Summer Past, Summer to Come: Framing Tia Kratter for Beloved California VII

Here’s one of Tia Kratter‘s watercolors that will be in Beloved California VII: Twenty Painters with a Passion for Place opening a week from Saturday. We set “Pool Party,” which is 15″ x 8-1/2″, in a plain flat 2″ wide fumed quartersawn white oak frame with a cut-in back and a sight edge cove we painted green.

Tia Kratter, “Pool Party,” 2022. Watercolor, 15″ x 8-1/2″

Not all watercolors can be framed close, i.e., without a mat. But this one is large and bold enough to be presented like an oil painting. And framing it close, instead of isolating the picture the way a mat does, connects it to the architectural setting. It does so by serving as a window frame, thus completing the picture’s effect as a window—a view of another place. Although we’re in the fall season, we can still enjoy a window on memories of summer days on the water, and those happy El Toros waiting for us to come back next year.

We’re very proud to have the extraordinarily talented Tia Kratter in the gallery and part of Beloved California VII: Twenty Painters with a Passion for Place. The show opens Saturday, November 12 with a reception for the artists from 1 to 4—and Tia plans to be there with her maybe-as-talented husband Paul Kratter. Celebrating our “pool” of 20 artists, it’ll be kind of a pool party! We hope you’ll join us!