Glebe Picture Frames: Tom Osment - Some frames are designed for specific purposes. Others suit many different applications. At glebepictureframes we can advise you and help you choose the most suitable frame for your artwork or object.

At glebepictureframes we have a passion for quality and style in our framing. That’s why many of the frames you see here will not be available at most local custom framers. Because we deal with all of the major manufacturers and importers of picture frame mouldings in Australia, we can cast a discerning eye over their ranges and choose what we think is the best in the country.

But we recognise that picture framing is very much a matter of individual taste and our range of samples represents only a fraction of what’s on the market. If you wish to match your new frame with something you already have or have seen elsewhere, we are well placed to find the same moulding. If it’s been discontinued or if it’s a hand–finished frame from another bespoke framer, we may even be able to copy the original.

So why frame something, anyway?

The concept of the picture frame can be described as the medium through which fine arts are merged with architecture and the decorative arts, and it must fulfil some or all of the following functions (not in any particular order!)

1) protection of the picture
2) enable attachment to the wall
3) enhance subject and colour scheme
4) define the picture’s perimeter
5) focus the spectator’s attention on the subject
6) provide an area of transition between the real world & that of the picture
7) create harmony with the surrounding interior decoration
8) isolate the picture from a distracting background
9) it must exist as a pleasing ornamental object in its own right!

Frames, often themselves works of art, have been designed by artists, architects and ornamentalists, and have been executed by highly skilled wood-carvers, gilders and craftsmen through the centuries. Historically picture and frame are mutually dependent, the one incomplete without the other. The two parts were generally conceived as a single stylistic entity, like the architectural mouldings surrounding frescoes or inset pictures, or a tapestry with its interwoven border, a fusion which was commonplace in the Renaissance, when paintings and relief sculptures were integrated with architectural frames of wood or marble.

Many paintings from earlier times, however, have been separated from their original frames and for a number of reasons. They are easier to move without their frames; they were reframed by new owners as a signal of ownership - according to different tastes, to suit prevailing styles of interior decoration, or be reframed in a standard house or gallery frame.

Into the twenty first century the variety of types of artwork has continued to increase, the diversity of style in interior design has continued to widen, and hence of course the range of picture frames available has expanded exponentially.

For further information about frames available from glebepictureframes, you are welcome to visit the websites of our preferred suppliers - see our Books and Links page for their details...