Aboriginal Art fron Aus.

[prospero]

I'm about to start building a frame for a big piece of aboriginal art that a customer brought back fron a trip to Aus. Paid quite a bit for it by all accounts. I'll post a pic later.... It's all done in dots. Oil (possibly acrylic) on canvas 50x40". I managed to get it stretched Ok, despite only 1.5in spare canvas.
I have had it a few weeks and in that time I have been mulling over frame designs. I want to avoid European-type styles. Most mouldings are drived from Greco-Roman architectural styles and this would look totally wrong on this work.
At the mo I am leaning toward a flat section of wood about 3" wide with a 1" hockey-stick on the inside standing proud. Inside this a 1.25" cushion, pale coloured to act as a liner. The hockey-stick section black and the outer piece of flat wood heavily distressed and finished to give a bleached wood impression. I have a nice piece of reclaimed pine skirting that came out of the old house next door. Must be 200 years old at least. I intend to attack it with various sharp implements to give it the rough-hewn look. I think it will look spot-on, but you can never tell with these things until you do them.

I would be most interested to hear how other members would tackle the job if it landed on their doorstep.

[prospero]

This is the beast.

[ross]

Did the customer see it framed when purchasing the canvas - do they have any preconceived ideas about what they want. If the answer to these two questions is no, then my approach to framing canvases such as this would be to use a distressed timber moulding that compliments the artwork colourwise - I tend to favour the use of redy/browns, mahogany and moccas so as to compliment the artwork rather than the lighter timbers. But every piece is different and your piece appears to have some lighter tones in it - not much black from what I can see.

There seems to be quiet a lot of green in the background, so I would consider using a small green timber moulding (15/18mm wide) as a slip inside a distressed timber moulding (probably in a reddy/brown tone to pick the colour that appears to have been used in the painting) - the width of this moulding would be 50/60mm

The majority of aboriginal paintings tend to be painted in very strong colours symbolic of the country from which they eminate. Today a lot of such artwork still comes from what we know as the Centre - Alice springs/Northern Territory and further afield from the northern parts of Queensland, Northern Territory and Western Australia - colours such as ochre brown, yellow and red generally predominate

Aboriginal paintings tend to be very colourful, bold in content and often eye arresting - simple but effective frames that compliment these three concepts is what is needed to frame them

I shall be interested to learn what your end solution is

Ross

[framemaker]

The natural timber frame with a slip idea sounds pretty good to me, but as an alternative you could have a flat profile frame with a gesso finish and some surface texture such as a combed effect (either vertical or horizontal lines), a similar idea to a photo you posted a while ago Prospero, with a painted/distressed finish on the gesso. A very low relief pattern of circles at the corners with horizontal (very slightly wavy) lines along the length in the gesso would be another effect. It would be a unique and bold frame finish that is in keeping with the patterns used in Aboriginal art. But there would be a fine line between such a frame looking really good or awful and would depend on getting the pattern and colouring just right!

[prospero]

Thanks for the input. The custmer never saw it framed, in fact I don't think the canvas was ever on stretchers.

I did think of using some real old manky old bits of board I have stacked against the shed. They are slightly rotten in places and riddled with wormholes. But they would look fantastic as a frame. Prob is I would have to harden the rotten bits somehow and generally stabilise them. I have some woodworm killer, but I think the last of the woodworm died out sometime in 19th century. If it was summer I might have head a crack at it.

I think I will employ my usual method of go for it and see what happens. I'll post a pic of the result.

[framejunkie]

Coincidentally i have 2 Aboriginal paintings in at the moment. Works on paper, though, so i don't think my style will suit Prospero's canvas. My customer said she'd thought a darker wood tone would be good, so i said Jarrah would be perfect.(a very hard eucalyptus species - was used during days of empire to provide a return cargo coming back from down under. Its very resistant to insects and rotting, so ended up being used a lot for railway sleepers, as was, astonishingly, mahogany).
My customer said that was exactly what she was thinking, so after a minor Saturday morning mission to an Architectural salvage place i now have 4 80year old Jarrah floorboards to machine into moulding. It has the most lovely pinky deep brown colour. Apparently its the world's worst wood to machine and blunts tooling in moments, but I'll try anything once(bearing Sir Thomas Beecham's advice in mind, of course).

