These nine bags have been sold by various art galleries in London and carry the reproductions of familiar canvases by eminent artists such at Monet at The National Gallery. The striped motif on the cotton bag is at The Institute of Contemporary Art. Top right is a detail of Francis Bacon's studio door used as a palette, from Tate Britain. The red swirls are adapted from an acrylic on canvas by Cy Twombly, for Tate Modern. In the centre, also from Tate Modern a textile designed by the Russian Popova, used for this bag. Of course the sunflower bag is also from The National Gallery and Vincent van Gogh's oil painting. Bottom left at the same gallery the Finnish artist Akseli Gallen-Kallela, though signed Axel Gallén. Then a bag from The Royal Academy of Arts and the Kuniyoshi exhibition, and the last by an RA contemporary artist Donald Hamilton Fraser.

How ecological and energy efficient is an art gallery bag? Should works of art be reproduced in this way as consumer images on shopping bags? I think Popova would have been pleased and I was happy to see a visitor to the Whitechapel Art Gallery carrying that bag.

At The National Gallery 'The Water-Lily Pond', 1899, by Claude-Oscar Monet. The bag is made in China, price £20. Claude Monet (1840-1926), for more than 30 years at the end of his life, Monet found the subject matter for his art in the gardens at his home in Giverny. The water-lily pond there, and the Japanese bridge he constructed across it, were the principal motif in a group of 17 paintings of 1899-1900 including this work depicted on the bag.

The striped bag design printed on the cotton bag, available at the ICA for £12.99, is by Conway and Young. It is also available on their website. On the reverse side is the text An Ode to Modbury Town which celebrates the achievement of the town of Modbury in South Devon ceasing to use plastic carrier bags in 2006. The bag was produced for I Dress My Self as part of an artists' limited edition. The printers use water based dyes and are based in Nottingham. www.idressmyself.co.uk and for the designers in Leeds www.conwayandyoung.com "We are a design collaboration based in Leeds. We are interested in the intersection between design and other disciplines. We enjoy working to other people's constraints and producing work in response to our own fascinations. Combining education, art and community engagement, we work within local areas, engaging with creativity and art in many forms and contexts. We both lecturer on the Graphic Arts and Design degree at Leeds Met and are also visiting lecturers on the Graphic Design degree at UWE Bristol School of Art and Design."

The Francis Bacon bag from Tate Britain shows a detail from the studio door of the artist's studio where he used it as a palette. His studio was in Reece Mews, South Kensington, London.

At Tate Britain in the show featuring Rodchenko and Popova it is her textile design that most naturally is used in making a bag.

Back to The National Gallery for Vincent van Gogh's 'Sunflowers' of 1888. Van Gogh associated the colour yellow with hope and friendship. He suggested that his four 'sunflower' canvases, painted as decorations for his house in Arles, might express an idea symbolizing gratitude. He seems to have been especially pleased with the picture, now reproduced on this bag, which he hung in the guest bedroom in anticipation of his friend, the artist Paul Gauguin.

'Lake Keitele', 1905, by Akseli Gallen-Kallela. Lake Keitele is to the north of Helsinki in Finland. Gallen-Kallela paints the site naturalistically but also imbues the image of symbolic dimension, the silvery streaks that criss-cross the water evoking the presence of the mythical hero Vãinãmöinen as he passes in his boat. The Finnish national epic poem is The Kalevala compiled from Finnish and Karelian folk lore in the 19th century by Elias Lönnrot. The artist signed his painting in the Swedish form Aksel Galén, as opposed to the Finnish by which he is known today.

The Kuniyoshi bag depicts a detail of one of his samurai block prints which were hugely popular in his own time and have been much appreciated at the Royal Academy of Arts.

The painting 'Hebrides' by Hamilton Fraser RA has been adapted in making the other Royal Academy bag.

Art under construction by  Pick-Axe-O