Case Studies
Muriel Barclay
Fringe Following, 2013 Oil on canvas 30” x 40”
By using a large, fluted frame that is heavily textured and toned with paint washes it is possible for the frame to mimic the artist’s mark making and brushwork, allowing the frame and canvas to become one. Helping create this harmony is the burnished 23.5ct gold leaf which complements the browns of the piano.
Sue Biazotti
Untitled 2013 Oil on canvas, 48” x 60”
Sometimes all you really want to do with a large canvas if put a very thin line around it. This tray frame, water gilded in 13.5ct white gold on a green bole ties in perfectly with this atmospheric view of the Clyde, allowing the full canvas to be seen, while emphasizing the openness and space that the artist captures in the painting.
Judith Bridgland
Montbretia by Stormy Sea 2013 Oil on canvas, 10” x10”
Here we have a 3” wide, mini Whistler style frame, water gilded in 13.5ct white gold leaf. The smooth polished gold leaf has been cut back to give the frame a more distressed feel that works well with the lively, thick, impasto brushwork, while still retaining the attractive opulence that only a hand gilded frame can provide.
Colin Brown
The Mighty Magyars, 2008 Mixed media, 24” x 24”
With so much happening in this painting it was essential to have something very simple around it and leave all the edges visible. This polished gesso frame does the job nicely, especially in the corners where the many layers of gesso completely cover any sign of a miter.
Rodderick Buchanan
Black Skull Bandsman 2011 Photograph, 20” x 24”
Parkhead Republican Flute Bandsman 2011 Photograph, 16” x 20”
When putting together a solo exhibition artists often like to have a certain amount of continuity running through their framing. This allows their work to be viewed as a unit, easy to read and without distraction. For Rodderick Buchanan’s Legacy exhibition in the Imperial War Museum, London, this concept was followed with a thin painted wooden frame being used to help the viewer focus on these powerful portraits.
John Byrne MBE RGI
Self Portrait 2011 Ink and watercolour, 8” x 12”
In this almost monochromatic painting where the artist is obviously looking at his own mortality, the challenge was to continue this mood through into the frame. By using a textured black gesso, distressed to match the painting’s tones, water gilded 13.5ct white gold leaf was laid on a green bole along the frame’s pencil lines, to echo the work’s dark ghostly feel in the frame.
John Byrne MBE RSA
Feegie Revisited 2010 Oil on board, 20” x 22”
The soft grey tones of the frame’s texture, gesso and the water gilded white gold blend with the painting’s background allowing the central image and bright colours of Byrnes three “Slab Boys” to successfully dominate the image.