Framing, Focus on the Art

Many people have made some nice comments about my framing, so I thought I would write a short blog about it.

I personally feel that a frame is an extension of a painting, the finishing touch, if you will, so I make an effort to get the right one for the piece—after all I have taken a lot of time to create the painting. My goal is to showcase the work in a way that supports the look and feel of the piece and doesn't distract the viewer from the focus, which is the art. I use archival mats as well as UV protective glass as a final touch to the quality of the overall work.

Each artist has their own way of presenting work, and each medium has different requirements for presentation, some art doesn't need a frame at all. If you have any questions about the art, medium or framing when viewing a piece, feel free to ask the artist or a representative.

Flamingos. 5

Painting in progress, on the "drawing board" with my resource photos. © Beatrice Bork 2013

Flamingos, inception...

The Flamingos painting is coming along well, a few distractions this week made it a little slower, so I thought I'd go back to its very beginning, its inception if you will.  I will continue with the progress of the painting next week.

I found one of the very first scribbles for the idea of the Flamingo piece that I'm currently working on. This is how many ideas are "captured", a sighting or a thought is scribbled onto the very first piece of paper I can find and then it "gels" in my mind until I'm ready to formulate it into a real painting. Sometimes I refer back to the sketch, sometimes not. I probably have hundreds of these sketches laying around, some become paintings, some become inspirations for something else, and some never get further than the initial "light bulb" moment.

Initial idea/sketch, on scrap notebook paper, Sept. 2012.  As you can see I was thinking about the number of  birds to include in the piece.  © Beatrice Bork

Flamingos. 4

The painting is progressing well. I layered the whole piece with some subtle color to give me a starting point, letting me know me where everything is (the pencil outlines can be confusing if the piece is very complicated)—from there, I started building section by section.  When working with watercolor it is important to have everything planned and placed well before starting, because it is very difficult (if not impossible) to change your mind once the piece is begun.

Below is a section of the right side of the piece that I've built up. I will keep layering the rest of the piece to this level, then continue to work on it more as a whole until I'm satisfied. (Each piece is different and the process is dictated by its composition, image etc.)

Process of Flamingos watercolor painting © Beatrice Bork 2013

Flamingos. 3

Once the initial drawing is figured out, the next phase is to get the painting started. I usually sort out the background wash first. I originally thought to go with dark greens on this piece, and started with that approach—but it just didn't seem settle with my vision for the feel of this piece. I started another background with a more purplish color to compare. I let the two backgrounds soak into my thoughts for awhile before I decided. I'm very happy that I explored a second option for background for this piece, it ended up feeling like the right way to go. I then lightly transferred the drawing to the painting, as seen in a close up below. (note the color tones on the photo are a little off).

Flamingos, watercolor/pencil closeup © Beatrice Bork 2013