Holton Studio Frame-Makers has been representing East Bay painter Paul Kratter for many years now, gathering an enthusiastic following for his scenes of the state of California, from the Sierra mountains to the rolling hills and on to the seashore. Paul is a highly accomplished artist and instructor who has won numerous awards at Plein Air events across the country. A graduate of the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, after 22 years working as an illustrator and publishing several books, he now paints full time and teaches plein air workshops. He has also taught at the San Francisco Art Institute, and Pixar Animation Studios (where his wife Tia Kratter works in design, animation and as a teacher). Much loved by fellow painters as well as collectors, since 2005, Paul has led the Granite Group on an annual summer painting trip into the High Sierras. The humility and joy that Paul carries with him, along with his brushes, paints and panels, out into the mountains, hills, and to the seashore is directly reflected in the work he produces there. With an eye for color and form, his forthright use of paint and astonishing rendering skills allow him to capture the Northern California landscape with a direct and confident touch earned by long familiarity and devotion to the land and its light, and to making paintings. Paul has been featured in several shows at the Gallery, most recently in the spring 2017 exhibit, “Paul Kratter and Terry Miura: A Language of the Land.”
These pages of Paul Kratter paintings are an excellent source of ideas for framing plein air paintings.
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Garrapata Trail
2017. Oil on board, 8″ x 10.” Framed in No. 403 CV—2-3/4” in quartersawn white oak (Weathered Oak stain), with pale gold slip. $1,400.
Wake Up Call
2015. Oil on panel, 9″ x 12.” Framed in Custom carved mitered scoop—3” in quartersawn white oak (Dark Weathered Oak stain). $1,500.
Up to Glacier Point
2017. Oil on panel, 16″ x 10″. Framed in No. 1100 CV — 2-1/2”—3” with carved chamfered sight edge and flush through-tenons, raised square oak plugs; in quartersawn white oak (Medieval stain), with gilt slip. $1,800.
Cascading Upper Falls
2017. Oil on panel, 16″ x 10″. Framed in No. 1110 (Shaw) — 2-1/2—3” coved stops (flush through-tenons) with raised square oak plugs, in quartersawn white oak (Onondoga stain) with gilt slip. $1,800.
What Used to Be
2017. Oil on panel, 11″ x 14″. Framed in 3-1/8″ wide Compound frame No. 2.1 CV + Cap No. 22 CV. In quartersawn white oak (Oxford Oak stain). $1,900.
Oaks at the Peak, Northgate Entrance, Mt. Diablo State Park
2017. Oil on panel, 10″ x 10″. Framed in No. 2—2-1/2” quartersawn white oak (Weathered stain) with gilt slip. $1,450.
Up to the High Country
2017. Oil on panel. 16″ x 20″. Framed in a carved compound mitered frame in quartersawn white oak (Medieval Oak stain) and a 23kt gilt liner. $3,700.
Oaks Above Borges’ Ranch
2015, Oil on canvas panel, 8″ x 16″. Framed in #22 cv in quartersawn white oak with a Medieval stain. $1,575.
Left Turn at the Pines
2014. Oil on panel, 15″ x 29″. Framed $3,460.
Into the Hills
2013. Oil on canvas, 12” x 16”. Framed in No. 321—3″ in quartersawn white oak (Weathered Oak), with gilt oak slip. $2145.