To frame an artwork or not has been a debatable question for long. But guess what? Not everything needs a frame.
A frame does enhance the look of a painting giving it a more finished, polished and professional look. But with contemporary interiors, a frame-less artwork looks chic. A well conceptualized frame-less art adds sophistication to the decor and allows the viewer a better access to the painting.
A good frame is just like an icing on cake. The icing heightens visual perception, hides irregularities of the cake and keeps the cake moist. Similarly a well built frame elevates the beauty of the artwork and helps it sync better with the decor. A frame protects the art from damages and keeps the not so beautiful parts like the staples, paint blotches on the edges and canvas ends hidden.
Frame styles
Standard Gallery frame
A gallery frame is the most common of all frames. These are the picture frames that most of us have bought or used for framing photographs. These frames come with or without a mat board. A mat board is the white strip
that you see in a frame surrounding the picture. It acts as a barrier between the artwork and the glass. Mat boards come in different colours the most commonly used being white.
Box frame
As the name suggests, box frame looks like a box. This frame comes with space between the front and back end, therefore, giving depth to the frame. The artwork can be mounted in the center of the frame.
Floater frame
Floater or tray frame is L-shape edges fit together to form a frame. The canvas is mounted in the frame such that the canvas edge and frame edge do not touch each other but has a small gap giving the illusion that the work is floating in the frame, hence the name floater frame.
Frame less styles
Gallery wrapped
Canvas that is wrapped around the stretcher bars* and secured with staples on the back side of the stretcher bars frame is called a gallery wrap. The artist paints the canvas in such a way that the artwork is continued on the edges as well. This gives a seamless contemporary look to the artwork and adds to the viewing experience.
Museum wrapped
Canvas is wrapped similar to gallery wrap but the artist does not continue the painting on the edges of the canvas. Instead, the edges are painted in white, black or any other solid colour.
*Stretcher bars
Stretcher bars are four pieces of wooden bars that are fit together to form a square or a rectangle frame on which the canvas is stretched (wrapped) tightly using staples or pins. Stretcher bars remain concealed in both framed and unframed artworks.
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