Our friends at California Historical Design in Alameda just posted this 1918 Percy Gray (1869-1952) watercolor that we framed for them. The untitled 10″ x 14″ painting depicts a path through oaken hills leading to Mt. Tamalpais.
I made for it a 2-1/2″ wide frame in quarter sawn white oak with carved details. (My design sketch is shown at right.) The basic form is a version of a very low cove, or “dish,” form (No. 300 BC Low), augmented with a strap near the sight edge and some carved details: a running pattern around that strap and a simple bud pattern to articulate the corners. Avi fumed, oiled and waxed the frame. The slip is also fumed oak, but finished in bronze wax.
I love the harmony of fumed oak finished with linseed oil and wax, as well as the touch of bronze, with Gray’s tonalist palette. It’s one of the principles of tonalism to capture the harmonizing atmospheric light that unifies the natural creation and beckons us down such paths as this one—that calls us to remember our part in the life of the land we live on.
We’ve had the privilege of framing quite a few works by Percy Gray. A longer post on the artist can be found here.
Again, this lovely and significant work is available from California Historical Design. Also just posted by them are two historical tiles we framed: this Moresque tile of Yosemite Falls and this Rookwood vellum landscape tile.
More examples of how we’ve framed watercolors may be found in the Portfolio…
—Tim Holton
Process—
A corner of the raw frame just before finishing.
Absolutely gorgeous craftsmanship!!! I love the subtle ‘notching’ and how the wood tones beautifully complement the palette of Gray’s painting.