A picture frame is a protective and decorative edging for a picture, such as a painting or photograph. It makes displaying the work safer and easier and both sets the picture apart from its surroundings and aesthetically integrates it with them.
If you're ever looking for a creative way to draw more attention to your subject, framing is a wonderful way to do so in addition to being a useful tool for directing attention, framing is also a great way to add some context to your image, and help your viewer get a better perspective of the scene.
Picture frames - who needs them? It's the picture we're interested in, isn't it? It's the picture we want to look at, concentrate on, learn from or be entertained by - so why do we need to bother with a frame?
Picture frames protect your wall art. Whether your pictures are personalised prints, family photos or magnificent oil paintings worth millions, they all benefit from protection. Free standing pictures sometimes get knocked over. Even pictures hung on the wall take a knock every now and then - especially if, like us, they're hung on the wall all the way up the stairs.
A frame protects the edge of the picture as well as the front and back. A frame helps your valuable picture stay valuable (whether that's sentimental value or monetary value).
Picture frames separate the picture contained within from the room outside. A frame acts as a visual barrier so that when you're looking at a picture, you know immediately where the edge is and you aren't distracted by whatever surrounds it. The thicker the frame, the stronger the barrier. A frame helps you focus and concentrate on the picture.
One online article described a frame rather neatly as 'a perimeter that defines where the art ends and the rest of the world begins'. And in this sense, a frame lets you know what the artist wanted you to see - it's a boundary between what's important (the art) and everything else.
Picture frames help your pictures become part of the room where they hang. It's almost the opposite idea of 'separation' above. Pictures have a message of their own but pictures also exist within a larger space - usually a room (if you're thinking big the room might be a whole gallery).
The frame not only separates the picture from the space it's in, it also joins it to that space, so picture frames are an important part of the interior decor of a room.
Historically, according to the Met Museum, frames were determined more by the rooms in which they hung than by the pictures they contained. Art was regularly reframed according to the surroundings where it displayed. Frames were largely influenced by architecture and interior decoration: 'pictures have always been required to live unobtrusively among furnishings of a period not their own, and frames have always been the vehicle enabling them to do so'.
A picture frame can act as a compliment to the picture inside, so the frame becomes an extension of the artwork.
You can do this with colours; a gold coloured frame might compliment a picture that includes a visually important golden element.
You can also do this with the frame style (whether it is plain or fancy, for example). An artwork in a plain, simple, narrow black frame has a very different feel to the same artwork displayed in an ornate, extravagent, enormous golden frame.
Picture frames, like all home decor, say something about the person who chose them. Perhaps your personal style is higglegy-piggledy (a bit 'all over the place') or perhaps it's neat and tidy (where everything has to be 'just so'). Whatever, your choice of picture frames, as well as the pictures they display, shows your personal style. Frames, like wall art, make a statement.
If the picture is a gift, a frame is a lovely finishing touch as it means the recipient only needs to choose somewhere for the picture to hang, they don't need to go out and find a frame as well.
Framing is a great way to capture a memory or even art that is dear to your heart. We have a great range of quality and afforable frames that will ensure the safety of your pictures.