Cut and Paste

My most recent painting needed a frame. 18" x 24" is a fairly common standard size- meaning you can easily find frames for it. I had a very nice frame of that size sitting around that I have been wanting to use but the style was just too fancy. I decided to go with a simple wood frame. This is a style of frame that I have been using a lot lately and are made by local painter and frame builder Joe Stewart.
He had one in stock and dropped it off at the studio this weekend. It looked great on the painting. Only problem was that the opening was very close to 18 " and the painting was a bit bit less than that. So, once in the frame it was just a bit too small.
There are really only 3 ways to fix this- a new frame of the exact size, add a liner piece to make the opening smaller, or make the painting bigger.
A new frame would take time, the liner goes around all 4 edges and cuts off some of the painting at the sides. I chose the last option. It was the easiest, fastest and cheapest way to go- and did not cut off any more painting.
I thought I would show a bit of how this was accomplished.

You can see at the top of the painting is a white strip- which is the canvas showing. It was a dark line showing the top of the canvas but I added a strip of wood to the stretcher bar to make it a bit bigger. I have a workshop with a table saw and sander.

Here you can see the back of the canvas. I removed all the staples holding the canvas on the side to be lengthened. I cut a strip of wood to be screwed on the stretcher bar that was 24 inches long, about 3/4 thick, and then ripped it on my saw the depth I needed, which was about 3/16" thick. I drilled pilot holes so the screws would be counter sunk and not split the wood. I then carefully screwed the piece on and then restretched and restapled that side of the canvas. As the canvas had been stretched, the part of the canvas that was the corner is not lower and in the painting. That can show as a line. I could have ironed it flat, but one is twas stretched it was almost invisible.
Then I just had to paint that strip so it did not show as white. I scraped the painting to removed excess paint that may have been build up on that corner and then painted the 1/4" of white to match the rest of the painting. It took about 20 minutes.

Here is the painting, in the frame with the strip painted. It is almost unnoticeable. The heavily figured Oak frame stained in a warm tone looks great with the painting.
To purchase these frames, contact Rottinghaus Gallery and ask for the Joe Stewart line of frames. 513-871-3662
Stop in to see some of the other frame designs. I have some of my newest still life work there as well.

1983 Madison Rd, Cincinnati, OH 45208 
 Tuesday - Saturday, 11:00 am to 4:00 pm