Frame to Compliment the Artists Palette

Woodworks by John

CGF II, Certified Grumble Framer Level 2
Joined
Jul 4, 2000
Posts
328
Location
North Las Vegas, NV
Business
Retired, work from home shop
The purpose of a frame is to isolate the artist's work into its own world and also to compliment the palette or theme of the painting. I recently completed 3 of these frames for my favorite artist who also happens to be my wife! The frame is a flat panel (3"wide) with a 1"x 2" cap, you can see in the pictures that the panel and cap are joined together with a tongue and rabbeted groove for strength. Both of these paintings have a very cool palette, black was too glaring and gold or silver leaf didn't seem to work either. In the past, I've tinted burnisher/sealer with Mixol tints and then used Japan black paint over that. The paint is then rubbed back to expose the base coat that hopefully matches the temperature of the painting. For this one I experimented by only using Dux Gray burnisher/sealer that had been tinted with Mixol #14 Oxyd. Why that color -- it's the closest I had and it achieved what I wanted it to! The outer edge and the inner side of the cap were then oil gilded with 12kt leaf, that was done with slow set size. The final step was to seal the entire frame and leaf with Liberon wax. If you're interested in the process of this frame including making of the profile you can check out my blog on it: https://woodworksbyjohn.com/2020/07/12/count-your-blessings/ Here are the images of the frame and paintings. Joinery Detail - 1.jpegFrame Corner Detail - 1.jpeg
Season of Hope by Diane Eugster 20x20 - 1.jpeg
Help Wanted by Diane Eugster 18x24 - 1.jpeg
 
Oh my goodness, those are lovely, John. You and your wife make quite the artistic pair. Kudos to both of you!
 
May I introduce a note of dissent? 🙄

The colored panel tends to give the effect of peering though a hole. As it is directly adjacent to various
tones around the perimeter of the painting you get a very fractured contrast as your eye moves round.
It crowds in on the painting. It's a very subtle color, but would be better used as an element away from the image.
As you say you need to isolate the image from the world - and also from the colored frame. A narrow
reveal of a strictly neutral tone (off-white/ivory?) would improve it IMHO. Or do the whole panel in it.

Just my take. Feel free to ignore. 🙂
 
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