Holiday Memories by Doina Moss | Window Design

How creative framing can enhance the works of art

Coming back from holidays with fresh en plein paintings is the first step in recreating the mood and re-engaging with the powerful location left behind.

Bonding with the sea, the light, the mountains, the local people, the local architecture, all filtered through the eye of an artistic mind and the panic of the imminent departure setting powerful desire to recreate and share those moments.

 
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To recreate this mood, the frames need to be designed to enhance and extend each memory. The location for this capsule is set on the Montenegrin coast, between Budva, Sveti Stefan and Petrovac, with the Lucice Bay as the catalyst.

 

Holiday snapshots to illustrate the context.

My new window display is a capsule of those memories.

To recreate the sea, I painted the beach on acetate film with acrylic, a reverse method, starting with the last highlights, working backwards, layer by layer.

The final effect is of a glistering sea washing the beach, the waves bringing out the gifts of the sea: enchanting shells, beautiful algae, shimmering sun reflections, the blurred line between the sea and the sky.

The pylons coming out of the sea, laden with deep green algae, lined up and casting reflections but also a base for seagulls to rest and enjoy the view.

My paintings are the seagulls. The white frames represent that pause in time, looking back into the world. The frames create that depth and distance required for contemplation.

The emerald blue of Lucice Bay is emphasised by the contrast of the rocky mountain capped by deep green woodland. The conifers filter the light breaking the shimmering waves carrying reflections. The frame emulates the sun through the Gold leaf applied to the inner side of the shadow frame. The dark stain expands the feel of the dark tree trunks. The frame is in extension of the painting.

 
Holiday Memories by Doina Moss, Leigh Gallery, Photo by Cristina Schek (17).jpg
 

The sun is an important ingredient of the composition of the window.

 
Holiday Memories by Doina Moss, Leigh Gallery, Photo by Cristina Schek (18).jpg
 


Leigh framing techniques provide bespoke solutions to highlight and unify the artworks, as an extension of the mood captured, by collaborating directly with the artist.

To convey this new window capsule, a good photographer is key. Cristina’s technique on capturing and representing those paintings, the context, the atmosphere is absolute key. As we need to have an internet presence, only good images can attract a reaction from outside. People don’t have time to read stories, their attention needs to be grabbed in one flicker of a second, so an image needs to say the story before the viewer decides to delve deeper and start to read. Good photography is not just a good camera but also having access to good software as well as knowing how to manipulate the technology, filtered through perception, talent, power of extracting the essence and lots of hard work, tuning and adjusting the image to bring it back to the what the artist wanted to convey.

Holiday Memories by Doina Moss, Leigh Gallery, Photo by Cristina Schek (19).jpg