I love original art. I pick it up all over the world. Oil paintings, watercolors, wood carvings, needle art, you name it. Because I pick the works up from the artists, either art shows or booths or from sidewalk displays, this art often does not come with frames (sometimes it does, like the huge painting below that I purchased in Bali for less than a Wal-Mart print, I dismantled the painting, rolling the canvas, and strapping the frame boards together to check on the flight, and reconstructed it when I got home).
Professional framing can be expensive.
My first source is my basement. Over the years, whenever I pass a yard or garage sale and see wooden frames for sale (sometimes given away), I pick them up and put them in the basement, waiting for the exact right painting to go in them.
But from time to time, I don’t have the right frame.
So I compromise. I buy those cheapie frames from Wal-Mart or Target. I paint my own matting in my desired color (using watercolor paper or canvas board). I also like to paint that pressed paper frame to give the frame a nice feel and a better look.
A benefit of these frames (other than the obvious lower price) is that they’re lighter. Easier to hang.
BTW…I’ve received some great comments from visitors on framed antiques (like the silver berry spoon I received from an elderly friend) and that Spanish shawl I converted into a valance. Art doesn’t have to be impractical.
The First Painting Is The Bali Painting I rolled.
The Second Two are framed in a Wal-Mart Cheapie Frame.
