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The extent to which Great Lakes shipbuilding and seafaring heritage has contributed to our prosperity as a region cannot be over-estimated. By the turn of the century, Great Lakes shipyards had created a fleet of vessels trading in every port on the Lakes. Remy Champt is very much a part of this exciting tradition, combining the talents of a master illustrator with a deep appreciation of maritime history. After studying art in Belgium, Remy chose to pursue a career on the water. He sailed around the world, and in 1980 he immigrated to Michigan, joining family already in Northern Michigan. His sailing career on the Great Lakes includes classic freighters and tugs. Champt has also served on many of upper Lake Michigan's modern-day schooners, and he holds a Master's ticket. Today he sails and works out of Traverse City, Michigan. Champt's renderings of classic Great Lakes commercial boats provide him with the opportunity to marry his talents, knowledge, skills, and love of maritime history. With his meticulous attention to detail, he is able to authentically document these fascinating vessels. His unique style of clear, precise drawing and skills as a master illustrator make each rendering a legacy in itself -- an artifact from the Great Lakes' unique maritime history.

Remy Champt's renderings are exhibited and sold around the country. His work has been featured at the Mystic Maritime Gallery, the Great Lakes Art Gallery, the Leelanau Historical Museum, the Shipwreck Museum White Fish Point, among others.

Remy Champt • 614 Hastings Street • Traverse City • Michigan 49686 • U.S.A.

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THE PRINCIPLE OF LITHOGRAPHY: The principle of lithography differs from the other graphic processes in that lithography depends upon a chemical reaction instead of the physical sepration of the inked and uninked areas. In 1796, Mr. Senefelder invented a planographic, or flat-plane, printing process later called offset lithography. He found that an image, no matter how detailed, that was drawn with a greasy substance on the face of a water-absorbent stone and then inked could be printed onto paper with absolute fidelity. Lithography was ideally suited for illustration and enjoyed a phenomenal popularity during the 19th century, especially for color printing, which required a separate stone to print each color. Eventually, it was found that the image on the stone could be transferred, using a special starch-coated transfer paper, from the stone to a metal plate that was used for the actual printing. Of course my work is printed on ultra modern presses which reproduce the details and color of the original work with great accuracy.

Caring for your Lithographs: Display your prints away from reflected sunlight. Prints should touch only 100% rag mounts and should be hung with acid free hinges. When prints are displayed, they should be framed, the surface of the print should not touch the glass, this can be acheived with a suitable mat. The best way to store prints is to lay them flat with acid free tissue paper between each sheet.

Signing and numbering: Each lithographs is signed and numbered, in pencil I place my signature below the image on the right-hand side with the number of print on the left-hand side. (for example, 5/600 means the fifth print in an edition of 600). Most edition have "artist proofs" available which represent about 10% of the total edition.

Giclees Prints: The art of fine art printing has become even more precise with the advent of the revolutionary Giclee printing process, a fine stream of ink, more than four million droplets per second, is sprayed onto archival paper. The exact calculation of hue, value and density direct the ink from six nozzles, this produces over three million colors possible of highly saturated non-toxic water based ink. Since no screens are used in Giclee printing, the prints have a higher resolution than lithographs and the dynamic color range is greater than serigraphy.

Museum Replicas goes digital: An American Company is bringing the latest digital scanning and printing techniques to replicas of world-renowned art-work. Production includes the use of high-resolution digital scanners and the latest Giclee imaging techniques. Replicas of more than 400 masterpieces in major museums in the U.S. and Europe can be produced as Giclees at resolutions exceeding traditional reproductions. top

You may use any of the graphics so long as suitable acknowledgment is made by mention of my name and the address of this web site.