Canvas repair

Here we have a painting by a young lady, who bought her masterpiece home from school. Her brothers were playing and accidentally sat on it, ripping a large hole in the middle…cue one unhappy little girl…

As is often the way in life however, granny came to the rescue, bringing the painting into us to see if we could do anything…We removed it from the broken stretcher bars, flattened everything, stuck it to a new piece of canvas and stretched that to a new support.

Once that was done, we filled the little gaps between the tears and painted over the top to match the surrounding artwork. We’ve popped it into a black tray frame so it can hang up on the wall…

Away from little brothers…;)

Green Forest Two...

Here’s another painting I’m working on at the moment. A customer bought the piece on the left from the SOTA gallery in Witney and wanted a second matching piece to go on the other side of their fireplace. I should get the painting part of things finished over the next few days, then it’ll be onto the gilding. I’ll post a few snaps as I go :)

Floating Canvas

Here’s another of the pieces we framed for Maureen’s exhibition at SOTA. A beautiful acrylic sunset. We floated the canvas within the frame by adding a small tray (the unpainted piece in the inset photo). Once painted this adds a lovely detail to the frame, giving the canvas space to breathe. Its a simple touch that makes a big difference when framing canvases.

For further details on Maureens work go to… http://www.artbymaureengillespie.co.uk/

For further details on SOTA, go to… http://www.sotagallery.co.uk/

Portrait of Jodie - Stage 1

Along with the Framing and Jewellery…we also paint pictures at The Cuckoo’s Nest..its all very renaissance here ;)

This is a portrait of Jodie who runs Illustrate My Name over here at Cuckoo Lane. I’ve just done a first pass on the face, lots of refining to do, but you get the general idea. The background and hair are ‘probably’ finished, I say probably as I may well change my mind when I next look at it :)

I wanted to get an example of the kind of portrait commissions we can do, so many thanks to Jodie for volunteering to pose…I hope you like it when its finished :) The plan is to get the painting all finished and framed in time for Artweeks, so if you’re interested in getting a portrait done, call in an take a peek :)

…now back to the framing :)

Decorative Tiles

For these beautiful tiles we've built a solid frame with routed openings. Some of the tiles are slightly different sizes, so each is carefully fitted and held in place with individually cut foamboard supports. The frame has been finished with an off white eggshell paint and the final result is a clean contemporary way of displaying these beautiful pieces.

Stained Glass

Here we have a beautiful stained glass panel. Rather than use a conventional frame, we've produced an oak stand which has a grove inside to hold the panel securely. The oak has been finished with a lime wax and given a good polish. The piece is now standing on the customers windowsill with the spring sunshine showing it off in all it's glory :-)

Michael Raivard

I went to meet speed painter Michael Raivard this morning, a thoroughly charming chap who we’re doing some varnishing work for over the weekend. He was busy supervising the stage setting for a performance this evening at a private party in Oxford, lots of lights and music being organised in a beautiful setting, where he’ll produce his very large artwork in just a few minutes… An amazing painting experience, the total opposite from the way I paint, but fascinating to see how he organises everything. Am really looking forward to seeing what he’s painted when we go back on saturday…:) 

You can find out more about Michael at http://www.raivard.com/en/

Watch some of the videos…amazing stuff :)

Print of Ravello

Normally at the Cuckoo's Nest we try and steer our customers towards modern, contemporary framing as much as possible, but occasionally traditional is the way to go. Such was the case with this beautiful little print of Ravello, our customer was having the piece framed as a gift for an older gentleman so we selected this thin black and gold frame moulding. In the past this might have been coupled with a hand lined mount, but this really does give a picture a dated feel. Instead of that we opted to use a double mount with a dark grey lower mount, this balances the colour of the print with the frame and gives us a traditional looking frame with a fresh feel.

Rollright Stones

These beautiful paintings of the Rollright Stones are by Mandy Selhurst. We framed a set of three in these hand painted white frames for Mandy and they are now hanging in the SOTA gallery in Witney. I'd imagine they'll sell very quickly so head over to SOTA and take a look at them before they're snapped up.

You can find out more about Mandy’s work at http://www.mandyselhurst.com

…and more about the SOTA Gallery here http://www.sotagallery.co.uk

French Town Photo

Another frame using the black Mantilla frame, this time housing a wonderful warm photo of a French town. The detail in this picture is superb, you could look into it for hours and the overall effect is so vibrant. A double mount finishes it all off. Gorgeous :-)

Amazing Collage

Here is a piece by a customer of ours who makes these amazing collages commemorating her family members birthdays, anniversaries etc. They are so detailed, with photos, tickets, badges, all sorts of things highlighting different memories and events in someone's life. Framed in these rich, ornate silver frames, with double mounting on the main image and a single mount opening for a small dedication at the bottom they make a wonderful gift for the recipient and an amazing record of memories to be treasured. A great idea for anyone wanting to hand make a really special gift.

