Framing Advice
Choose the Right Frame for Your Artwork
by Nancy Muldowney
Usually you carefully pick out artwork to decorate your walls. Critical to your satisfaction with a piece of artwork in the long term is the way it is framed. Presentation either enhances or destroys a piece of artwork. Choosing the right frame for your art is crucial to the overall visual effect of the work. There are definitely frames that are a distraction from enjoying the artwork instead of showcasing it. A frame can alter how you experience seeing an object.
It is important when picking out a frame to pay attention to the style as well as the colors in the work. If the painting is in a Rococo style then the frame should be compatible with that style. If the artwork is contemporary or abstract, then the frame should be in that style. The style that is popular, at least with the manufacturers today is to use wide mats and wide frames on small pieces. This can be an outstanding presentation for a small piece. However, if you feel uncomfortable with that or it does not appeal to you, then you should pick out something that seems to be appropriate to you. This mean that not only do you look at the width across the face of the frame but the shape and the depth of the frame.
Color is also important. A shiny gold frame might be too distracting for some pieces but another shade or type of gold might be just right. The only way to truly know which frame will best fit around your art is to put the sample up to it and visualize it surrounding the piece.
A picture frame is put on the artwork, not only to protect it but also to enhance it. If the image is constructed so that it allows you to walk into the picture visually, then the frame and the mat if used, should make this all the more possible. Some artwork needs the frame to contain it and stop you visually from running out of the picture.
Every image should allow you to roam around in the picture and become emotionally involved with it. If the presentation, i.e. the framing, accomplishes what it is supposed to, then it is the right one. Even the inexperienced eye can sense when the presentation is right or wrong. They might not know why but they know that it is appropriate.
Working with a professional picture framer, allows you to draw from their extensive experience to give you more choices in the framing. Recently, I was able to advise a customer to try a different approach to framing a photograph that she would not have thought of on her own. The photo became a very special piece because of this alternative presentation. This is why you rely on your framer — their experience.