A Minka for Pictures: Framing Hiroto Norikane

I often say that what we’re offering is the simple home for pictures. The simple home ideal was practiced and advocated by Bernard Maybeck and Charles Keeler here in Berkeley, and shaped much of the city’s early architecture. I take it to express the principles of vernacular, or folk, domestic architecture, and thus to point to a vast and rich well of design inspiration for frame making.

Picture frame corner samples--the MinkaIn the Japan, the traditional house, called a Minka, is an exemplary simple home. Minkas are a favorite subject of artist Hiroto Norikane (b. 1949), who made this etching. The frame we designed for it is just a No. 1, our plainest mitered frame, but with proud splines shaped with the gentle curve characteristic of the roof lines of these wonderful folk structures. I think I’ll call this frame “The Minka.” (At right: two Minka corner samples, one walnut and one cherry, ready to finish.)

Framed etching by Norakane

This isn’t the first print we’ve made this design for. Here’s a Kawase Hasui woodblock of a row of cozy minkas lining a village street on a rainy night (more on this one in the Portfolio)…

…and a little nineteenth century street scene by Inoue Yasuji:

A Gallery of Hiroto Norikane’s Minkas—

Here’s a sampling of printmaker Hiroto Norikane’s depictions of minkas. These are all from the artist’s page at Panteek Antique Prints.

More on the Minka frame—

The Minka frame can be made in any width and in any wood and stain. Here’s a 3/4″ wide corner sample in walnut stained black (with India ink). The two in the background are 1″ and 3/4″ wide in walnut with Black Wash. Picture frame corner sample--The Minka

Highlighting Robert Flanary

Jessie just re-hung the gallery to highlight our inventory of paintings by Robert Flanary. There are 26 paintings in all. Most are framed—those are shown on Robert’s page, here—but there’s also a large number of unframed (or ready-to-frame!) pieces.

Robert Flanary painting

Robert Flanary
“Wildflower Meadow”
Oil on linen panel, 12″ x 10″. $1,700 framed.
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A long time customer, a painter, came through last week as we were preparing to hang the exhibit, and commented that she didn’t know of a more sensitive painter than Robert. She was particularly struck by the subtle touch of his brushwork on one painting’s linen support. But the observation extended to every aspect of Robert’s work.

Robert Flanary painting

Robert Flanary
“A Winter Day”
2022. Oil on canvas, 11″ x 14″. $1,800 framed.
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Much of that has to do with Robert’s masterful ability to paint atmosphere. Where other artists set out to paint features on the land—trees, rocks, creeks, hills—Robert seems to focus on what ties them together: he paints the air.

Robert Flanary painting

Robert Flanary
“Early Spring”
2021. Oil on canvas, 16″ x 20″. $3,400 framed.
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But that’s not all. As I wrote on the occasion of a one-man show we had for him a couple of years ago, Robert Flanary: Seeing All Together, the artist’s flawlessly rendered perspective draws us in to that intoxicating atmosphere, and we get lost in it.

Robert Flanary painting

Robert Flanary
“Scatter Creek Meadow”
Oil on linen panel, 8″ x 10″. $1,300 framed.
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The gallery’s highlight of Robert Flanary’s landscape paintings is on display through February 22. We hope you’ll come enjoy them with us!

Framing Hall Thorpe’s “Three Wise Men”

It’s Christmas Eve and many of you are out and about bearing gifts. So in the spirit of the day, I thought I’d post this lovely woodblock print, “Three Wise Men,” by Hall Thorpe (Australian, 1874-1947). At just about 5-1/4″ square, it’s framed in a delicate 1/2″ black-stained walnut  frame with rounded corners echoing the print’s border and rounded cloud forms. Proud splines articulate the corners and form.

Happy holidays to all—and may the season’s gifts include peace and goodwill!Framed Hall Thorpe block print

Rounded corner frame with proud spline

This frame as presented in our online catalog.

 

Richard Lindenberg’s Window on Beloved Mt. Tamalpais

Just makin up poems in my head as I climb toward Mount Tamalpais.
See up there, as beautiful a mountain as you’ll see anywhere in the world,
a beautiful shape to it, I really love Tamalpais. —The character Japhy in The Dharma Bums (1958), by Jack Kerouac

Jack Kerouac and his hiking pal and fellow beat poet Gary Snyder, on whom the character Japhy was based, weren’t alone. Of all the land features that frame San Francisco Bay, none is more loved than Mt. Tamalpais. By the second world war, the mountain was already covered with trails well-used by weekending Bay Area residents. To the Miwok people, it was sacred.

So it’s appropriate that a nice big, 18″ x 36″ view of the sleeping lady (see below) is a centerpiece of Beloved California IX, our current show (running through the 28th). In “Majestic Mt. Tam” by Richard Lindenberg, the mountain, lit by the setting sun, reflects off a glassy creek in the foreground. We set the oil on canvas in a carved walnut mortise and tenon frame with a coppery bronze slip. Trevor Davis made it.

