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Plein Air Problem
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Message
Posted
When taking part in a plain air competition, organisers encourage artists to submit their work in a frame. However, this can be a problem when painting with oils as the edge of the wet painting will adhere to the frame’s rebate.
Are there any solutions to this such as some kind of spacers that would at least minimise the area that is in contact with the frame?
Posted
Hi John,
There is what is called a floater frame which might be what you need. There is a gap around the painting which I assume is fixed to the backboard permanently but presumably there is a way of attaching it on a temporary basis for your purposes. I have looked at oils in exhibitions to compare the framing options and quite like this look rather than the traditional frame which as you say risks the wet paint attaching to the frame.
I have only recently returned to painting with traditional oils and because of Covid haven’t had a painting framed for a few years, so haven’t had to think about this!
Good luck with the competition. Let us know how you get on with that and the frame.
Posted
That’s very unusual, and unprecedented in my view! Nobody can realistically expect an artist to display a wet oil painting in a frame.
You never see that on any of the TV painting shows either…
Yes, as Tessa has pointed out, you may be able to utilise a floater frame, it’s worth looking at!
I suppose you could use the Ken Howard method and attach a few matchsticks around the edges. This would keep the board from coming into direct contact with the frame.
Ken uses this method for carrying his wet boards home after a day’s painting, simple but effective. He stacks them up, the matchsticks keep them apart. You can Google his method!
Competitions should be judged on the painting itself, a frame should be considered irrelevant and unnecessary, distracting even! - that’s my view and I’m sure the view of many artists.
Good luck anyway…
Posted
Many thanks, Alan and Gwynne. To be fair to the event organisers, the rules state that work shoud be 'fit for exhibition'. It goes on to say that 'if work is not fit for exhibition, the organisers may deem it necessary to frame the painting. The frame can then be purchased at a discout.'
That all sounds fine but I still don't like the idea of handing in an oil painting on hardboard which is bound to be wet round the edges.
Actually I've just returned from The Range shop where I bought some foam strips and also a pack of plastic 'bumpers' which are used to stick on cupboard doors to stop banging. There might be a solution there!
Thanks again.
Posted
I don't see any satisfactory way of framing a just-finished painting in oil - it might be feasible a month down the line, and if the paints used are quick to cure (most 'earth' colours are: cadmiums, Titanium White, Arylide yellows, most certainly are NOT). I think this exhibition's organizers should re-consider - if paint sticks to the rebate, it will be very difficult to re-frame them without damaging at least the edges of the painting, and possibly with more far-reaching consequences too.
Posted
Love that "when it may have dried a little". I have a painting here featuring Michael Harding's Yellow Lake - he describes it as a slow drier, and he's not wrong! It's still tacky after nearly two weeks..... frame it, and disaster would pursue like hungry hounds.
If I were entering your competition, I'd give them a 6 month old painting in a temporary frame, and they could like it or lump it. I wouldn't even frame an acrylic after just a few days.
Posted
The organisers are totally out of touch with reality, I won’t repeat what Robert has touched on, but I concur with all he’s said.
They obviously have little or no conception of the drying time of oils, and in particular if you paint with a knife or employ an impasto technique it could realistically take two months to even partially dry well enough to consider putting it in a frame. Scumbling technique is another!
Interesting anyway John, and good luck with this one!
Edited
by Alan Bickley
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