Here is an example of specialty matting. Every year, we donate framing on the annual Arizona Cowboy Poets Gathering, which gives us a chance to showcase our creativity in framing. This particular mat design has four different colors as well as a fillet. A fillet is wood piece added to a frame or a mat to give more dimension and enhance detail in the art. The fillet used in this particular piece recalls the color and texture of the frame. I chose a simple frame so that the overall design would not overwhelm the print. Describing the matting from the bottom up: the first mat is a thin line of blue that recalls the blue line printed around the art, which also matches the cowboys shirt. Next, is the gold/bronze, distressed fillet follow
ed by a dark umber mat. The top mat has a western design cut in each corner using our computerized Wizard mat cutter. In each corner, resting on the dark umber mat, is a small inlay piece cut out of mat board to add a touch of detail to the mat design. The moulding used in this design is a brushed bronze color that attracts to the color of the border on the print and also gives contrast to attract to the darker values in the print. I used crescent, cotton rag matboard, which is preservation quality. Also, I used ultraviolet filtering glass to protect the colors in the print from fading.-Russell





Last November we had our very first Artist Trading Card Swap and it was lots of fun! Check out this post for more details about the November Art Walk event:

ATCs are small works of art that are 2 1/2 inches by 3 1/2 inches in size and they can be created in any media. During the April Art Walk you will have a chance to create an ATC, trade an ATC and view some great collections of ATCs!