My guide to framing my art

I have been developing my watercolor practice for several years now, including expanding my business to offer custom pet portraits last spring and fine art prints at the beginning of this year. I love painting — for friends, for family, and now for customers — and I also love framing and displaying my pieces! However, in sharing my work with other people, I've learned that this final step of the process isn't fun for everyone (in fact, I've had friends who actively avoid buying art because they don't want to deal with figuring out how to display it).

If this is you, great news: I have some notes that should help de-mystify the process (and make it more financially accessible!).

My first and most important tip is this: custom mat + commercial frame. When I first started framing art, I assumed I had to go all one way or the other (buy affordable pre-packaged commercial mats & frames OR spend a gazillion dollars on a custom mat and frame). It turns out you can split the difference and get a custom mat cut (this usually runs about $8-$20, depending on the size and quality) for a commercial frame. The cool thing about this is that you have a much wider range of color/texture options than if you're just looking at pre-cut mats, and you can even use a mat to make non-standard-sized art fit in a standard-sized frame (or even a non-standard-sized frame).

I like to take my art into the frame shop (my local go-to is Cheap Pete's in Oakland, but I have also used local frame shops in other cities and even Michael's on occasion — yes you can get custom mats cut at Michael's!) and play with different mat colors by laying them around the edges of the art. For pet portraits especially, I love to pick matching colored mats with white or natural wood frames.

Here are some examples:

If you're ordering a custom pet portrait from me that you want to mat and frame, here are my sizing recommendations for the frame:

• For size S (3x4"), I recommend a 6x8" frame
• For size M (4x6"), I recommend a 8x10" frame
• For size L (6x8"), I recommend a 11x14" frame

Of course, you can also frame the art without a mat, in which case you just need a frame size that matches size of your art. For my custom pet portraits, I leave about a 1/4" border around the piece to make it easier to tape to the back of a mat, but you might need to trim that down to fit the art in a frame on its own. That's fine! Don't be afraid to trim the border!!!

Here's an example of a full size 8x10" print from my Alameda Beach Sunset series framed without a mat in an 8x10" frame (this is a fine art print, with title and signature on the edges that I wanted to preserve in the framing):

Next, I have an example of another full size print in the same series framed with a mat in an 11x14" frame. For this one, I selected an off-white, low-textured mat to match the color/quality of the paper of the print as closely as possible. I like to do this for art prints that come with a border I want to preserve in the framing, because I don't want the combined border/mat/frame to distract from the art! Here's the final framing:

And here are two full size 5x7" prints from my Water Bodies Series no. 1 in 8x10" frames with custom matching colored mats:

Lastly, I have some examples of the 5x7" originals in my Water Bodies Series no. 2 in floating neon acrylic frames. I'm including this example mostly to say that, if the prospect is creatively exciting to you, it can be really fun to seek out unique framing options for your art! These originals have torn edges that I wanted to preserve in the framing, so the floating frames (as opposed to traditional mats) were an especially good option:

If price is an issue and you are looking for cheap frames, I've found some great, unique frames on Facebook marketplace or local thrift stores/antique markets. You can also buy framed secondhand art that you don't love just to repurpose the frame for art that you do love — I am constantly switching art around in frames in my own home and consider this to be an extension of that practice! This is another good reason to use commercial frames instead of custom: you can't switch the art in a custom frame. If you are buying secondhand art to repurpose the frame, be sure to check that it is not custom framed and that you can remove and replace the art easily.

All that said... if price is not your biggest barrier and you order art from me and you want me to just do it all for you, shoot me an email at art@jaqcieslak.com and we can discuss rates. ◡̈

Good luck getting your art framed and displayed the way you want!!! And thank you, as always, for supporting my work!