Mounting and Framing

I visited an exhibition recently which featured some superb work but which was let down by the presentation. To my mind framing and mounting is almost as important as the work itself. We live in 2015 and interior design and tastes have moved on since the 1950’s. I therefore get really frustrated when I see work in a skimpy frame which is more suited to photography or mounts that are really narrow and do nothing for the painting. A mount which is anything less than 2.75 ins never looks right to me. Ornate gold frames really are a thing of the past unless your work is very traditional – a friend paints seascapes in the old Dutch style and his work would not look right if it were mounted in something modern but this really is the exception. Even my more traditional watercolours look so much better when mounted in less ornate or even plain profile frames. Few artists seem prepared to give much time to the subject of framing and, as a result, their work is not set off to its best advantage. I like to play around with mounting and have a few ideas which I have as yet to put into practice – I shall be playing around with my mount cutter soon - something to look forward to in the coming year. That aside I quite like the look of float mounted work – a method few others have taken up and which has proved so popular - I have sold many of my line drawings which I mount in this way. I have just tried it with an acrylic abstract which I have only just posted in the POL gallery and which, to my eye at least, looks really good and is now bound for a local gallery. Getting back to the recent exhibition, there were many acrylics, a number of which were simply presented with a frame around the edge. Acrylics cry out for a mount and a good quality frame to set them off to their best advantage and it seems to me that they always look better behind glass. With regards to framers I have mixed feelings. They are often better placed to advise on what is best commercially but they are not always artists. It need an artists eye to decide on the type, colour, and mounting which best suits their work. In summary I have seen some superb work completely let down by the framing and yet I have seen mediocre work which looks really good when well presented. Good framing and mounting makes such a difference – why, I ask myself, is it overlooked by so many artists?