Beyond the Button-Push

The modern art market is flooded with something called 'giclée' prints. It’s a fancy French word that essentially means 'to squirt'. And that’s what it is: a very high-quality, professional inkjet printer squirting ink onto paper. It can reproduce a painting or a digital file with incredible accuracy. And there’s nothing wrong with that.

But it's a reproduction. A copy.

The artist's involvement ends when they hit 'save' on the digital file. The machine does the rest. The connection between the creator and the final object you hang on your wall is severed. It's a brilliant photo of a delicious meal, but you can't taste it. A screen print is the meal itself.

The Original, Multiplied

This is the concept that really gets to the heart of it. A screen print isn't a *copy* of an original. The entire edition, every single print, *is* the original work. It’s what we call an 'original multiple'.

Think about it. Each colour in a design is a separate layer, a separate screen. To create a print, I have to physically pull a squeegee loaded with ink across that screen, forcing it through the mesh onto the paper below. If a print has four colours, that’s four separate, physical actions for every single print in the edition. It’s a performance repeated fifty, maybe a hundred times.

Each one has its own life. There might be a tiny, almost imperceptible difference in the ink deposit from the first print to the last. These aren't flaws. They are the fingerprints of the process, the evidence of a human hand. It proves that what you own isn't a sterile facsimile; it’s a living, breathing piece of art.

Ink, Paper, and a Bit of Pressure

You can feel the difference. I mean, you can literally feel it. Run your finger over a proper screen print and you’ll feel the layers of ink sitting proudly on the surface of the paper. It has a texture, a presence. The colours aren't just stains; they are solid, vibrant, and opaque. They have a physical depth that a digital print just can't match because its ink is absorbed *into* the paper's fibres.

This physicality is everything. It’s the slight wobble in a hand-drawn line, the satisfying 'thwack' of the screen lifting off the paper, the careful alignment of each layer by eye. All the work I do at Oli Fowler Art is built on this foundation. It’s a craft that demands patience and muscle. It’s about pressure and precision. It’s about turning liquid colour and plain paper into something with character.

So when you buy a screen print, you’re not just buying an image. You’re buying the process. You’re buying the hours of work, the subtle variations, and the direct connection to the artist's studio. It's not a poster. It’s a piece of a bigger story, an object made with intent and care. And in a world of endless digital copies, I think that’s something worth holding on to.

See the difference for yourself. Have a look at the textures and layers on the prints in my shop.

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