ABOUT CRANSTON FINE ARTS

   Cranston Fine Arts was established in 1986, with the aim to bring a wide range of  Historical Military prints to the public at reasonable prices.  Long negotiations took place with a variety of British Regiments with the aim of reproducing the Collections of Fine paintings hidden away from public view in regimental messes and Museums,  Under strict reproduction rights, Permission was granted for print runs of between 500 and 1,000 prints of each image.

It was fortunate, that among the releases between 1993 to 1996 were the prints by Lady Butler, J P beadle and W. B Wollen, who after 1997 fell back into copyright of the artist estate and not just of the regiment who own the paintings.

Not only did Cranston Fine Arts reproduce a majority of the major paintings from regimental collections, but also tracked down a number of Military paintings in Art gallery collections around the world.   In 1995 Cranston Fine arts also started to build up its range of Naval and Aviation art prints.   Bringing  the range in the year 2,000 to 2,000 different prints with a majority available in two sizes.

One of our main objectives is to bring diversity of military content for our customers,  We believe we could not call ourselves the Military Print company if we only produced the so called "Sure Winners" Prints which sell very well, i.e. Defense of Rorkes Drift, Scotland Forever, Battle of Waterloo, etc.   Military art is more than this. It means producing prints of the Ashanti War (we sell about 3 copies a year),   The Battle of Valmy,  The assault on Chin Kiang Foo, the list of specialized prints is endless, Many items of our range will never pay for themselves. but that is not important, what is important is that you have the choice, The choice to have prints of the particular period, Country, regiment of your interest. 

It was clear that a number of historical events were never captured in a dramatic oil Painting,  Since 1990, Cranston Fine Arts has commissioned over 300 Original Paintings (The cost you can imagine was great).  From leading Modern military artists, and launching the careers of many of them.  Amongst the artists employed are  Mark Churms, Chris Collingwood, Ivan Berryman, Anthony Saunders, Brian Wood, Randall Wilson, Simon Smith, Graeme Lothian, Jim Lancia, Brian Palmer, Steve Liptrot, Tim Fisher, Robert Barbour

The work continues to bring you  military art, Naval art, and Aviation art  with a difference,  WE are by far the largest producer of Military prints in the world, and we have over 1 million prints always in stock and over 200 original paintings for sale.  With your help, and enthusiasm matched only by ourselves, our range will continue to grow.   We ask you to stay with us, and tell your friends and colleagues about us and our recommended world outlets,

We are always interested in your comments, and suggestions and would also be happy for any contribution to text content on our images and military subjects, which we would include in our websites.

WEBSITES.    

In 1999, Cranston Fine Arts realised that advertising our vast range of prints would take more than one huge website.  We set out to split up our range of prints into specialized sections and put them on special websites, all linked to our main site, and data base search facility.   We have operating over 50 websites, specializing in Scottish history, Naval history, Aviation History, History of Battles, History of British Regiments, History of Napoleon, The Zulu war, The Boer war,  Military Uniforms, etc etc. To see the full extent of the websites go to the military links page, and book mark the sites of particular interest to you.  These websites are not fancy with special effects, they are simple and all follow the same format.  We have a team of staff who constantly work on the sites adding new images all the time.  the best way of keeping up with what's new is. firstly purchasing all Book catalogues which are available and pre ordering the next catalogue.   also. on www.military-art.com  (The main new site.)  we will be setting up a page called  New Prints. on this page will be a monthly breakdown of new releases and the list of images to be released in the following two months. I recommend you visiting this site every month. 

Thank you for sparing the time to read this and looking through our websites.  You are welcome to email me with your comments at any time.  happy art print collecting.

David Higgins.   

President.