Framed Recent Art
My latest paintings and frames come together in this section. I asked "How can I use museum framing skills to make frames with a more casual Eastern shore aesthetic for these new landscape paintings?" What I made with that in mind is here: a variety of styles from historic to hybrid to minimal white.
Of course, I can make any of these styles for any painting for anyone interested. If you are.... serious, please leave your contact information in the form
below.
Renaissance Cassetta
This began as a thrift store frame and ended up as an early Renaissance Cassetta Not exactly casual "beach " aesthetic, but I was happy I could transform a mass market frame into a type that I adapted for Bellini and Antonella da Messina paintings at the National Gallery of art. I always liked the effect of a large molding enhancing the sense of looking through a window increasing the illusion of distant space in a landscape painting. This is also an example of displaying my watercolors behind glass but without mats. The intensity of colors I use and fine details, I felt could stand up to a wide molding as a painting, rather than as a work on paper. My museum framing logic at work...whether it works in lighter colored decor remains to be seen.
Louis XIII
This frame came from an antique store. I stripped it, added the carved inner molding and gold leafed it so it would closely resemble a typical French 18th C Louis XIII style frame. Such frames were used extensively for Impressionist paintings. While my painting isn't Impressionist, I feel the frame's swirling leaves and flowers nicely echo the carpet of autumn leaves as well as the declining Elephant ear plants depicted.
Victorian 19th C. Antique
This frame is silver gilt with a cast outer ornament typical if the late 19th and early 20th Centuries sometimes known as the Victorian era. In frame history it was known as a time of innovation for productivity. Before the 19th Century, most frame ornament was hand carved, time consuming and expensive. The "Golden Age" of industrialization demanded more fancy decoration, more gilded frames. Expert craftsmen made models of carved ornament that could be cast and reproduced repeatedly bringing the cost of fancy frames down so many more people could afford them. Silver gilding was also a cost saving technique. A frame like this one would be silver leafed and golden varnish was applied on top so it would appear to be gold. This trick was used plenty in the 19th C however, creators of altarpieces in the Gothic era also saved cost by silver gilding the sides and other less important parts of an altar frame.
Degas
Degas designed a number of different frames for his art. The ribbon and flower outer molding resembles frames the artist designed for his pastels. I used a mold cast from a period french frame with a simple molding profile inside. Degas also used fluted outer moldings with flat inner sections. His frames were most often gilded, however several nice white ones he designed have survived. this design is what I consider a hybrid classic frame with a distressed off white finish.
Degas / Beach
Like the similar frame above, this one has its origins in a Degas frame but instead of gold leaf I painted it white and gave it craqueleur, toning and abrasion for a more casual " beach style"It is quite wide which to me, replaces the need for a mat and the overall size creates a window effect increasing the depth of the scene depicted.
French Louis XIII
French Louis XIII frames were used extensively in the late 19th early 20th C for Realist landscapes, Impressionist and post impressionist art. Many such frames were "decape" (decapitated) : Antique frames with chips and losses would be scrubbed wet. White gesso would mix with yellow and red bol (under gold leaf) creating a whitish, pinkish or slightly yellowish haze. It was a greatly loved appearance that often included a white linen liner. Many bad quality frames were made to approximate this look. Current taste has swung away from that effect in favor of using French 18th and 19th C in good condition or even restoring whitewashed frames to their original appearance. This gilded frame I made using cast and carved molding has a more original looking gold surface that I feel gives space and richness to the painting.