Selecting the Proper Framing for Your Art

Tips for selecting the style and color of framing for your art work.

No work of art is complete without the proper framing around it to emphasize the style and subtle colors of the piece. Can you imagine a piece of work such as Da Vinci's famous Mona Lisa that has survived since 1503, and is currently on display in the museum du louver in Paris framed in a bright pink metal frame?

Most artist know that the masterpiece they put on canvas through oil, water color or charcoal is not complete without the right frame and sometimes that means creating the right frame or having it created professionally.

Framing can continue the theme of the art work outside of the canvas and help extend the design and style outward as well. For example many western style pieces of art including the 2,000 paintings artist Charles Russell is credited with creating in his lifetime that showcased the lost way of life of the American Cowboy, could be appropriately framed in simple framing that kept the rustic message of the painting in intact and helped with the feel of the work being an accurate snapshot of the old west.

Sometimes an artist wants the framing to as bold and large as the artwork and one only has to wander through the halls of the museum du louver to see the that this bold style of elaborately carved gold frames are a fitting style for some of the more dramatic or even simple paintings displayed there such as jean-Honore Fragonard's "The Bolt' or "The Bathers."

But you don't have to be hung in the museum du Louver to be consider an artist or to understand the importance of framing to either blend in or help your art stand out and catch the attention of the viewer.

The key is to find a style that creates that look and that can be as difficult as creating the work in the first place. The choice for your frame isn't as limited as it used to be either. It wasn't that long ago when the only options were wood, today your frame can be made from just about any material including plaster, ceramic or metal in addition to wood.

Look at the size of your art work when deciding the width of your frame. Large art work can look good with wider molding to help bring the eye of the beholder in towards the canvas.

If you want to emphasize the art more than the frame and feel a large frame would deter from the art, you can always opt for a narrow frame especially if the space where you intend to hang the art is a smaller space and would appear crowded with a large frame and a large canvas.

Finally be sure to select a frame color that blends or emphasize the color in the art and not a frame color that clashes with the art and doesn't seem to have a purpose for being part of the artwork.

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