Last week I spent the afternoon with a fellow gallery member. She was kind enough to welcome me into her home and then lend me some knowledge that she has spent years cultivating and curating. It was time well spent, and I am forever grateful that she agreed to share it with me.

I am already a better artist for it.

I had no idea how much I didn’t know about matting, framing, and art preservation. My mind was quite blown. Framing is an entire art form all by itself.

Oh, and I’ve been doing it wrong! So so sooooo wrong.

I brought supplies, and she let me play with all her tools and blades. I am terrible at cutting a straight line, even with a guide. I am equally bad at cutting mat board and foam core. I secretly knew this, but I had hoped I would improve with instruction.
I didn’t.

My biggest takeaway: I need to paint my watercolor paintings a different size if I want to have them professionally framed and looking magnificent. Professionally framed art will generally have a weighted bottom mat. To make this happen, the artist (that’s me) needs to paint the painting a specific size. Again this knowledge blew my mind. I had no idea.

I didn’t take any photos of the shredded foam core and mat board massacre I left in my wake. However, I am excited to share that the purpose of this visit was that I am preparing to add some original watercolor paintings to the gallery! Not as many as I would have liked due to the wrong-size painting situation, but I am here to live, learn and move forward!

If there is anything from your industry that you wish you had known years earlier please drop it in the comments, I’d sincerely love to know!