This Saturday I’ll be giving a presentation here at the Gallery called “Completing the Window: A Frame Maker’s Approach to Framing Landscape Paintings.” Starting with last Saturday’s post I’m posting a few examples of that approach.
This is a small undated (1920’s?) oil painting by Swedish-American painter Carl Redin (1892-1944). The 2″ wide frame is fumed quartersawn white oak, and we added a bronze slip.
Carl Redin, Cathedral Rocks, 1920’s. Oil on linen on board, 13-1/4″ x 15 5/8″.
Corner samples, No. 1.2.0 CV
The profile, No. 1.2.0 CV (corner samples are shown at right), is a new design that I came up with to express in the simplest form the powerful effect of the picture frame as a window frame. Capturing much of the effect of the early Dutch and Flemish rain sill frames, the flat face is like a window casing or trim, while the wide bevel suggests the inside planes of a window. I carved the bevel for texture and to enhance the bevel’s contrast with the face of the moulding. Those two facets of the profile’s face are proportioned 2:1.
On Redin’s “Cathedral Rocks”, the shape of the profile not only sustains and enhances the picture’s perspective but also echoes the sloping land forms depicted. The texture of the carved bevel harmonizes with the texture of the surface of the painted canvas and also evokes the coarse texture of the rocks.
Carl Redin
Carl Redin was born and raised near Stockholm. In 1913, driven by poverty, the young Swede and his family immigrated to Chicago. Joining that city’s Swedish community, he worked varnishing and restoring church paintings. A few years later Redin contracted tuberculosis and decided to catch a train for the more favorable climes of New Mexico, finding treatment in Albuquerque.
According to Wikipedia, Redin “painted during a time when New Mexico was marketing itself as an exotic getaway. His paintings adorned hotels, public buildings, and department stores.” By the ‘thirties, the artist enjoyed national recognition.
Redin would stay in the Southwest and California the rest of his life, painting and teaching, his final years spent here in the Bay Area. He passed away in Los Gatos, barely 52 years old.
More examples of this frame—
Here are two more paintings in the same frame, No. 1.2.0 CV. Both hang in the Gallery. The first is by Davis Perkins, the second by Paul Kratter.
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- Davis Perkins, Scott Valley Barn. Oil on panel, 11″ x 14″.
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- Paul Kratter, Valley Ranch Near Half Moon Bay, 2026. Oil on panel, 12″ x 12″.
Again, I’ll present “Completing the Window: A Frame Maker’s Approach to Framing Landscape Paintings” this Saturday, August 22, at 2:00 in the afternoon. It’ll be followed by a tour of the shop. I hope you’ll come. It’s free, but space is limited, so please email us (info@holtonframes.com) to let us know if we can save you a place.
—Tim Holton
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