OPA - Oil Painters of America

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Archives for November 2013

Framing: Choosing, Fixing & Shipping

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With Dave and Jim Fidler, owners, Classic Gallery Frames and OPA President Neil Patterson OPAM

TYPES OF FRAMES:

Dave and Jim FidlerThere are a number of different types of frames.  The Hudson River School has an ornamental and gilded appearance.  The Whistler style has fewer lines.  Both of these styles are price prohibitive.  Currently many people use the Plein Air style which has closed corners, is simple and reasonable.  They are Asian or Canadian made.
SELECTING A FRAME:
Selecting frames differs in various regions of the country.  A recent trend has been to the dark frames.  Frequently a painting with red will work with a gold frame.
Don’t overwhelm the art with the frame.  This can happen by color using a black frame with a soft image or a heavily ornamented frame with a busy painting. A smaller painting calls for a less ornate frame while a large painting can use a more ornate frame.  The frame and painting need to work together. Try to pull one or more subtle colors in the painting into the frame.
Linen liners, sometimes with a gold fillet, give visual relief.  In California, people found that the liners got dirty from the smog.  Liners are generally more contemporary.  There seems to be regional preferences for liners.  Sometimes a fillet is used instead of linen.  This adds another design element and adds to the appearance of the art.
A shadow box (floater frame) can be used to display an object.  These floater frames are shipped with fasteners.  If planning on using a floater frame, the artist should paint the edge of the painting and be sure the canvas staples are on the back, not on the edge.
The current trend is for gold frames.  The galleries love them and they go well on the walls and pick up warm tones.  However, the Expresso (dark) frames are also very popular.  Many galleries like to mix gold and dark frames on the wall.
A ¼” edge is lost on the painting when framed.
Sometimes frames are made by stacking moldings, combining two different types.
An illustration was shown placing a painting in three different frames: wide liner, gold plein air, dark, and floater.
Closed corners are more professional in appearance than joined corners.  However, they generally come in standard sizes.  The joined corners are more flexible in that they can be made to custom sizes.
MAINTAINING A FRAME
FramesSpots on liners may be removed using white bread, rolled up or a sketching eraser.
Sometimes a closed corner opens.  To repair this, the artist can use cans of black and gold and Elmer’s filler.  Fill the crack with filler and sand down.  On the whole frame spray with black (matte) paint.  Then lightly spray gold paint over the frame.  An option would be to just spray the black and gold paint on all four corners.
An alternative method to repair a damaged frame would be to use modeling paste, texture with a brush or sponge and spray with acrylic enamel paint.  The preferred paint would be matte black.
If the artist can get the gallery to buy the frames, they will be more careful.
SHIPPING A FRAMED PAINTING
Place poly stretch wrap around the painting.  Then add the cardboard corners and apply stretch wrap again.  The artist can also use a plastic bag and then add the corners.  The stretch wrap can usually be purchased at a stationery store.    It should be three or five inches wide.
Another method would be to use foam core with rubber bands.  A carpet underlay may be used rather than bubble wrap.
Once the painting is wrapped, place it in a box.  It is best not to ship on a Friday to avoid the painting sitting over the weekend.

Legally Protecting Your Artwork

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Attorney Bill Frazier, who specializes in art-related legal issues, spoke to OPA artists at the national exhibition in Fredericksburg, Texas.

He told the audience that it is very important to have a written agreement rather than just a verbal agreement with their galleries. A number of artists ran into serious issues, and resulting losses, when galleries went bankrupt and the artists’ works were considered to be assets of the galleries and not the artists. “Every artist and gallery should have some kind of written agreement about the artwork.”

