Do you paint the edges of your canvases and boards?

If your painting is going to be mounted in a frame that hides the edge then it does not matter what the edges look like but most of us sell unframed. Do you anticipate that the buyer might put the painting in a floater frame or some other arrangement that would show the edges? Do you do this for canvases? Do you do this for 1/8 inch boards?

While I’d like to believe most paintings get framed, I think many “daily paintings” sold online probably aren’t. So I paint the sides of everything that could be hung unframed, put in a floater frame, or displayed on a table easel. On small panels, I sometimes even paint the back. I use acrylic, sometimes black, sometimes (especially on canvases) a grayed color that blends with the painting and is less noticeable. That said, I think not painting the sides is traditional and perfectly acceptable, too. I’ts a personal choice.

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Why is it different selling on the internet? Any gallery knows it helps sell art more frequently and for more money because it’s, “perceived value” is elevated in a good frame.

David, I respect your work and don’t mean to be argumentative. Could you explain why you keep questioning the online selling of small works unframed, given that 1.) you do not sell on DPW yourself, 2.) you don’t appear to show work framed on a website or blog of your own, and 3.) you did not respond to my earlier post asking you to elaborate on how you do things? I am interested in your opinion and experience with selling framed works online. I have offered frames a couple of times, and the DPW buyers did not want them.

[quote=“Connie_McLennan, post:10, topic:567, full:true”]
Probably because photographing a frame to its best advantage, with the painting inside, is a lot more difficult than shooting or scanning the art alone. Also, when selling a large volume of small works, framing all of them would be a significant speculative expense. Not having to frame everything in order to show it is one of the advantages of selling online. It can also be an advantage for sellers, who can choose whether and how much to spend on a frame and also defer that part of the cost.
Do you sell many paintings online, and are they always framed? If so, how do you do it?
[/quote]x

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I do the same as Connie: paint sides of small canvases (and that’s what I mostly use for my DPW paintings) with acrylic paint. It takes just a few minutes of my time, and the work looks much better with the sides painted. I have no idea if the buyer plans to frame the piece he/she bought, but I want to make sure he likes it immediately after opening the box.

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Ever since I had a framer comment about how glad she was that I always painted the sides of my canvases, I have continued to do so. I have recently been thinking that painting the edges of panels (especially MDF board) would be a good idea to protect against moisture. Maybe a little acrylic like Golden’s GAC 100 would do the trick.

I paint the sides of my paintings to give the buyer a choose to frame or not. I don’t get involved in framing. I am not in the framing business.

I paint the edges of mdf boards in order to seal them. I usually do this when preparing the board, i.e GAC100 then three coats of acrylic gesso, during which I do the edges. I don’t often paint on canvases now, but when I did, I realised that it would make sense to paint the canvas edge because I had no idea how any prospective buyer would hang the picture. There is a fashion for hanging canvases on the wall without frames; artists either paint the canvas edges black or some other solid colour, or simply continue the image around the edges. This is noticed especially with the deeper “box” canvases.
Years ago most canvases were the standard 18mm thickness and stapled on the support edges. Framing was almost essential to hide the staples; until the trendies started hanging them frameless on their walls.

I paint on canvas mostly. I frame my work too. If someone doesn’t like it fine. I’m a framer too. The major reason for the trend toward no frame began with abstracts.

Now that trendy thing to hang unframed is mistakenly driven by those who think they can save by not framing not in how it looks, in my opinion, although almost everyone tries endlessly to rationalize being unwilling to pay the price of doing business, framing it for it’s best presentation. What most don’t seem to understand is how much additional perceived value a well designed frame adds to the vast majority of work. Which in turn makes it more likely to sell quickly. I’m not talking about a cheap ready made frame made in China. I’m talking custom.

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I paint the sides of all my canvasses Payne’s Grey. No complaints so far, and they look nice and uniform all hanging together or displayed on easels (for the miniatures)

If I’m working on a stretched canvas, I continue the painting around the edges of the canvas. People seem happy enough with that approach.

I sell paintings unframed, so the buyer can choose whether or not they want to frame it. Then they can choose a frame that suits their home and taste. Personally I find frames often distract me from the actual painting, and they can look quite fussy and formal which doesn’t suit me or my personal space at all. I realise that’s probably an unpopular opinion around here…

I think buyers are intelligent enough to make their own call re: framing. There are plenty of custom frame shops that can offer advice if they need it. I just paint and leave them to it.

I always include the sides when painting, either as a continuation of the painting or use the background color…once in a while black or gray.

I mostly paint on panels so there are no sides, but when I paint on canvas I do paint the sides so the collector has the option of framing or not. I dislike this task and now I like to continue the color around the side and blur the colors rather than a true continuation of the image. Work well.