Artist Bio: Dr. Charles Billich

Dr. Charles Billich paints from what he sees around him. He describes his work as surrealist. "I manipulate reality. I turn it into some kind of symbolic analysis which works on several levels of meaning. There is a touch of irony in what I paint as there is in all surreal art. It contains a fair amount of humor".

A master craftsman, Billich has the extraordinary skill and understanding to virtually dissect an animal or a human being, to create a sense of weight where it is needed and a feeling of weightlessness where it is called for. He penetrates the personality of his subjects; he imbues them with spirit, individuality and expression.

From the majesty of his cityscapes to the sensuality of his figuratives, to the speed and movement of his world famous sports works, the work of Dr. Charles Billich will leave you breathless. He is truly an artist of vision and excellence, and has received many honors.

"It's daunting to hang with the greatest names in Art. The Vatican Collection is that close to an artist's heaven, you can't get higher," said Charles when he received notification that his work had been hung in the Vatican.

With a painting career spanning some forty years, Billich's art has been shaped by personal experience. As a teenager, Billich was a student dancer with the Opera Corp de Ballet in Rijeka, where he attended college.

He also wrote satirical articles for a local Italian-language magazine. For doing so, he was sentenced to ten years imprisonment by a repressive Communist regime. The physical and psychological privations were eased for him by other older inmates, political prisoners who were mentors to his own intellectual and artistic growth. He read and studied languages and he designed sets for prison plays. Two years into his imprisonment he was unexpectedly released.

He at once sought political asylum in Austria where he studied art at the Volkshochschule in Salzburg. After he migrated to Australia in 1956, he studied at the Melbourne Institute of Technology and the National Gallery School of Victoria, surviving with every imaginable job until he could support himself as an artist.

Australia's lack of an entrenched European artistic tradition, and its readiness to experiment, has spurred his own artistic growth. He explores themes reflecting his own obsessions, fantasies and thwarted ambitions; ballet and sport, architecture and town planning, eroticism and classicism, portraiture and stage.

Today, Billich editions and originals adorn boardrooms, galleries and collections across five continents. Charles Billich has exhibited at some of the world's most renowned venues; he is the recipient of many prizes, including the coveted Spoleto Prize in Italy. He has been an honored guest and resident artist on many occasions and he continues to travel the world to fulfill his numerous commissions and projects.

Billich prides himself on being "in touch with my people". He abhors elitism and any form of hypocritical pretension in the arts. He challenges the norm: "I try to convey spiritual optimism and vitality; visual utopias" he says. "I want people to look higher, as much for their own sake as for the sake of the community."

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Artevo Shipping and "No Questions Asked" Return Policy

Artevo will generally ship your purchase within 14 days, via Federal Express, UPS or Canada Post. The shipping period will vary depending on your location and the extent of packaging and handling required for each purchase. An unframed limited edition that is shipped in a tube would take less time than that of say a large framed original that requires special crating. A 7 day return policy makes your purchase at Artevo.com completely risk free.

If for any reason, you are not absolutely satisfied with your purchase, simply notify us within seven days of your receipt of the artwork. You may return the artwork for a full refund or it can be exchanged. In each case you pay only the shipping. Returned artwork must be suitably insured and re-sent in the same packing materials in which it was originally sent. Please let us know if you would like to return the artwork by calling us at 1-877-244-4644 (toll free from the US) or 1-403-244-8123 (from outside the US) or by e-mail at In either case our Customer Care representative will guide you through the process and issue you with a return confirmation.

In the unlikely event that the artwork arrives damaged, please call Customer Care immediately on 1-877-244-4644 (toll free from the US) or 1-403-244-8123 (from outside the US) or e-mail us at Our Customer Care representative will guide you through your options. These may include replacing the damaged artwork, credit towards another purchase, or a full refund.

Online Color Consistency

At Artevo – we strive to make sure that all of the artwork displayed on the site is shown in the most accurate fashion possible. However it is possible that due to the make and model of both your computer’s video card and monitor, the colors shown on your computer may not be exactly the same as the actual artwork. Artevo has no control over this scenario and assumes that when you purchase a piece of art that the artwork ordered may not be exactly the same as seen on the website. However if you are unsatisfied with your purchase just follow the Shipping and returns policy outlined above.

What does the word giclée mean?

The contemporary Giclée has become a valuable part of the limited edition fine art world. "Giclée" is a French term which means to spray ink. The pronunciation of giclée is "zhee-clay."

Essentially, a giclée print is the reproduction of an original work of art (created by conventional means, such as painting, drawing, etc.) using a highly specialized inkjet printer.

Giclées have a higher resolution than offset lithographs and the dynamic color range is greater than that of a serigraph. Giclées are created by a method of printing in which the image is scanned and digitally enhanced on a computer to match the original fine art. The image is then sent to a high-resolution inkjet printer, which sprays millions of microscopic droplets of ink onto various substrates to create an image with smooth tonal gradation. These unique jets are able to vary the width of the ink stream to as small as 1/100th the width of human hair. In the art world this is generally regarded as the highest quality reproduction available.

Despite the fact that artists were experimenting with this medium as far back as the late 1970s, fine art inkjet printing emerged as an art form in the early 1990s. The term giclée was originally only applied to a very specific form of printing: the output from the Iris inkjet printer (more specifically the Iris 3024, 3047, or 3047G).Today, giclée can refer to any digital fine art canvas print output on a quality inkjet printer. Such well-known brands as Epson, MacDermid Colorspan and Hewlett Packard have high end 6 – 12 color printers that are used to make fine art giclées.

The entire process of production to achieve the final fine art giclée is an artistic endeavor within itself, requiring a great deal of patience and skill. A professional quality giclée starts with a high resolution digital photograph. This file must then be color corrected and adjusted to match the original artwork.

Matching the final print to the original painting is a demanding process, because the digital colors of an image (which are composed of three colors: red, green and blue) must be adjusted to look true once printed on canvas with the printer (which uses four colors: cyan, magenta, yellow and black). This requires the use of a colorist and is overseen by the artist. The file preparation and proofing can take anywhere from a couple of hours to weeks, depending on the challenges posed by each image.

Printing is an integral part of the giclée process, and care must be taken to ensure the best result possible. It is essential to use a high quality printer with professional grade nozzles. These nozzles are able to apply ink dots as small as 1/100th the width of human hair. Giclées are printed on specially treated canvas using archival inks and then lacquered to increase their colorfastness and longevity.

Artevo uses all of these techniques and materials to ensure the quality of our giclées. We employ a team of experts in the field of scanning, color matching and printing. The end result is the finest quality product available. Our production department is dedicated to keeping our giclée production standards and materials of the highest quality. We strive to use the most current giclée technology and keep up with the latest industry developments.

Artevo produces its fine art giclée on high quality canvas, thereby creating an exquisite product that has all the characteristics of the original painting and does not need to be framed under glass.

Today, images reproduced using the Giclée Process are of such a high quality that they can be found on display at museums around the world, including The Louvre, The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Guggenheim.

What makes a giclée valuable?

As far as artistic processes are concerned, the giclée process is very new, and subsequently consumers may have questions about how valuable giclées are. Here are some of the reasons why an art buyer should seriously consider purchasing a giclée.