Frame Of The Week: Ship Under Glass

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Two view of the glass painting. Click to enlarge.

Photographs do not do justice to this magnificent piece.  This is actually two paintings in one frame.  The big ship in the foreground is actually a reverse painting on glass.  Behind it is another background painting on a board.  We framed this with a protective piece of glass in front and spaced the background painting 3/8″ back from the glass painting to give a 3-D effect.  The whole thing is framed in a lovely dark shadowbox moulding that complements the ship nicely!

Bring us your treasure and we’ll make it look stunning too!

 

In Our Gallery: David Kahn

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"Ten Ten Ten" by David Kahn

Baldwin Hill Art & Framing is proud to host Natick fine art photographer David Kahn for the month of March.  For Kahn, taking a photograph is just the beginning of the creative process.  He then processes the images using state-of-the-art computer technology to achieve his vision.  He calls this approach “painting with photographs”.  Like a painter’s palette, Kahn uses photographs as color and design elements as part of a lager works.  This art of montage makes it possible to express visual ideas in new and exciting ways.

David’s works will be on display in our gallery through March 31.  We will hold a reception in the gallery on March 23 from 5-9PM.

Photographs By Elyssa Conley @ TCAN!

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"Clergy And Tourist" by Elyssa Conley

We are proud to announce that our very own designer Elyssa Conley will be exhibiting her images in a show at The Center for the Arts Natick, 14 Summer Street, Natick, MA, from February 29- March 31, 2012.  Elyssa’s exhibit is titled “The Eclectic Lens”.   The exhibits can be viewed during TCAN’s normal business hours, Tuesday – Saturday, 12 Noon – 6 pm.

Elyssa Conley studied photography at the Art Institute of Boston as well as art and design at Lasell College. Her photography is diverse and includes subjects taken from nature as well as her travels in the United States and abroad. Her images have been described as having a ‘tranquil and ethereal’ quality. Elyssa says she is most passionate about “capturing the magic of light in the early morning or late afternoon which creates long shadows that enhance contours and texture, turning the ordinary into the extraordinary.”

Inspired by the work of Galen Rowell, Andre Gallant and Trey Ratcliff, Elyssa uses the digital darkroom to enhance her artistic vision. She also enjoys experimenting with various creative post-processing techniques, including High Dynamic Range Imaging, the Orton technique, texture overlays and mirror imaging.

Elyssa has exhibited her work in various galleries around the Boston area. She has won numerous camera club photography competitions, was the winner of the ‘Focus on Natick’ held by Natick 360 planning commission and her image ‘Clergy and Tourist’ won Editor’s Choice in Digital Photographer magazine.

For more information:

Elyssa Conley Photography

The Center for Arts in Natick (TCAN)

"Calla Lily Heart" by Elyssa Conley

Frame Of The Week: A Little Patriots Spirit!

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Even before the New England Patriots won the AFC championship, we had a feeling they’d have a very good year!  At the same time, we always wanted to have a framed jersey example in the shop, but full-sized jerseys are rather large and would take up too much of our limited display space.  We found this baby Tom Brady jersey and framed it up the same as we would a big one; even the moulding is left over from a jersey framing job!

Whoever your favorite team is, bring us your sports memorabilia!  We can transform it into a wonderful display piece for your home!

Frame Of The Week: Brothers In Arms

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Just in time for Veterans Day, we present our most recent military memorabilia project.  The Brown Elementary School in Natick is named for Harold and Howard Brown, two brothers from West Natick who served in World War II and paid the ultimate price in the name of freedom.  The brothers’ medals and decorations were donated to the school, and Baldwin Hill Art & Framing was chosen to present them in a manner befitting their sacrifice.  We thought it would be fitting to include photographs of the brothers to give a human face to these badges of honor.  Each brother is depicted beneath his Purple Heart, and the other decorations are arranged around this in a tasteful black shadowbox.  The finished size is about 24″x18″.

You, too, can honor the military hero in your own life.  A display like this can be a wonderful gift or memorial to showcase a proud military career!

