Framing

With 5 new watercolours to frame  I'll be spending some time in the basement framing workshop this week. I usually take just a few paintings at a time before the job gets too big and overwhelming. I had intended to paint this series of watercolours all in the same size but it didn't turn out that way, so it will be individual measurements as usual. 

There's a lot of work involved in framing each painting. After the window in the archival cardboard is cut with a bevelled edge, the backing card is measured and cut. Then the lengths of wooden frame moulding are mitred in the guillotine. After that the frames are joined in the underpinner  (no ugly nails) and the glass is cut. Finally there's the meticulous work of mounting and assembling all the elements together with hopefully neither dust nor fingerprints. More often than not I have to open up again to remove a tiny hair or speck of dust that found itself sandwiched in between.

My old faithful Dexter mat cutter, simple but effective.

The Morsø mitring machine.
Note the long supporting channel goes
through a hole to the next room!

An underpinner shoots v-shaped nails into the back of the frame.

Christmas Poppy

It's December and in our garden here in southern Sweden is a flowering poppy. I look out every day to see if it's survived yet another night with cold stormy winds and pouring rain, but there it is with it's head up high. I can't help finding a certain symbolism in the very fact that, against all odds, it's still standing proudly.
I enjoy floral painting especially when it's possible to get very close and examine the details. My fascination with poppies is most likely due to the fact that they only thrive in their own environment, if you pick them and take them indoors they wilt almost immediately and look very sad. I've never before been able to paint a watercolour in the garden in December but here it is, my Christmas poppy.
see the watercolour grow on youtube

Sold to Australia - or no, not quite

Thistle   52 x 72 cm  acrylics on canvas

I often receive mails from interested customers and 2 days ago there was one from Australia.

Hello,
Good day to you over there, My name is Gabriel Wolfgang I'm from Adelaide and
i hope this message finds you well.I was going through your works and my
eyes caught THISTLE & UPWARDS , I am moving soon and i will like to have it for my
new apartment.
please let me know if the piece is available, if yes let me have the
detailed price and more information about it. i will be waiting to read from
you asap.
Gabriel.


I wrote back stating the price,material, technique and size of the painting. The following reply came:

Thanks for the message, I am very happy to know that the piece(Thistle) is still available for sale. i  must tell you i am very much interested in the  purchase because my wife really love it and she want me to get it home before she deliver our upcoming baby boy lol...I will like to let you know that your payment will be in a Cheque.

You don't have to worry about packing, insurance and tax because my shipper will be in the best position to do that as soon as you get the payment.This is because i will be traveling out of the country any moment from now for a business proposal.So get back to me with the information needed to send you the payment  I:E :

Full Name

Standard Address

Phone number

Asking price reconfirmation

so that i can proceed in the payment arrangement, consider it sold get back to me asap with needed information.

Thanks.

Gabriel.

I was just about to reply again that I unfortunately couldn't accept a cheque and that he should pay via paypal instead, when I started to get suspicious about his mail, apart from the bad English I could see that parts of the mail were copied and pasted as the text was in different font sizes. So I googled a whole sentence and this is what came up. http://stopartscams.blogspot.com/2010/07/scam-email-clark-elster.html

So Mr Gabriel Wolfgang from Adelaide alias Mr Clark Elster from New Jersey and probably many others all use copies of the same mail, they just change the name of the artwork. 

SO ARTISTS : BE WARNED, ITS A SCAM!!! THEY'RE AFTER BOTH YOUR PAINTINGS AND YOUR MONEY!!!!