After attending an inspiring workshop at Gold Leaf Studios in Washington, DC, led by renowned master framer, Bill Adair, I came away with a new appreciation for all things gilded. I love frames the way many women love shoes, so when I found myself in this early twentieth century carriage house-turned-studio filled with frames floor to ceiling, I tripped over myself staring at them. I was as distracted by all that glittered in this treasure trove workshop, as I was by ideas for the sequel of House Key. After all, Emaline’s portrait must be properly framed…
Bill and his staff were friendly, knowledgeable and encouraging as our group of eighteen artists asked them at least a thousand questions while we practiced gilding our own projects. The process of achieving a beautifully gilded piece, an art object in and of itself, requires many steps and a lot of patience. Bill’s staff demonstrated the delicate art of laying down the gold leaf, and then transferring and burnishing designs onto the gilded surface. After painstakingly applying the design, we rubbed away some of the areas with the finest steel wool and pumice to reveal hints of the surface below, and then painted other areas with egg tempera. There were several additional steps that included applying shellac, sepia-tinted casein, wax and alcohol for a truly antique finish. This is greatly oversimplified, but you get the idea.
Despite being under the weather, Bill was energetic and humorous, regaling us with fabulous historic, as well as live-and-learn stories from his years of experience. He was able to share all this during our lunch break – and without interruption – while we enjoyed a delicious Italian feast prepared in his studio kitchen. Even though our workshop ran over the allotted time, Bill was gracious enough to take us to visit the Phillips Collection not far from his studio.
There, we studied various frames, to the apparent befuddlement of the guards, as we spent more time discussing the frames around Cezanne’s The Garden at Les Lauves and Picasso’s Still Life with Glass and Fruit, than the paintings themselves. Bill observed, “Frames give authenticity, ethos, mojo to paintings, especially modern art.” Perhaps that is why gilded frames will never become outdated but will preside with quiet authority over our art, even as it changes and evolves around us daily.
Since my intern days at the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, and later having worked briefly at a framing gallery after college, I habitually study frames on works of art and consider the importance of their choice and function. Among many of the quotable things Bill said during our workshop, the one that struck as most fundamental is that “the frame is the adroit mediator between the art and our world.”
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