MOUNTING, MATTING, AND FRAMING

by Ginny Santora

Our lecture at the March 8 meeting was provided by Linda Wagner of BW Gallery. Many thanks go to Catherine Hewins for her idea of having a talk on mounting, matting, and framing, and for contacting Linda to obtain her agreement to present the lecture! Linda is a painter and an Art History major, has personally met Henri Cartier-Bresson and Ansel Adams, and is the owner of the BW Gallery, located in Heritage Plaza, Ryders Lane, Milltown. The gallery provides mounting, matting, and framing services to photographers.

Linda began the lecture with a discussion of framing. She passed around to the group for comparison the same picture with different matting and framing . One version was framed with a tan mat and tan frame, which was adequate. The same small print, however, assembled with a considerably larger, wine-colored mat, and an antique-looking frame made the picture appear as museum quality --- a fine example of how presentation can make all the difference in appearance, and ultimately, in increased sales. Linda stated that, unfortunately, art schools do not teach presentation, which is a very important aspect of selling your work. People bring to the gallery paintings that are painted out to the edge, even though there is a 1/4" lip on every frame.

Linda advises against being afraid of using a good sized mat if you are having something framed, and she encourages us to be imaginative when framing. Of course, if it is an Ansel Adams print, you would want to use a simple frame, as the picture speaks for itself. White mats will give a picture a simple, classic, gallery look that is great for museums. You are always safe with a white mat and judges do like white mats in competition. Feel free to do what your instinct tells you is the right thing. If you are framing a sensitive landscape, you might want to use an Impressionistic frame, but do not be afraid to frame imaginatively, not timidly. Being conservative is fine, but just remember that you do not have to be conservative. And yes, you can frame a red subject with a red mat and red frame. Your imagination can take you anywhere.

If you are not dry mounting, it is not recommended that you tape all 4 sides. Instead, just hinge the work at the top so that the paper is free to change size as it breathes. Be careful as to the tape you us. Linen tape tends to curl and many others discolor the picture as they age. Foam-Cor is a pretty good mount for your pictures. It is acid free, lasts, and does not discolor anything. Using a double mat of the same color gives the picture an architectural feeling. Using more than 2 mats, say, 1/4", 1/2", and 3 or 4 inches is also interesting. The "bird cage" look can be achieved by placing the picture on top, with a lot of mat below. An example of this is the James Bond 007 picture Linda showed to the group. This type of mounting is OK for 8 x 10 or 11 x 14 sized pictures.

BW Gallery offers shadow boxes. The ones with wooden frames have a nice appearance, but Linda does not care for acrylic boxes. Spray adhesives need good ventilation when being used since they are toxic substances. Some stores sell mats with frames. Be advised that while they may look good, they are not acid-free. Pearl Paints in Woodbridge has mat cutters and videos on how to use them. BW has oval and circular mat cutters. You can lease a computerized mat cutter, since they are too expensive to purchase. Such cutters are not cost effective for the average persons cutting their own mats. For ease in cutting BW mats, they have had for a few years a computerized mat cutter. There are still some things, however, that they cut by hand. During down-times, which are not too often these days, they will cut mats to stock sizes.

On pricing your art, just remember that if your picture is cheaply framed, you can not ask a lot of money for it. But do not underprice your work, as people do not value things that are inexpensive. Marion Gitterman mentioned that she had heard that the rule of thumb is to double your cost, then double it again so the gallery can get 1/2 of the final selling price. Selling photography as fine art is not easy, as many people have the belief that they can do the same thing themselves. Linda concluded with the general observation that without art, music, and theater, life is pretty grim. The RPS group would certainly agree with that, and we all intend to do OUR part to make this world more interesting photographically. Again, we thank Linda for bringing much useful information to us, and Catherine for bringing Linda to us!