Framing
Susan Gentile
A photograph's beauty and effect is improved when enclosed in an appropriate picture frame. By adding boundaries, emphasis, and a sense of completion a picture frame can transform a rather ordinary picture...
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a more polished and focused composition
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As a principle of design, framing provides the same emphasis and sense of completion in art as a picture frame provides to everyday photographs. Framing is the technique of using a device to enclose a composition or part of a composition. This technique is found in the art of nature as well as in man's own creation.
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As seen in this image, the branches of the tree frame the larger group of flowers. In pulling the eye into the center of the image, this natural frame focuses the entire image on the flowers in between the tree branches. Although the image contains foliage outside of the frame of the branches, the isolation provided by the branches allows for the importance of the image to remain with the focal flowers. |
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There are various techniques and effects framing has within art and design. In a sense, framing captures a moment in time in which the viewer is looking through a window. The picture to the right was taken from within a wooden walkway. The structure of the walkway encloses the courtyard view similar to what would be seen if peering through the window. |
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Structure within a piece of artwork, a design, or an image is another component of framing. Structure can take many forms. However, in the context of framing, structure often takes the from of a border or boundary (Words of Art). The images below of a doormat provide a comparison of the effect of not using a border to the effect and increased impact of the image when an appropriate boundary or frame is used. In the image with no border, the leaves appear somewhat free and independent of each other within the image. In the second enclosed image, the leaves appear more connected. The image is more static and cohesive - the eye has a focal point and can view as one complete image.
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In the use of framing, although the goal may be to create one complete visual image, in doing so the artist or designer may include several component pieces to produce the effect. In the image of the stained glass window, the component parts, although visible, are not obvious as the piece is viewed as one entity, enclosed by the white outer frame. |
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The above are a few examples of the use of framing present within nature and within everyday occurrences. Although not always recognized as framing, the technique provides focus, emphasis, and closure - important components of the "language of art" and the "world of design." These attributes are often key to the artist or designer in creating a means by which vision and inspiration is properly conveyed and communicated to the end viewer.
Online Examples
Listed below are original pieces (accessible online) in which framing was a technique important to the artist to ensure the correct vision is shared. The specific pieces selected below were chosen for their contrasting utilization of framing. Eugene Carchesio's European Ghosts incorporates a soft, subtle framing technique which contrasts with Armin and Dorothea Hofmann's Red Pillow that utilizes a bolder, more apparent frame within the painting.
1. Name of piece of art: European Ghosts
Artist: Eugene Carchesio
Museum: Art Gallery of New South Wales
URL: http://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection?action=display&id=26588&ftype=#more_info (Search for European Ghosts in Title field)
Eugene Carchesio's 1991 watercolor painting of European Ghosts, utilizes framing in a very subtle manner. His use of a darker shade around the ghost isolates what he wishes to convey as the focal point of the painting. This piece was chosen because although the framing is subtle and soft, it is very effective.
Carchesio's use framing is able "to reveal that what is at stake is what lies behind the image." (Experimental Art Foundation)
2. Name of piece of art: Red Pillow
Artist: Armin and Dorothea Hofmann
Museum: The Corcoran Virtual Galleries
URL: http://www.corcoran.org/virtualgallery/museum_exhibitions/Hofman/9.htm
The 1997 painting Red Pillow was chosen as representation of framing for it's clear, solid utilization of the technique. Red Pillow was a joint creation by Armin and Dorothea Hofmann.
Armin, a graphic designer, and Dorothea, an artist, contributed greatly to their respective disciplines; however, in collaboration were a able to "reveal a complex synergy in their artistic output...the subtle influences they exchanged over the years allowed each of them to develop distinctive, yet compatible philosophies in their work" (The Corcoran Museum) and produce various pieces such as Red Pillow.
Bibliography
1. Experimental Art Foundation. http://www.eaf.asn.au.
2. The Corcoran Museum. http://www.corcoran.org/.
3. Words of Art. Okanagan University College. http://www.ouc.bc.ca/fiar/glossary/gloshome.html.