Contemporary framing can often become bland and uninteresting when the same plain style of frame is used for everything. I’m pleased to have worked with the artist Shelly Malkin in framing 29 of her luminous watercolors for her exhibition ‘Of Paradise, Storms, & Butterflies’.
Using a variety of treatments and finishes that honor and enhance each composition, we also floated the artwork without any over mat to emphasize the appealing edges of the paper.
Several of her paintings are in dramatic 40” X 60” and 27” X 83” formats; for these we selected a molding with a face of 1 to 1 ¾” width and sides that angle back toward the wall at a 45-degree, rather than the standard 90-degree, angle.
To amplify the effect of the large sheet size on the 40” X 60” artworks a special mount was used that raises the paper an additional 3/16” off the surface of the background.
This same style of float was used for a series of three ethereal tondo paintings to highlight their circular shape.
In a pair of paintings composed as a quadrant of four images we used a tray style of frame that implies a view through a window.
In the ‘After Sandy’ series a blue-gray finish underscores the harsh beauty of broken trees and devastated yet regenerative landscapes.
Finally, all paintings were framed with UV-filtering acrylic that will protect the delicate nature of the medium. Contemporary simplicity does not have to be without nuance and substance. I welcome your inquiries.