Richard Lindenberg painting

Richard Lindenberg
“Majestic Mt. Tam”
Oil on canvas, 18″ x 36″. $5,000 framed.
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She was a beautiful young Miwok maiden in love with an Indian prince. When he abandoned her, she walked to the top of the mountain nearby and died of heartbreak. As she sobbed, the mountain heard her intense sorrow and took pity. When she finally died, the mountain was so moved it changed its form, taking on the supine shape of her body and becoming the Sleeping Lady, our dear Mt. Tamalpais.
 
Again, Beloved California IX  runs through Saturday, December 28. Please come see this beautiful show of new and recent work by our outstanding roster of Northern California landscape painters! 
 

Colorful Samples for a Colorful Season

Here are a few recent and particularly seasonal carved and painted corner samples I made. The middle one’s soft maple and the other two are walnut. All have simple carving and are painted with linseed oil paint.

By the way, there’s still time for us to fill most orders for holiday gifts. But don’t put it off much longer!

And don’t forget about Beloved California, which runs through the end of the year. It’s full of exquisite works that would make wonderful gifts!

Wait—there’s a few more!painted and carved corner samples

About Line: Framing Paul Jacoulet

When designing a frame, I ask myself, what is this picture about? I mean in terms of artistic elements such as color, form, line, and pattern that the frame can honor and enhance. With this 1940 woodblock print, “Chagrin D’Amour: Kusai, Est Carolines,” (15-1/2″ x 11-3/4″) by Paul Jacoulet (1896-1960), I could have gone with color. But its incredibly delicate lines are what captivated me.Framed Paul Jacoulet print

Detail, framed Paul Jacoulet printI’ve enjoyed shaping the inside edge of frames and accenting that shape with a slender 1/8″ slip (like on this Utagawa Kunisada print), and thought I’d try that technique with this piece. I homed in on the boldest line and what it’s doing: the woman’s black hair framing her face. The lines of the frame then started to come to me. The fact that the artist was French had something to do with it. Those lines are very French, n’est-ce pas? The frame profile is flat, its narrow sections 3/4″ wide. Oiled walnut is a perfect neutral foil to the color, and is the color of the woman’s face but in a darker shade. The slip is also walnut, but stained black, of course.

Paul Jacoulet’s outstanding artwork and extraordinary personal story are well worth exploring. You might start here.

Many more examples of how we frame Japanese prints may be found in our Portfolio.

Framed Paul Jacoulet print

Framing Erik Tiemens for Beloved California IX

Marin County painter Erik Tiemens has taken part in every one of our annual Beloved California exhibits. We’ve mostly shown his oil paintings. But this year, for Beloved California IX, three of his four pieces are watercolor and gouache. “A Landscape from Memory” captures a pastoral valley and that wonderful effect of the sun bursting through after a rainstorm (something we just experienced today here in slightly less pastoral Berkeley). The frame is our No. 300 BC Low at 2-1/2″ wide. The shallow cove mimics the broad sweep of the valley. It’s in quartersawn white oak with Saturated Medieval Oak stain, and has a bronze slip.

Beloved California IX runs through the holidays, closing December 28. Come enjoy the inspired landscape views of Erik Tiemens and twenty-one other premier regional painters.

Framed Erik Tiemens painting

Erik Tiemens
“A Landscape From Memory”
watercolor and gouache on paper, 10 1/8″ x 14 1/8″. $3,400 framed.
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Framing a Magical Pastel by Kim Lordier for Beloved California IX

Since the early days of the Monterey Peninsula artists’ colony, a certain mystical quality has lured painters to the area. Artists like Charles Rollo Peters accentuated that quality by painting the Peninsula in the moonlight. Kim Lordier‘s pastel “Point Lobos Magic” proves that the spell endures.

Framed in a 3-1/2″ wide stained oak cove profile with two carved elements: a cushion back edge and raised strap near the sight edge. Both of those elements have paint rubbed into them in the blue and green of the painting. A gilt slip adds the finishing touch.Framed Kim Lordier pastel

“Point Lobos Magic” is just one of 63 paintings featured in Beloved California IX, our current all-gallery show celebrating the Northern California landscape. Kim was here last Saturday taking part in a well-attended and festive opening reception. She not only got lots of props, but sold another seascape—the 12″ x 16″ “Rolling In” (at right)—to a long-time fan.

Beloved California IX is on through December 28. Come and enjoy it!

Framed Kim Lordier pastel

Kim Lordier
“Point Lobos Magic”
Pastel on Archival Board, 24″ x 18″.
$6,800 framed.
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New to the Roster! Framing Simon Addyman for Beloved California IX

Simon Addyman is an oil painter we’ve admired for a very long time, so it is wonderful to announce that he’s joined the roster of The Holton Studio Gallery. Simon will be featured in Beloved California IX, opening today. We expect Simon Addyman to be here for the reception from 2 to 4. Hope you can come too!

This is one of Simon’s I especially love. It’s called “Sunlit Trees.” The 10″ x 12″ is framed in a stained quartersawn white oak No. 1.4 CV—2″ with bronze slip.

Framed Simon Addyman painting

Simon Addyman
“Sunlit Trees”
Oil on linen panel, 10″ x 12″. SOLD.