[prospero]

That's interesting as I remember going to hang some paintings in a local house and they had some amazing furniture which was made from recycled railway sleepers from South Africa. It looked beautiful, despite having enormous cracks though it, which had been filled with brown epoxy prior to machining. Cost a fortune apparently.

[prospero]

I got it done finally.



Outer flat part is a plank of softwood which I ploughed deep groves into with a Dremel+milling tool. Followed by
a good going over with a wire brush. Coated with acrylic gesso and given various diluted coats of acyrlic paint. Inside that a 1" hockeystick moulding painted black, which stands out about 1". The liner is a cushion moulding that I bought about 20 years ago thinking it would come in useful one day.

I'm quite pleased with it.



(Click the pics for bigger versions)

[framemaker]

I think it looks great!

been meaning to get a dremel for years, might pop into B&Q tomorrow and get one... cheers for a pic Prospero, I like the subtle texture on the black hockey too

[Not your average framer]

Hi Peter,

Mmmm, That's really nice and it looks just right for the job too! If I had realised that you could do that sort of thing with a Dremel, I would have bought one years ago.

[Framerpicture]

What a great job

[Cathy]

Oooh very nice,
Ah the i got two of the B&Q cheap ones was not very expensive & well worth the money one has a flexi hose to get into all of those awkward places

[daisy]

That's a really lovely job. I hope the customer appreciates all the thought, work and talent that went into framing it.

Can I be cheeky and ask what type of paint you used for the black? It has a lovely satin finish to it.

Regards Daisy

[MITREMAN]

Spot on Prospero

Question: How can you tell if a picture is framed well?

Answer : You see the picture first the frame just complements it

Prospero has taken the time and effort to construct and finish a frame to enhance the artwork.

Don't mind me asking
What was your customers reaction?
Did show them standard mouldings first?
How Long did it take?
Did you make a good profit?


I,am Dremel Man too, a great little tool, great for quick enlarging of a rebate or carving gesso after repairing old frames.

MITREMAN

[Adrian]

My very first thought on looking at the framed pics Prospero, and I really hope you'll take this as the compliment intended, was 'WOW what a fantastic work of art!' A brilliant job you've done, it goes without saying, but I think if we can produce this sort of reaction for our customers then we're definitely doing something right! Nice one!

[Roboframer]

It's an Aboriginaloriginal!

Yes - like it

Did you know ('course you did) that all these works are based on their dreams? I have better dreams than that - that stuff is just what I see on the inside of my eyelids.

Last night I dreamt (and I'm deadly serious and had forgotten the dream until one of the haidresser girls, 3 doors up, walked in to the shop this morning to do some photocopying) that an old army mate of mine, who I never ever would have thought about - he left in the late 70's and I've not heard of him since, was in my living room, on the phone, which must have been on a speaker, to the guy that owns/runs the hairdressers (don't ask me how I knew it was him by just his voice, it just was - it was a dream!)

Well, the hairdresser was laying in to this guy about all sorts of things, and I was saying 'Don't take that carp, tell him to eff off' and stuff.

But my mate was saying that the hairdresser was some high faluting army officer ...... Lots of other weird stuff, but the main thing I remember was the hairdresser shouting "AND i DON'T WANT TO SEE YOUR #### (male appendage) EVERY MORNING ON MY WAY TO WORK YOU PERVERT - I CAN SEE STRAIGHT THROUGH YOUR WINDOW - CLOSE YOUR EFFIN' CURTAINS ....."

Frame that then!