Frequently I find paintings in distress. There's nothing wrong with the paintings- the condition is fine. In fact, they are typically in perfect shape. The problem is that they are frequently housed in the most horrible, terrible, no good, very bad... frames (to steal from the children's book title). It's often really difficult to see that they are anything at all. For that reason, a quick visit to the gallery usually reveals a number of paintings floating around without frames. You will find them leaning under tables, perched on chairs, nestled into a plate stand, hung on the wall, and even stacked up waiting for a frame.
After all, No frame is better than a bad frame!
I buy a lot of antique frames for this very purpose. Not that there's anything wrong with new frames, but I prefer the old ones. They integrate much more effectively and anything with patina and character is usually much better than not (wrinkles and gray hair included). So I've detailed a few pieces that have been in the gallery for a while- and the frames that I think will bring out the better qualities of both the painting as well as the frame. One wonderful by-product from this process is that we recycle the left over pieces of frames to create our 'Bee's' (pictured bottom right)
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