Resurgence of the Painted Mat

Following the minimalism of the past decade, we are seeing a revival of gold mouldings and painted mats.  We absolutely love gold frames and a good painting challenge!

On one recent project, our client had a very large tapestry that needed the added presence of a mat - something to separate the beautiful dark threads of the artwork from it's frame.  A simple white mat wouldn't do on this oversized masterpiece - a whopping 3 by 8 feet!

After carefully hand-cutting the mat, we used a nontraditional method of taping off a secluded 3/4" panel of the matboard.  Within this exposed area, Anne went to work on a loose and playful sponged pattern, using colors inspired by the artwork.

As a contemporary alternative to the usual penned lines found on many traditional French Mats, we softened the finished edges of our sponged panel with lightfast colored pencils in complimenting colors.

Projects like these stretch our vocabulary and show us what we're made of.  We can't wait to get this mat placed on the artwork, perhaps into a gold frame, and then into the hands of our adventurous client!