by Sharon Hudson
Fine Art America (FAA) has a number of options for presenting wall-hung art. For example, they can mount the image on a finished board that floats in front of the wall, or even on a metal surface, which might be dramatic in some environments. You needn't be bound by traditional presentation expectations, and what I say here only applies to traditional framing.
However, all these options, as well as traditional framing with or without glazing, add hugely to the price of shipping, when compared to getting your print in a tube. So if you plan to frame traditionally, I recommend that you save your framing and shipping money and spend it in a custom frame shop.
I would love to be able to recommend FAA framing, because in spite of the problems listed below, they have done a good job with the interactive previewing function, attempting to provide dimensional views, etc., and they pass on a small percentage of the frame price to the artist. They seem to have done their best, but even if they had adequate mat and frame selections, the limits of mass-production and long-distance design simply cannot be overcome.
Below is my summary of the problems with FAA framing, most of which apply to any online framing (I'm not picking on FAA). All these framing aspects are discussed fully in my framing and conservation tips and information.
1. It is essential to precisely match the tones of the art and those of the mat and frame. This cannot be done online, because on the computer screen you cannot see either accurate colors or subtle variations of color. In addition, FAA does not offer enough choices in either frames or mats, and their limited selection diminishes daily during the Christmas season.
2. The mat is the most important frame element. In order to produce a good framing job, you have to have a selection of many dozens of subtle mat colors. FAA has only a handful of usable colors.
3. FAA does not make the bottom of their mats wider than the top and sides, which I consider unacceptable. For a mat to look even on all sides, it must be 20% larger on the bottom. Otherwise the mat looks cheap and uncomfortable.
4. FAA's mat colors are not coordinated with their frames, and they have no provision for eliminating the white mat edge, if desired. It is also unclear how much of the edge of the image will be covered, which bothers me because the edges are very important in my own art. These are the details that make all the difference, and in the custom frame shop, you can see and deal with them.
5. FAA's mats are not archival. By the time you add on their shipping charge, you should be able to match their total (non-archival) price with a custom archival framing at a local frame shop, if you shop around a bit.
6. You don't need to have a huge selection of frames (I have only about 300 myself), but the frames have to be chosen by someone with lots of framing experience. This appears not to be the case at FAA. The vast majority of their frames are unusable with matted art because they are too wide (that is, too close to the width of a mat); others are too narrow.
7. Nonetheless, FAA framing could be an acceptable option in limited circumstances, as when framing a work on stretched canvas without a mat or glazing. However, in this case you should have a frame that is deep enough to cover the canvas edge (few at FAA are), and is matched nicely with the picture. Almost impossible online. In addition, the frame adds significantly to the shipping cost of your faux-canvas painting, and yet this is the simplest and least expensive kind of framing to obtain at a local shop, which will have a huge selection of frames. (If I were to get a faux-canvas print, I would get it rolled and have it mounted by a framer on a stiff backing; the outcome will be flatter and the frame selection much greater because the picture will be thinner.)
8. I commend FAA for attempting to show their frames in detail, but some of their frame profiles are hard to interpret visually and are sometimes inaccurate. There's no substitute for seeing the physical object next to your art.
9. Because of shipping, glazed prints are framed with plexiglass, which I always avoid like the plague because it tends to warp, which is very unattractive and cheap-looking.
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