically died some years after a crazed fan shot him. Even years after death, and years after his studio known as the ‘Factory’, Andy Warhol is still trend setting in his beloved New York.

As well changing the face of Art with his Pop Art that has inspired a host of imitators, a spate of canvas prints, he’s worked his magic on the fashion world.

Stylists in New York and L.A. are taking their lead from the Pop Art master’s ‘Factory Girl’ Edie Sedgwick.

Beth Charleston is a fashion historian at the New School of Design; Parsons.

The pop-art look is about the contrast between black and white - both in clothing and hair and makeup.

The two most obvious [of Warhol's factory girls], Edie Sedgwick and Nico, played up the contrast between black and white with bleach-blond hair and heavy black eye makeup.

Big earrings, and a chunky shoe like a thick wedge or a Mary Jane with a bit of a heel.

So if you thought Andy Warhol had only touched the art world you’d be wrong, his influence stretches far beyond just the realms of fashion.

Photo to canvas can be colourific especially when you choose the best photos which are free from scratches, dirt, well lit and in focus. However it’s not so much about the photo’s technical quality, it’s more about composition. A good photo can look great on canvas since editing can be done using photo editing software, while a bad photo which is technically great cannot be improved with the very best of photo manipulation programs despite the perfect technical nature of the shot.

The introduction of new computer plotter printing technology, printing on canvas has just become terrific. This works well and creates longevity, especially with landscape pictures if high quality canvas is used. The factors that will validate the magic and longevity will be determined by the inks used and the attention given during processing and printing of the photo to canvas. The use of the ultraviolet top coat spray enhances durability of the canvas to a span of 90 to 160 years under favourable conditions.

However the use of inkjet printing of photos to canvas, by pigment inks, is vastly recommended by a good number of printmaker Associations. As a result of broad diversity of printing methods, materials and inks used are not all durable but one can have a variety of options depending on the amount of money one wants to spend.

The Faurschou gallery in Beijing is playing host to a set of Andy Warhol pop art works entitled ‘Athletes’ this summer to coincide with the Olympic games, held in the same city. The work is a series of silkscreen and acrylic paintings depicting ten of the best known and most iconic sportsmen and women of the twentieth century.

The series consists of portraits of such epic sportsmen as Muhammad Ali and American Footballer turned actor, turned celebrity trialist, O.J. Simpson. The paintings, valued at $28 million for the set, were commissioned by Richard Weisman, whose uncle was the founder of the Californian Museum, Norton Simon.

The paintings were offered for sale last year for $28 million to a private collector, Martin Summers, but the paintings were not sold.

The show, at the Faurschou gallery, consists of several Warhol works rather than just the Athletes series, including his portrait of Michael Jackson. Warhol’s painting ‘Green Car Crash’ sold last year for more than $71 million, and is believed to have gone to a Chinese collector, though no China based art collectors have publically stated an interest in Warhol.

Jennifer Vorbach has helped to organise the Warhol show in China:

We know there are Warhol collectors in mainland China.

Also the availability of the Athletes series for sale is unknown, but it could be up for sale at the right price:

If the right opportunity comes along, we will put any interested parties in touch with Richard Weisman.

The advent of digital photography and the reduction in price of the equipment has made professionally finished photographs far more attainable to the masses. Photography used to be a hobby for the rich as cameras were expensive and having your own darkroom took up both a lot of space and money. Then when instant cameras, pioneered by Polaroid, came to the fore more and more people were able to afford photography and became interested in it.

Then of course there were the cheap development companies such as Truprint, and even Boots offered photo development. This allowed even more people to enjoy photography, but the cost was still there and quality was not that great.

With the digital age photography enthusiasts are able to take as many pictures as they want without worrying about expensive development costs. They can then download the photos to their computers and choose the best ones to print or even edit them using photo editing software. This ensures that for a small investment, anyone is able to possess the equipment that will allow them to take professional photographs.

The only cost then comes in the actual printing of the pictures, which can be done at home on professional printers with photo paper. All of this means that you’re left with nothing but the best photos, and the only choices you have are what are the best ways to print the photos? Rather than the usual photo paper printing, you could pick your favourite photos and have them printed on canvas.

Everyone cherishes photographs of their children, whether they be professionally shot poses from photography studios, school photos or holiday snaps taken on the beach. Children grow up so fast, it’s important to take as many pictures of your kids as you can or you’ll miss those moments of them growing up.

It’s not just enough to have pictures of your kids though, you’ll want to display them in your home as best you can, which could mean having them enlarged and framed on the wall, it could be bound in a beautiful photo album, but the best way would be to have printed on canvas.

