UNDER THE RADAR/Patrick Ryan:Jade Jagger and Britain's most famous dance DJ Pete Tong may be among his more illustrious customers, but Patrick Ryan says the high-quality, contemporary art and images produced by his company thecanvasworks.ie are not just for the rich and famous.

"Our service is quality driven, but there is no reason why you can't offer a high-quality product at an affordable price," says Ryan.

"We are basically an online retailer, and our goal is to be the online destination of choice for affordable, contemporary art, both limited edition art and personalised art."

Personalised art is one of the company's specialities.

Basically, everything from your wedding pictures to the photo of your family dog or your favourite holiday landscape snap can be turned into a piece of high-quality art.

"That's where people give us a photo and we turn it into a print on canvas that is then hand-stretched over a traditional wooden frame and given back to them ready to hang," says Ryan.

"It's a very unique and original business, and tends to generate a very positive response when people see their images blown up on canvas."

The company also produces funky pop art prints along the style of Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein and in the run-up to the recent general election it produced pop art pictures of the various party leaders.

Ryan also offers limited edition prints from a variety of contemporary photographers and artists, including Irish artist Kevin Sharkey and Ibiza-based artist Grillo Demo, who includes Madonna, Kate Moss and Elle McPherson among his admirers.

The company has just launched a new product called digital wallpaper which allows it to reproduce any image on a huge scale. This is aimed at offices, commercial spaces and designer homes.

"This is for large-scale commercial spaces, cafes, bars restaurants or the reception areas of buildings. That brings us into a very different arena, working with architects and interior designers who want a centrepiece on a wall for a new cafe or something like that."

Ryan and his fiancee, Lynne, got into the business in 2005, and are now based in Kinsale, Co Cork. Previously he had worked in the advertising business but had been looking to do something more creative.

But thecanvasworks is not some sort of lifestyle business set up on a whim by a couple looking to escape the rat race. Ryan sold his apartment in Dún Laoghaire to fund the business, and he notes that he is busier than he ever was in the advertising industry.

"But the difference is you're doing it for yourself, and that motivates you massively. You can make your own decisions and you can make decisions quickly. Before this I had to go up a chain. I was reporting to bosses in the UK so things would not happen quickly, whereas when you are running a small business decisions can be made instantly."

The company has been profitable from day one, he says, adding that profits have been reinvested to grow the business.

"We are in a phase of investment," says Ryan. "We appointed a web agency to relaunch the site, which has been a huge success and is attracting a large amount of traffic. We have a 1,600 sq ft premises in Kinsale which is our headquarters and studio workshop.

"We have a sales office in Dublin, which gives us a foothold in two places."

The ultimate aim will be to add a retail unit within the next 18 months in a High Street location in Dublin or Cork.

A number of factors are driving growth in the business, particularly the massive explosion in digital imagery, according to Ryan.

"Everyone has a digital camera - they are ubiquitous - and this coincided with the advent of high-quality digital printing; the two went hand in hand."

Added to this is the huge increase in home ownership which has seen a rise in the demand for different forms of art and imagery, particularly among younger home-owners.

"Our typical customer would be aged between 20 and 45, and a lot of them are new home-owners or buy-to-let investors who want high-quality art which looks great on their walls but is affordable," says Ryan.

"The younger generation have travelled, are more globally outlooking and they want something on their walls that reflects that, whether it is their own work or the work of emerging or established artists and photographers, and that's what they get with thecanvasworks."