“In the Frame- part 1”
The perfect frame is the one you really don’t notice as it’s done its job of leading your eye to the art, which is being presented in its best possible light by the framing choices made. Exhibition grade picture framing is both a bit of a black art and fascinating subject unto itself. It’s also an integral part of any worthwhile fine art original done on paper and warrants a close familiarity to not only take best advantage of it but also to help avoid making actual bad decisions that can easily either distract/detract from your finished artwork or in the worst case scenario destroy any potential impact it may have had altogether (figures 1 & 2). There are a great many aspects and considerations when it comes time to frame your work, the most important always being to stick to the plan and let your framing choices add to the artwork by being invisible, or in other words be a frame for the art, not a point of interest in itself.
Quality Barometer
It all comes down to the corners as far as quality goes, the perfect quality barometer in fact. If the corners are ANYTHING BUT PERFECT then not only does the quality of the. Many years ago in my dark ages I wanted to make my own frames out of sheer financial desperation until a wise old professional framing wizard (R.I.P. Adrian) explained and demonstrated how to make frame corners perfect, after watching all the extremely careful steps on several large precision machines he had to do to make just one frame I realised it’s really not possible without very specialised machinery and the hard won experience required to make them sing their song on key . If the corners are PERFECT they’re invisible, anything less than perfect they stand out like the proverbial and immediately destroy any chance your original artwork ever had of being seen in its best light let alone creating that elusive illusion of something extra special. Adrian told me to go and draw like my whole life depended on it (it did) and he would look after me with the framing side till I got on my feet. He told me from then on when I came in to pick up framed work to wait till there were no customers and his wife was out of hearing before any mention of ‘business’ passed between us. He most definitely did look after me with prices during all those dark circle days and when a few years later he retired due to ill health and he sold the legendary Hillyard St. Picture Framing business to the next owner Alan Muir there was only one condition apparently, to look after one ‘special case’ which turned out to be me. I’m about to wax profound on some specific foibles of framing but now seems as good a juncture as any to vociferously thank both Adrian Sherry (posthumously) and Alan Muir from Out of the Square Picture Framing in Hervey Bay for all you’ve done and continue to do for me and all the other struggling artists trying to make a start from zero with nothing or less. A lot of what I now know about exhibition grade framing (why would you want anything less) is because of Adrian and then Alan’s generosity of spirit and knowledge. The long road of becoming a full time artist was certainly made infinitely easier “having a good framer behind me”. OK, about these frame thingys then....
