Framin'

Heading out to Laguna to do the 11th annual plein air invitational. I finally got smart about this thing. Usually I order frames, they get shipped to me and then I ship them to wherever I'm going. Excess shipping! Not  necessary. SO this time I'm ordering frames from www.kingofframe.com who happen to be near Laguna and I'll be picking them up next week. I'm packing all my canvases in a separate box and checking them so that I don't spend additional money shipping those, okay, $15 for the extra bag fee. I don't think I've ever talked about the framing thing here so now that I'm thinking about it... framing is a pain in the ass. One gallery wants gold, no black, one wants black, no gold, the lovely warm silver frames that I bought a ton of? not welcome anywhere. Can't give a painting away in them. One gallery wants only the bestest top-notch frames and while I do agree a great frame can sure enhance a good painting this is still a business, I can't just blow whatever profits I can muster on frames. Conversely a P.O.S. frame can ruin a good painting. So I need to come up with a middle of the road alternative, looks good but doesn't cost a mortgage payment. The best solution I've seen was this year at the Maui invitational, Kevin Macpherson had one style frame in one size, which is very smart. He only painted 11x14's and they, of course, were all brilliant and all in one frame style. Nice consistent presentation. And it takes all the guess work out of what canvas size to use for the days work. So maybe I wasn't that smart, I ordered 1 20x20, 2 16x20's and 3 12x16's. What happens if my 20x20 doesn't work out or any of the 16x20's? Oy. Such a gamble.  You know, I spent more on frames last year and the year before that than anything else. If I ever come to a perfect solution, I'll let you know.

P.S. Forgot to mention frame sources. I use Omega fram and moulding a lot, specifically the plein air style frames. Love F55 but it's heavy and expensive, especially to ship the large ones. Glaser frame in colorado makes great custom frames that are reasonably priced considering they are custom... takes four weeks. www.kingofframe.com is great too a good variety and fast. some  framers might be able to get some of the frame styles but these guys make em seemless. and the closed corner frames ) plein air style are the way to go. I also use cindy anderson at studio framing (winter park, fl) for a lot of stuff especially the art boxes she makes (paintings above are done on them) no frame, are 3" deep and great to paint on.