You can your children’s photographs turned into exquisite canvas prints easily and have them mounted on your wall like works of art. Canvas is textured, and brings out the best in the colours and the contours of the photographs. Canvas prints make the pictures come alive and attract people to touch them for their unique feel.

Having your children’s pictures printed on canvas is a unique and special way to show your children’s photographs.

The Epson Stylus Pro 9800 printer is widely acknowledged as the industry leading large format printer. Designed for the high-end-professional graphics and photo markets where quality, speed and economy are essential, this printer generates outstanding prints at sizes up to 44-inches (1,118mm) wide.

It can print up to size B0+ and is capable of printing on virtually any media type up to 1.5mm thick poster board making it ideal for canvas photo printing

Using unique breakthrough 8-colour ink technology known as UltraChrome K3, the final prints are of uncompromising quality. The 8 new colour pigments include a new 3-level black technology (hence the K3 in the name), which significantly increases the potential quality output for professional colour and black and white prints. According to Epson, these inks offer the widest colour gamut of any ink currently available on the marketplace. The addition of the third black ink now allows the Epson 9800 printer to produce true monochrome (black and white) inkjet prints.

Finished prints have an amazing integrity and depth of colour, high gloss and scratch resistance. This printer also produces professional neutral and toned black and white prints.

UltraChrome K3 ink offers outstanding durability, so prints are more likely to look good for longer on a wide range of paper types. The ink is highly light, gas and water resistant, resulting in a lifespan of up to 75 years in colour and over 100 years in black & white. This makes it the ideal choice for artists producing work for use in exhibitions or those who need to reassure their customers the artwork will look good for longer.

You may be forgiven for thinking that such quality comes at a price, however, high capacity individual ink cartridges offer low cost per print and ensure a high level of productivity with reliable overnight printing.

When you come to printing your favourite photos, with the options available today you’re never stuck for new ideas on how best to display them. Many years ago you had one option, print them on photographic paper, that’s it. Today, with print shops and online merchants you can have your photos printed on mugs, mouse mats, jigsaws, key rings and even clothes.

If you want, you can even print photos on paper!

Most of these methods for printing your photos are just gimmicks though, and don’t enhance the look of your photographs in any way. If you want a method for printing your photos that will make them look better than they do on paper, you can print on canvas.

Canvas is a material more commonly used by artists for painting works of art in mediums such as watercolour, acrylic or oil based paints. Therefore anything printed in canvas automatically looks great because it looks artistic.

So rather than choose to have your photos printed on a gimmicky format such as mugs and coasters, why not have them printed on something that actually makes them look better than when they’re printed on paper? Print your photos on canvas instead.

Now we all have the opportunity to be an ‘artist’, it’s art made simple; art for the masses. Take any one of your favourite photos: holiday, family, still/action shot, scenic, landscape, underwater, etc. and they can be turned into a an original piece of artwork to hang in your home. It would also make an ideal present for that often difficult to find wedding, birthday or anniversary gift.

How does it work? After any necessary retouching/colour balancing of the photo it is printed onto artist grade canvas and then stretched to fit a kiln-dried fir wood frame using a centuries old method. There are also a variety of techniques to choose from to give ‘your’ work of art a unique twist.

Of course you don’t have to use your own photos. If you prefer something a little less personal to hang on the wall, but still want that authentic touch; there is a vast library available to choose from.
Images can be manipulated and custom designed to fit the needs of corporate or business customers.

Using this method we can all be an ‘Andy Warhol’ & what’s so brilliant about this is that we don’t have to be super rich to own our own canvas framed work of art. What a novel idea & such a fantastic way of preserving for all time a moment of our own personalised history.

Traditionally the material of canvas has been used throughout the years for artists to paint on, using a variety of media such as watercolours or oils. It’s for this reason that canvases are usually regarded as being saved for art, and seen as being for elite who can afford to purchase such expensive works for their homes.

However with the advances in printing techniques canvas is no longer the exclusive domain of the artist, now the photographer can utilise the remarkable effect of canvas, and have their photos on canvas whenever they wish. This means that your pictures, even ones you’ve taken yourself on your holidays or at your children’s party, can be printed on canvas and then displayed on the wall like a work of art.

Canvas prints look exquisite when hung on the wall, as they look just like works of art, yet are displaying your own personal photographs.

You needn’t be an art collector, or someone who is fabulously wealthy, to have an original canvas on your wall, nor need you be royalty to have your own portrait printed on canvas. With canvas printing you can have your portrait printed on canvas for very little cost.