Peter English is my framer and printer. He is also one of the first to discover my own art as “art.” I also call him my friend. That’s my disclaimer! But none of these statements explain why I am critiquing his own work. The reason for that is that it is excellent! Also I am trying to show the “art” in many types of craft and other skilled work. “Beauty is all around,” as a late, young poet said on his deathbed...
I also find Peter interesting personally, almost like a nicely odd English gentleman in some PBS movie. So it is only appropriate that his last name is English and that he in fact comes from old money, as they say, and an old aristocratic British, and then American, family. His ancestors were also Scotch and Welsh and a little German. His roots can be traced back to the first king of England, in fact — or else he’s setting me up, for he does have an exceedingly droll sense of humor. He currently lives in Beach Lake, Pa., across the river from Narrowsburg, N.Y., and his business and studio are in Honesdale. He frames work for artists in a wide area and does so for many in the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton area, such as Professor Dennis Corrigan at Marywood University. He charges half of what the Scranton art stores charge and about a third of what an expensive New York City framer would. He loves his work and wants artists to be able to afford to frame their work. He is also an excellent archival printer.
It was in high school that he took up photography and learned all he ever learned of it in school. He applied to Cooper Union and was rejected. I asked him why, and he said “because I wasn’t very good … then!”
Peter is taller than me and handsomer than me, for which I think I unconsciously hate him, and he has something of the wealthy man who has lost most of his money about him. In fact, his grandfather’s great estate, the Lorenzo Estate, which he summered at, was given to the New York State Historical Society instead of his family. The family all agreed about it, but Peter never got the butler that I always imagine by his side. Instead, he got his beautiful and talented Irish wife — and I mean off-the-boat, or rather plane, Irish wife — and his adorable boy and girl. This is the way it was supposed to be; if Peter got all that money he might not of ever framed for us! If he ever got that inheritance, he would be even more politically conservative than he is. He’s one of those kinds of conservatives, though, who seems to like liberal artists a lot!
Cathy is a noted exhibition designer, especially for textiles, and an artist in her own right, drawing drawings that look like Kathe Kollwitz drew them.
Peter apprenticed in a company to learn framing — “I just fell into it,” he says — and then became partner with another in a framing business. When his partner left he became the owner of GrandStyle Framing Co. and Sylvan Grey Studios.
I will first state my own thoughts on framing and then go on to Peter’s more detailed ideas. All artwork, except some abstracts like Rothko’s or Pollock’s, should be framed. Even those types of work should have thick canvas-wrapped sides, but they at least are bearable.
I know that frames are expensive, but I spend more than most on them, so I think other artists should, too, more often, especially at shows. The self-framed work of many artists is often atrocious with loose corners and badly cut mattes and not very good choices for colors or frames. I am sensitive to the costs. But then don’t frame them at all, or just have one or two professionally framed at the entrance to an art show. I hate thin canvases with staples in them on the side! “Frames should always improve the work of art,” Peter said. “Frames work best when not seen or noticed. The frames should not be in competition with the art. Artists should have an ongoing relationship with a framer who understands and appreciates the artists’ work and where she’s trying to take it. There are no absolutes, though, in framing. There are always exceptions, except when Peter says so!”
See what I mean by some arrogance mixed in with all the humility? He takes his work very seriously and is sometimes rapt in mystical contemplation of sorts over how to frame a tough piece. There might be a glass of red wine in there somewhere too, though.
In the beginning of working with Peter, I often thought that I knew better or that he was wrong sometimes. I remember sitting at Borders with the great and avuncular artist David Tinsley. He was, like Peter, also one of the first to discover my work. I was therefore surprised by him when I was gently criticizing a work that Peter had framed for me and even brought for David to see. He said something strong like, “You might be a great artist, but Peter is a great framer — an artist at framing,” or some such thing. He said, “Let Peter worry about the framing, and you worry about the art.” But I’m arrogant too at times, so the arguments go on. We both like thin black and dark wood frames on my work, though, with small reveals, so we have that in common at least. After that I almost always defer to him.
Sometimes I bring Peter some of my best work and he makes a face and I have to beg him to frame it (he’s easier on others!). Then when he does, he says, “Now that it’s framed properly, it really is a great work.” Thanks for telling me — I think!
Peter, I think, likes me as a client because we have experimented a lot with framing and went against the rules at times and have done some pretty cool stuff — widely colored frames, even double frames. It wouldn’t have flown at Gagosian in New York, but at the great, late, Test Pattern gallery in Scranton, which I dearly miss, we had a blast with it.
Peter’s own fine artwork is sort of expressionistic photography, and he mainly works on cityscapes, architecture and people. I like his technique — which he keeps very secret, aggravatingly. He tells me — his humble side — not to call him an “artist,” but a “technician,” but I got him to admit that he wants to be an artist after all. It must be good, for I am buying or trading some of my art for some of his work, like “The Paris Apartments.” I imagine myself painting there in a garret apartment, maybe with Modi and Picasso stopping by.
Well, Peter, you have succeeded as an artist! Unlike many artists who come to framing later, Peter came to framing first and mastered that, and then became a damn good artist himself. Keep up the great work, my friend!
Visit Peter English’s remarkable work at www.grandstyleframing.com, and come visit him in Honesdale. If he’s sitting looking like an old aristocrat smoking his rare but beloved cigarettes, don’t tell Cathy, she’s trying to get him to quit. He better, for we all need his master-level framing, and he is one of the best — maybe the best — around. OK, maybe he even has a genius for it.
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