Harry Lange

This is a very special piece, a drawing by a chap called Harry Lange. Harry was a production designer in the movie business who work on 2001, Star Wars, Bond movies, all sorts of amazing things. He also gave me a job as a runner and model maker when I was a wee lad, many, many years ago. So it was a delight to have this little sketch in for framing. The customer was a carpenter by trade and gave us a free hand on the framing, so we had to select a nice piece of oak for the frame and do something a bit special with it. We opted to use a button polish to finish the wood, this is a type of French Polish and has given the wood this glorious warm colour, inside we used a double mount and the top mount has been floated to give a shadow effect. UV glass finishes the piece off, protecting the artwork. A wonderful thing to get to frame, reminded me of some great times :-)

Wax Crayons

I hadn't seen a picture like this in ages, the paper is coloured using wax crayons, this is then painted over in black and the design then scratched thought the paint to reveal the colours below. The floral design on this example works really well and makes a gorgeous piece of art. We used a black mount with a white core to give the artwork a clean, crisp edge and then added a hand-painted white frame and standard glass. A lovely memory of a young artist at work.

Oxford International Art Fair

This weekend Oxford plays host to the Oxford International Art Fair…

 “Bringing the best selected artworks to Oxford by top emerging artists from around the world for everyone to enjoy. Giving Art Collectors and Art Enthusiast a once in a lifetime opportunity to buy directly from the artist that has travelled all the way to Oxford. A unique experience for both visitors and exhibitor, at the beautiful Oxford Town Hall, a jewel at the heart of the historic city of Oxford.” 

One of the artists taking part is Amarita Vargas and this picture titled ‘Unity’ is one of the works we’ve framed up for her this week. Her work ranges from abstract to figurative and all have a beautiful flow to them. This piece is framed in limed Ash, with a simple snow white mount.

The exhibition is open today 11.00 to 5.00 and tomorrow 11.00 to 3.00. Entry is Free. For further information go to http://www.oxfordinternationalartfair.com

For further information on Amarita’s work take a look at http://www.amaritavargas.com

Tim Rudman photographs

These two works by fine art photographer Tim Rudman are handmade silver gelatin fine art prints. They have a beautiful velvet quality to the grain that reminds me of early photography, but the composition of both pieces is thoroughly modern.

Thin black frames, white mounts and UV glass set them off and protect them perfectly.

You can find out more about Tim's work and purchase his fabulous photos at http://www.timrudman.com

Vintage Poster

Here we have a vintage washing machine poster which came in as part of an amazing collection of posters that we framed up for a customer recently. This one was a real feature piece (being about 130cm tall) so we opted for a simple, but striking, thick white gesso frame.

A gesso frame is made from bare wood which is covered with a mixture of animal glue and very fine chalk (The gesso), several coats of gesso are applied and once dried its sanded to give a beautiful smooth finish, some primer and a couple of coats of paint finish the job. its a time consuming process, but the end result is beautiful.

Paradise Lost

This absolutely beautiful linocut is ‘Paradise Lost’ by artist Linda M. Farquharson. We’ve gone for very understated framing, using just a simple black frame and no mount. The quality of the print is superb, a really lovely piece. You can find more of Linda’s work at http://www.linocut.co.uk

Maureen Gillespie

A couple of new frames for local artist Maureen Gillespie. A gorgeous gold frame and simple mount for one of her prints and an elegant black wooden frame for this lovely little painting of a boy leading his horse from the stables. You can find for of Maureen's work here... http://www.artbymaureengillespie.co.uk

Snoopy for President

We seem to have been framing lots of posters lately, so many different styles and they really make wonderful pieces of art. Here we have a couple of Snoopy for President posters, again we've floated them, but this time we've used a chunky, beveled black frame and standard glass. So many wonderful things come into The Cuckoo's Nest, would love to have these up on the wall at home...there's just not enough wall space :-)

Happy New Year :-)

 

Well, after a VERY busy Christmas and a welcome relaxing break over new year, The Cuckoo's Nest is now open again. A very big thank you to all our customers in 2013, you provided us with an amazing and very eclectic variety of pieces to frame, from work by Banksy to Seahorses from Peru... Can't wait to see what 2014 will bring through the door :-)

 

First frame of the year is this lovely pen and watercolour piece inspired by the recent Francis Bacon & Henry Moore exhibition at The Ashmolean Museum in Oxford. Fantastic exhibition and you can catch it up until the 19th of Jan, get along if you can :-)

 

Lots to do this year, including 'finally' getting a proper website up and running, hopefully you'll find lots to inspire your art and framing in 2014 :-)

 

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