Arthur Frank Mathews (1860-1945) was California’s premiere muralist and a leading teacher in the state. He was also a great advocate for Arts and Crafts ideals—which led him directly to an appreciation for the significance of the architecture of the frame and its worthiness as an artform. We’ve enjoyed the privilege of framing several works by Mathews and his wife, Lucia Kleinhans Mathews (1870-1955). These jobs have been a wonderful opportunity to draw on the decorative vocabulary the couple are known for. This 18-1/4″ x 14-1/4″ pastel of a girl picking flowers on a poppy-covered hillside was a chance to employ the iconic carved, low relief, polychromed poppy patterns the Mathewses developed—a pure expression of their love for California.

The frame is a compound mitered frame in fumed and oiled quartersawn white oak with a gilt slip. Given the gentle rounded form of the hillside and the oak trees, I chose the cushion form for the overall profile, adding a complementary form, a cove, to the sight edge. The cap is a low cushion as well, and I carved outlines of poppies at the corners and painted them.

This piece was framed for California Historical Design, and is available from them. View it here.

Another Arthur Mathews I framed can be seen here. A lovely framed watercolor by Lucia Mathews is here.

Depictions of architecture, cabinetry, furniture and other things made of wood are always possible cues for the wooden structure that is a frame. Such constructions are themselves, after all, essentially frames of one kind or another. A wooden ladder is another kind of frame. So when we received this very sweet little (just 13-1/4″ x 3″) woodblock print, titled “Hen and Rooster” (1915), by the wonderful shin hanga master Gesso Yoshimoto (1881-1936), the idea came to me for a frame design that would play off the ladder. The construction of the ladder is identical to a mortise and tenon frame, and in this case, the tall, narrow proportions of the print lent themselves to the treatment as well.

The frame is walnut finished with black-tinted beeswax, the wood and finish harmonizing perfectly with the tones in Yoshimoto’s print. Trevor made the frame with flush through tenons visible on the sides for a subtle, pleasing detail. The ends of the stiles and the tops and bottoms of the rails (the rungs of the ladder) are cut at angles to echo the chickens’ ladder.

One thing that makes this print so charming is how it elevates a scene we too often ignore or dismiss as mundane. The old pejorative was “worldly.” Here, the worldly and ordinary are recognized for their significance and beauty.

This is the essential power of the frame, as a threshold that connects two realms, demonstrating the efficacy, in tangible, present reality, of the imaginary, the illusory, the remembered image. The real presence of the frame completes the picture’s mission to re-present—that is, make present again—what is not, or is no longer, present.

As proof and testimony to a picture’s efficacy in its present setting, the frame honors and elevates the picture. And for elevating things, whether a rooster or a work of art, a ladder can come in handy!

By the way, this print came from our friends at the superb Ronin Gallery in New York City.

Part IV of my six-part series “A Joiner’s Art: Frame Making as Woodworking” for Picture Framing Magazine has come out. The first installment, published last May, introduced the topic with some history and an overview (read Part I, probably the most interesting one for the general reader, here), then Part II (here) got into the craft starting with a discussion of wood and the workshop. Part III, here, in the December 2025 issue, explored selecting and milling wood, and cutting moulding profiles. Part IV is on joinery (the subhead is misleading; the editors accidentally forgot to update it from the previous installment). Here’s a taste of it:

A picture can only be well-framed if it’s in a well-made frame. The traditional woodworkers who were the first frame makers regarded joinery as the essence of their trade—which is why they were called joiners. So it is also the essence of the art of the frame when frame making is restored to its roots and treated as a joiner’s art.

You can read the whole installment online here.

Picture Framing Magazine has just published Part III of what will be a six-part series I’m writing for them called “A Joiner’s Art: Frame Making as Woodworking.” The first installment, which came out in May, introduced the topic with some history and an overview (read Part I here), while Part II (here) delved into the craft beginning with a discussion of wood and the workshop. Part III, in the December 2025 issue, explores selecting and milling wood, and cutting moulding profiles. You can read it here.

—Tim Holton

After a long stretch of dry weather here in the Bay Area, we’re expecting several days of rain over Christmas. There is, in other words, a change in the air—which happens to be the title of this Terry Miura painting. Right now, “Change in the Air” hangs in the showroom by the entrance to the gallery, greeting visitors to our big annual all-gallery show, Beloved California X.

Terry Miura
“Change in the Air”
Oil on panel, 12″ x 16″. $2,900 framed.
BUY

We set the 12″ x 16″ oil in a 2-1/2″ wide carved and stained quarter sawn white oak frame with a 1/8″ pale gold slip. I like how the carved texture emphasizes Terry’s brushwork, while the flat profile echoes the flat horizon.I also love a second painting of Terry’s included in the show: “El Dorado Homestead, No. 2” .

