A Frame-Maker’s Journal
Updates and reflections on our work and mission to revive the art and craft of framing pictures. Here I'll show you new jobs we're especially proud of and keep you up on what's going on at the Gallery, as well as discuss topics germane to our work, including handcraft and work generally, the place of art, and ideals of the Arts and Crafts Movement (especially its greatest leaders, John Ruskin and William Morris).
I hope you’ll subscribe (see the form in the left column) or at least check back often. And I welcome your comments!
—Tim Holton
Framing James McGrew for Beloved California X
We’ve just finished hanging Beloved California X. One of the painters featured is James McGrew. I especially love his 11″ x 14″ painting of this beautiful bit of shoreline at Lake Tahoe. James painted it last summer when teaching at the Plein Air Convention at Reno/Lake Tahoe. This work exemplifies the subtitle of our show, […]
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Beloved California X Opens Saturday
Jessie and crew will be very busy this week hanging our tenth annual all-gallery exhibition, Beloved California: Twenty-One Painters With a Passion for Place, which opens this Saturday, November 15. As the subtitle suggests, nearly our entire roster of premiere artists ... continue reading.
Tia Kratter Highlight Starts Tomorrow
In the Gallery, we’ve put together a little highlight exhibit of Tia Kratter‘s virtuosic watercolors. It starts tomorrow, Saturday, October 4 and will be up through Saturday, Nov. 1. One of my personal favorites is this still life titled “Dunking Booth... continue reading.
Holton Studio Tour for Berkeley Manufacturing Week
Next Tuesday, October 7, as part of Berkeley Manufacturing Week, I’ll be offering tours of the studio. The event is sponsored by the City’s Office of Economic Development, which kindly put together this article on us in Berkeleyside. There will be two tours,... continue reading.
A Small Place for the Great Conversation: Framing the Double Worlds of a Seventeenth Century Map
I just finished one of the more elaborately carved frames I’ve made—and I made it for a print that’s only 7″ x 9″. The map itself, though, is decorated with intricate strapwork, acknowledging that even a map of the world as small as this is wor... continue reading.
Little Windows—Big Open House
Tomorrow, Saturday, August 23, we’ll be celebrating our current show, Little Windows III, with an open house from 1 to 4 in the afternoon. Just added to the display is “Ephemeral,” shown here, a 9″ x 12″ sunset by Ellen Howard. I hope you&#... continue reading.
A Joiner’s Art: Frame Making as Woodworking—Part II
Picture Framing Magazine has just published Part II of my series, “A Joiner’s Art: Frame Making as Woodworking.” After the first installment, which introduced the series in the May issue with some history and an overview (read Part I here), this second... continue reading.
Now Showing: Little Windows III
During the shut-downs of the pandemic the image of the window, you may remember, became iconic. In the summer of 2020 we put together our first online show of small Northern California landscape paintings and called it “Little Windows.” The success of the sh... continue reading.
Framing Matt Smith—and Western Art
I love framing the Western Art genre, and it’s become a specialty of ours. Why the genre we call “Western Art” doesn’t include California and its great painting tradition is a mystery to me, but I won’t fight it. So there it is in the Portf... continue reading.