“50% Off” May Not Be Such A Bargain

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Say you’re out doing your errands and you drive by a major craft chain store.  They have all these signs and banners out front proclaiming “50% Off Custom Framing!”.  “Wow”, you think, “Such a bargain!  I ought to bring them that wedding photo I’ve been meaning to get framed!”

Turns out you won’t be getting the bargain you think you’re getting.  If you notice carefully, there are ALWAYS signs like this out in front of the store.  The percentage may vary, say, from 40% to 60%, but the idea is the same.  Every day they’re doing custom framing for an average of “50% off”.

This can only mean one thing: their “50% off” price IS their regular price.  They’re simply doubling their prices, then offering you 50% off so you can believe you’re getting a deal.  The Attorney General of the State of New York agrees with this.  After a two-year investigation, Michael’s recently settled with the State of New York for $1.8 million over deceptive advertising practices for custom framing.

At Baldwin Hill Art & Framing we offer no-gimmick pricing and top quality service every day.  We actually sent out secret shoppers to some “50% off” big-box stores in the area, and sure enough their “50% off” price was within a few dollars of our everyday honest price.  Let our dedicated staff design a frame that will preserve your treasures and show them at their best!

Frame Of The Week – “Ten Ten Ten”

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Today’s vocabulary word is “decagon”, which is a 10-sided regular polygon.

Our latest creation shows what we can do with multi-sided frames!  This year is the 10th anniversary of Natick Artists Open Studios.  We built a prototype 10-sided frame and showed it to a number of Open Studios artists; one of them (David Kahn) realized that this was the perfect showcase for his own 10-sided creation!

This piece is called “Ten Ten Ten”.  It consists of ten photographs, each of ten items, and each photo is repeated ten times spiraling in towards the center.  It will be on display at the Morse Institute Library in Natick through October.  This print will be available in a signed, limited edition for $300 unframed, $700 in a rectangular frame with a 10-sided mat opening, and $900 in the special 10-sided frame.

Frame of the week – Parasol!

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This antique parasol may have seen better days, but it has a lot of sentimental value for its owner.  At Baldwin Hill Art & Framing, we treasure your items as much as you do!

We set the parasol at a stylish angle in a black shadowbox, then capped it with a lovely silver floral-patterned moulding.  The backing is a Peterboro silkscreen patterned mat, which is repeated on the inner sides of the shadowbox.  The shaft is attached to the backer in two places with monofilament line, and the fabric is stitched down in a few strategic places as well.

Bring us your treasure and let us work our magic on it!

 

Frame Of The Week – Triangle!

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At Baldwin Hill Art & Framing, we’re not just a bunch of squares!  In fact, you might say that we have all of your angles covered.

I picked up this piece of fantasy art at a science fiction convention a few years ago.  It’s acrylic on canvas, painted gallery-wrap style on a traingular stretcher.  We built the frame out of some leftover floater moulding so as not to cover any of the edges.

To build this frame we had to miter the mouldings at a 60-degree angle, which most moulding saws or choppers are not capable of doing.  As you can see we pulled it off, but we’re not saying how…

We don’t just stop at three or four sides either.  We can make frames with three, four, five, or more sides to complement projects of any shape!

Frame Of The Week – Saturday Evening Post

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Business has been a bit slow lately.  While we much rather prefer to be busy, a slow period lets us catch up on those things we’d been meaning to get around to for some time.  This is an example.

A fellow framer emailed me a picture of this Saturday Evening Post cover, which I found quite amusing.  It doesn’t happen very often, but occasionally a customer comes in and by the time we’ve come up with just the right design it seems as though nearly every corner sample in the shop is strewn across the design counter.  This cover, by Stevan Dohanos, captures such a moment in a whimsical manner.

We located a copy of the actual magazine on eBay, and that is what we have framed here.  The whole magazine is set into a sink mat, and then the double mat is placed over that (Peterboro silkscreen top mat, Crescent gold bottom mat).  No adhesives at all touch the magazine, making this mounting 100% reversible.  This lovely design will be in our store window through the end of August, 2011.  Come on down and see for yourself!