Framing paintings for galleries

[Pam Powell]

I've hit a pothole on the road to success and need to plumb your vast stores of knowledge. I know that many of you show in galleries as well as do commissions, so I'm sure some of you have faced the same dilemma as I'm facing now.

I am represented by a couple good galleries who are doing a fine job of selling my paintings, but two of my artist friends came over a few weeks ago and told me that my frames did nothing to enhance my work. I called the gallery owners and asked them if they were happy with my framing. One said, " Your frames aren't horrible but they don't make your paintings seem important." The other said, "Well, they're not awful but not great either." Yikes!

I've been buying ready-made frames from JFM and thought they were good quality for the price. To tell you the truth I want to paint, not shop for frames, so I found two or three styles and slapped them on everything. My friends dragged me off to a custom guy, who builds beautiful supports that fit perfectly in the most incredible shadow box frames you've ever seen. It's really fine furniture making....and its not cheap! I ordered a few as an experiment.

I framed one of my paintings with a new shadowbox frame and I thought the painting looked stunning. Then I invited family and friends to give me their opinions. A few loved it, a couple hated it, and some were of the opinion that it looked OK. ...OK?...for all that money?

I then realized that there's no way to get a frame that will please everybody. So here's the question: Do you put high end frames on your work because it will enhance the value (even though some people might not like the style) OR do you frame in a less expensive (not cheap) way so that the buyer will feel freer to take it home and re-frame it?

Thanks for your help!