A Pyrographic Frame
A Pyrographic Frame Paintings to Fit Interesting found frames are both a challenge and an inspiration for my paintings. A thrift store find of a pyrographic decorated frame (detail above.) was a reecent starting point Pyrography or wood-burning is a decorative process, charring patterns and images on wood or other substrates with a heated tool. Typically pyrography is a handcraft technique, but this acorn and oak leaf design was probably hot stamped commercially. The frame came with a print which I discarded and an oval glass cover. My first experiments with a painting to fit the frame were two watercolor sketches followed the frame's oak motif. An oriole decending a tree branch, and then, a single oak leaf in autumnal crimson. I found these to be boring and trite The frame called for more color so I switched to painting in acrylic on a panel cut to fit the oval opening, "AJ in Blue," a little portrait of our great grandson on an ultrama...