A Frame-Maker’s Journal
Updates and reflections on our work and mission to revive the art and craft of framing pictures. Here I'll show you new jobs we're especially proud of and keep you up on what's going on at the Gallery, as well as discuss topics germane to our work, including handcraft and work generally, the place of art, and ideals of the Arts and Crafts Movement (especially its greatest leaders, John Ruskin and William Morris).
I hope you’ll subscribe (see the form in the left column) or at least check back often. And I welcome your comments!
—Tim Holton
A Christmas Offering: An Eternal and Necessary Frame for Troubled Times
This Christmas comes at a time of deep division and discord, not only in America but across the world. And while the electoral campaign has been the most obvious example of extraordinary acrimony, our troubles are not solely political. Wendell Berry observes that “... continue reading.
A Frame Is a Kind of Flower
Here’s a beautiful little rose painting we just finished framing. It’s by Daniel Keys. It’s pretty nearly impossible to frame pictures the way we do without taking the time to really see the picture. Making the right frame—which means a frame that is... continue reading.
Framing Alfred Farnsworth
We just framed this exquisite 1906 watercolor, “Mt Tamalpais from Richardson Bay” (10-1/2” x 21”), by notable California painter Alfred Farnsworth (1858-1908). The 2-1/2” frame is stained walnut in a very shallow slope that coves up near the outside to a soft ... continue reading.
Beloved California: Sixteen Painters With a Passion for Place
I’ve just put up the web page for our current show, “Beloved California: Sixteen Painters With a Passion for Place.” Shots of the opening are at the bottom of the page. As you can see, the event was a great success, with a big, enthusiastic turnout, an... continue reading.
A California Frame-Maker’s Dream: Framing Arthur Mathews
For a frame-maker living and working in California, nothing beats getting to frame a painting by Arthur Frank Mathews (1860–1945). Mathews was not only one of the state’s preeminent painters, but he and his wife Lucia were unsurpassed in their concern for the ot... continue reading.
Framing Dana Bartlett
Just re-framed this very lovely historic California landscape painting by Dana Bartlett (1882-1957). Using a hand-carved Compound Mitered frame, No. 104 CV + Cap 400 CV, we chose to play off the compositional contrast between the flat ground and vertical trees with a fl... continue reading.
Happy Birthday, Dad
Today my dad would’ve turned 90. Here’s a picture we took in 2005, upon finishing the sign that hung over the old gallery at 5510 Doyle St. I’m proud he got to see his name carried on this way—although, sadly, he died before we got it hung. See my tr... continue reading.
Lessons in Framing Close, from Filippo Lippi and Hans Memling
Last Saturday’s post on framing a couple of HW Hansen watercolors, which we framed close, ended with the observation that, “Framing close means that the frame is close to the picture; no mat separates them. But there’s a second meaning, at least as importa... continue reading.
Makers and Destroyers
Today I’m sharing a video made in 2011 by the Metropolitan Museum of Art about a Muslim family, the Najis, and their company of master craftsmen who came there to build a Moroccan court inside the Museum as part of the Met’s Islamic arts galleries. They were, th... continue reading.