Empty Gallery
Check to see that a gallery is displaying your artwork and make sure your contract states that the artwork is not an asset of the gallery.
Image courtesy of aopsan at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Among the items that should be in the agreement, Frazier recommends that the contract clearly identifies the artwork, medium and size, and that it also stipulates who pays for framing and advertising, whether discounts may be offered and who absorbs any discounts the gallery may offer to a client, and what would happen in the event of a bankruptcy. He said to be sure the contract states that the artwork is not an asset of the gallery. Most states have consignment laws that deal with this relationship. This is important because otherwise, he said, the laws that govern most other products in retail establishments also govern art. Above all, he added, “When you have an agreement presented to you, make sure you understand the terms of the contract before you sign.” To protect yourself against losses, Frazier said to “keep up with your galleries. Go to the gallery – make sure they are showing your work. The bottom line is: this is a business. You are producing a product.”
Copyright
For full legal protection, include your name, copyright symbol and year of completion on every image and on every web page.
Image courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Frazier also discussed some of the common misconceptions with copyright. He said that while many artists believe their signature on an artwork is sufficient, “for full American legal protection put the copyright symbol on the front of the image. You do not have to, but I recommend to my US clients that they do it.” “The only term that is legally sufficient is the word ‘copyright’ or the copyright symbol: ©.” “It is still not going to keep anyone from stealing anything off your website, but it’s better than nothing.” To avoid internet piracy, he said, “The best you can do is try to have a standard practice on your website of using the copyright notice, which is your name, copyright symbol and year of completion on every image and on every page.” He recommended artists check the website FBI.gov for more information on intellectual property theft. But in order to sue for copyright infringement, it (the piece of artwork) has to be legally registered with the copyright office, said Frazier. More information is available on their website at www.copyright.gov. He also reminded the artists, “One thing to remember about copyright (law) is that it changes frequently.” And, he adds, you have five years to file for copyright registration from the date of completion of the artwork.
Frazier also cautioned the OPA artists to be careful if selling their work by auction. “A lot of problems occur for artists at auctions. I suggest you never participate in a ‘without reserve’ auction.” Then, he adds, “if the auction house does sell it below the reserve price, they have to make up the difference to you.” A ‘with reserve’ auction is one in which there is a reserve price below which the artwork cannot be sold.

Montana attorney Bill Frazier specializes in art-related legal issues representing artists, galleries, collectors and museums. He is author of more than 350 articles for national art and legal publications, including a regular column in Art of the West Magazine.

Perception

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We are currently reading two fascinating books about human development and the evolution of art: The Social Conquest of Earth by E. O. Wilson and The Age of Insight: The Quest to Understand the Unconscious in Art, Mind, and Brain, from Vienna 1900 to the Present by Eric R. Kandel. While each author offers different but mutually supportive discussions on the rise of perception, self image and cultural myth-making, they are both sharing with us different aspects of the latest scientific discoveries in the fields of human development and cognition.
Mystics have told us for centuries that what most of us experience as life is an illusion. They assert that we do not see life as it is. Rather, we impose our biased interpretations on everything that touches us and that our particular, personal vision guides our actions and reactions.
Recent research by cognitive scientists has also determined that our brains are wired to deduce general, global patterns from whatever limited, local information we can gather and then to try to form a reliable, predictive pattern or picture of the world from which we can operate. This ability to think in the abstract is a sign of higher intelligence, and is at the very root of art-making. Furthermore, we each tend to assign high value to those random events which seem to support a view or pattern which pleases us and a low value to everything else. In essence, we are seeing through personal-colored lenses.
Because the whole is too large for us to see well normally, we have evolved to operate with this illusion of certainty, each forming our own unique view of the world. Our deviations from each other’s views may be slight, or they may be great. We all accept and share certain facts about the largest phenomena in common, like gravity, the seasons, orbits of the planets, and so on. However, there are an innumerable amount of details about the world that we individually may not agree upon, that are open to interpretation. Enter the Shaman, the mystic and the artist.


So, if life is partly an illusion, what does that mean for the visual artist? Number one is good news – since everyone has a slightly different perception of the world, each artist, by definition, must create unique work. The trick is to be able to thoroughly tune in to and assign high value to one’s perceptions about the world, and then have the courage to express that unique view in one’s art.
Surprisingly, it is also ambiguity that makes great art. A certain amount of ambiguity in an image allows viewers to participate in the artist’s world-view while simultaneously imposing their own interpretations. Mr. Kandel writes, “The meaning of the image depends on each viewer’s associations and knowledge of the world and of art, and the ability to recall that knowledge and bring it to bear on the particular image.”
When looking at art, our brains are using our pattern-making architecture and our memory to extrapolate familiar, personal associations from the image, and in a sense make it part of our own experience. In this way, great art always possesses the potential to become a unique experience for each person.