Framing Alan Tuttle

Shipped this frame to painter Alan B. Tuttle in Delaware a couple of weeks ago. We made it for his 24″ x 20″ oil on canvas, “The Falls,” painted in the Adirondacks. (In this image the painting’s photoshopped in to the frame.) I made the 4-3/8″ wide compound frame in walnut, and carved it. It has a pale gold leaf slip.

My eye was intrigued by Alan’s fine line work rendering the cracks in the rocks, hence the carved patterns near the frame’s corners. They also mimic the lines of trajectory of the falling water. The waterfall theme also informed the overall shape of the frame profile, taking advantage of the frame’s duty to help the eye “fall” in to the painting. This I tried to achieve with a kind of fluid movement in the form of the profile: the wider inner molding, as you can see in the profile sketch below, is coved toward the outside while the sight edge has a complementary convex form. Also, on pictures with perspective, like this one, profiles that step or cant in to the picture enhance that element. The texture of the rocks and surface of the water, of course, led me to carve the whole face of the profile.

 

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