Morning in Rome
80 x 100cm
oil on canvas
I DON’T ALWAYS CHOSE A FRAME. I really love the works that lean up against a mantlepiece, hang loosely on a coat hook, and the ones that are still rough scraps of paper stuck to the wall with Washi tape. I love the freeness and the moodboard-nature of these, fitting in with other objects and showing their painterly edges. They can be moved about, layered, and they often work best alongside other favourite objects.
For some pictures, I want the narrative to be contained. They are singular, like they need to stand alone in their meaning and catch you without the distraction of things on the periphery. The frame tells you where you should be looking - you can travel within it, but you stop at the edge.
For others I like a frame to be part of the painting, spilling out over the board and onto the wood.
I’ve just got back from the framers with new pieces. The paintings have been given a subtle border of a pinkish wood colour - was it beech? - so that the story and shape and colour can flow. I’ve framed some of my favourite letters, too, in old small frames at home, so as not to damage them.
One says: ‘dear rosie The present i luv it From Art.’
I won’t remember what the present was in years to come but if I lose this piece of paper I’ll cry. It’s the story of a sweet relationship, a fleeting age, a moment which I cherish. Framing can be method of preserving delicate things, giving precious things eternity.
When framing Morning in Rome, I meant for colour and scent and garden and warmth to be captured; I think it suits to contain this scramble for space, this garden to have corners like the sense of architecture behind it.
It has made me wonder. Does the line of a painting’s frame suddenly stop your mind from wandering the world you’ve been invited into, forcing you to remember you’re looking at an object?
Or is it the opposite? Does a frame create a harbour, a space to get lost, disappear for a bit and be part of the picture..?
EMILY DICKINSON
Perception of an object costs (Poem 1071)
Perception of an object costs
Precise the Object’s loss -
Perception in itself a Gain
Replying to its Price -
The Object Absolute - is nought -
Perceptions sets it fair
And then upbraids a Perfectness
That situates so far -
~
STUDIO NOTES
A visit to Berdoulat inspired me to think about why art can feel as vital as the furniture. Bought a copy of Patrick Williams The House Rules to try and get into this mindset.
Picked up a selection of endpapers from Persephone Books. They have the most wonderful designs, prints, patterns. These also have a border.
Received a copy of Portrait of a Small Landscape, a zine full of diary style watercolours and sketches by Dutch artist Maria Fraaije, framed within a booklet. It took my breath away.
Considering collage...