Next Saturday, August 22, at 2:00 I’ll be giving a presentation here at the Gallery called “Completing the Window: A Frame Maker’s Approach to Framing Landscape Paintings.” This coming week I’ll post a few examples of that approach.
The Harry Adamson painting before re-framing
This 28″ x 48″ oil painting,”Evening Majesty—Canada Geese in Migration” is a great example of the work of Harry Curieux Adamson (1916-2012). The painting came in a factory-made black and metal leaf frame. In terms of proportion and visual elements, that setting could’ve been worse, but the quality of the painting deserved better craftsmanship on the part of a framer. So I replaced it, making this 4″ wide carved compound mitered frame in quarter sawn white oak with Dark Medieval Oak stain, and a pale gold liner. My customer had admired this framing of ours for a Thomas Hill painting and wanted something similar for the Adamson. For the corner carving on the frame for the Hill, I’d taken my cue from the shrubs in the foreground, which looked to me like wintering berries of some sort. But given the pines in this painting, we thought pine branches would be more suitable.
“Evening Majesty—Canada Geese in Migration,” N.D. Oil on canvas, 28″ x 48″
Harry Curieux Adamson, 1916-2012
This painting captures a scene in Canada, but Adamson spent most of his life here in the Bay Area. (He was born in Seattle.) Early in his career he worked as an illustrator at the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology at UC Berkeley, and was a founding member of the Mt. Diablo Audubon Society. In keeping with landscape painting’s tradition of placing attention on the cause of preserving wilderness, Adamson donated many of his paintings to conservation efforts. The catalog for the Oakland Museum’s 2002 exhibition of Adamson’s paintings noted that the 86 year old painter “is perhaps the oldest living wildlife artist today.” The artist lived for another decade. It was a long and prolific life devoted to the beauty of the land and its creatures, and to the art of landscape and wildlife painting. Adamson’s works deserve frames worthy of that devotion and its achievements.
We framed another Adamson a few years ago, this one below. It’s 18″ x 22″ in a 3-1/2″ compound frame in walnut with a copper-bronze slip.
Again, my presentation “Completing the Window: A Frame Maker’s Approach to Framing Landscape Paintings” will take place next Saturday, August 22, at 2:00, and will be followed by a tour of the shop. I hope you’ll come. The event is free, but space is limited, so please contact us at info@holtonframes.com to reserve your place.
—Tim Holton
« Back to Blog