Terry Miura
“El Dorado Homestead No. 2”
Oil on panel, 8″ x 16″. $2,000 framed.
BUY

On December 30, the last day of the exhibit, we’ll host an open house from 11:00 to 2:00. (Though we’re normally closed on Tuesdays, we’ll be open on the 30th.) Hope you’ll find a chance to come by during these final days of 2025 (change is indeed in the air!) and Beloved California X.

—Tim Holton

We’ve just finished hanging Beloved California X. One of the painters featured is James McGrew. I especially love his 11″ x 14″ painting of this beautiful bit of shoreline at Lake Tahoe. James painted it last summer when teaching at the Plein Air Convention at Reno/Lake Tahoe.

James McGrew, “Sand Harbor,” 2025. Oil on birch panel, 11″ x 14″. $2,500 framed.

This work exemplifies the subtitle of our show, “Twenty-One Painters With a Passion for Place.” James describes his strong personal connection to this sandy cove where he spent many happy days as a kid, and then as a dad swimming in the chilly, clear mountain water with his two daughters.

The frame, in beautifully figured stained quarter sawn white oak, is a 2-1/4″ wide plain slope with a sight edge chamfer leafed with white gold.

“Upper Yosemite Fall,” 8″ x 6″. $1,000 framed.

James McGrew, who’s established himself as one of the premiere painters of our national parks, will be in the Bay Area this weekend. At 2 pm this afternoon, just over the hill in Moraga, he’ll be giving a lecture at St Mary’s College Museum of Art in conjunction with their current exhibit, “Echoes of Yosemite.” Titled “Influential Brushwork: Establishment and Preservation of Yosemite National Park Through Art,” the presentation “will cover the close relationship of art with the public awareness, preservation and management of Yosemite,” and how James carries on that legacy through his own work. At right is one of James’s terrific Yosemite paintings, also featured in our show.

“Beloved California X: Twenty-One Painters With a Passion for Place” opens Saturday—tomorrow! I hope you’ll come to our reception from 2 to 4 in the afternoon and meet many of the artists, including James McGrew.

—Tim Holton

Jessie and crew will be very busy this week hanging our tenth annual all-gallery exhibition, Beloved California: Twenty-One Painters With a Passion for Place, which opens this Saturday, November 15. As the subtitle suggests, nearly our entire roster of premiere artists is represented with inspired new and recent paintings of our extraordinary regional landscape.

For our postcard and other publicity, we chose this piece by long-time roster member Christin Coy, who has spent her career capturing the distinctive light and undulating hills of Marin County. This 8″ x 12″ oil, “Mt. Tamalpais from Mill Valley,” is an excellent example of her work.

Christin Coy, “Mt. Tamalpais from Mill Valley”. Oil on linen panel, 8″ x 12″.

I made a simple sloped profile to mimic the slope and contours of Mt. Tamalpais, one of the Bay’s great landscape features. At 1-7/8″ wide, it’s in walnut toned with Medieval stain, and has a 1/8″ slip leafed with rose gold, to harmonize with the late light.

The show, as I said, opens this Saturday, and there will be a reception for the artists from 2-4 pm. Bring your family and friends, and join us in celebrating the beauty of our Beloved California!

Beloved California X runs through December 30.

—Tim Holton

In the Gallery, we’ve put together a little highlight exhibit of Tia Kratter‘s virtuosic watercolors. It starts tomorrow, Saturday, October 4 and will be up through Saturday, Nov. 1. One of my personal favorites is this still life titled “Dunking Booth,” 11″ x 10-1/2″. (Tia’s great sense of humor often finds outlet in her titles.) Her handling of glass and water is astounding. Our frame on “Dunking Booth” is a 2″ wide No. 300 BC Low, a very subtle cove molding, in solid cherry, stained deep red-brown; with a slip gilded with rose gold (of course). More here.

Another favorite is “Siena’s Sharp Left Turn,” 16-1/2” x 11″. It’s framed in a simple 2″ wide slope, No. 2 in walnut with clear oil finish, and has a coved 22kt gilt slip. More here.

All of Tia’s work currently highlighted in the Gallery may be seen on her page, here.

Studio Tours—

It’s not in the show, but I had to share this piece Tia just painted a few weeks ago, titled “Tools of the Trade,” (20″ x 12″). It shows a corner of my studio that caught Tia’s eye one day. (You’ll find it on the artist’s website.)

Which brings me to a reminder that this coming Tuesday, for Berkeley Manufacturing Week I’m offering a couple of tours of the shop, one at 2:00 and one at 3:30. Learn more here, or go right to the Eventbrite page to sign up.

—Tim Holton

Next Tuesday, October 7, as part of Berkeley Manufacturing Week, I’ll be offering tours of the studio. The event is sponsored by the City’s Office of Economic Development, which kindly put together this article on us in Berkeleyside. There will be two tours, one at 2:00 and one at 3:30. You can sign up for them on the Eventbrite page, here. On that page you’ll see the entire list of participating local manufacturers. (Photos below by Kelly Sullivan.)