non-traditional framing

"Yellow Calla Lily", new black matt, frame

In between teaching and working on my class demo from Tuesday night (I will be posting images later) I have been preparing work for upcoming art association shows. Now that my booth artwork has been determined I know what I can submit to October shows. I always try to recycle the frames I own and I had to get a larger matt to fit this painting of the yellow calla lily into my 32 x 26 frame. I ended up doing something I NEVER do - I put a black matt with a yellow edge in this frame! The unspoken (and sometimes spoken) rule with watercolor framing is that the matt should always be a shade of white so that it does not distract from the painting. Many watercolor "societies" will not accept work to their shows unless the work is in a white matt.

I feel the black matt helps to focus on the painting and is actually less distracting than a traditional white matt. The added outline of yellow in the inside of the matt opening felt like a perfect fit to me. If my painting is not accepted to the show I am submitting it to I am going to hope it had nothing to do with the matt but rather was based on the actual painting.