Useful Info about Mounts or Mats used in Picture Framing

This months post looks at mounts, or mats, used in picture framing.

When you are framing a painting or print it can look better if you add a mount to the painting before having it framed. This can make a small painting look larger and more important when hung.

The mount is the paper or card border around the picture. You would use a mount on a picture that is painted on paper or one of the thinner painting surfaces. If your picture was on a stretched canvas having it mounted would not be an option.

I’ll use the term mount throughout this newsletter rather than saying mount or mat the whole time, but you will know what I mean!

Cut Your Own?

There is a local craft and artist shop opening up in the town and I will be displaying some pictures for sale there. So I need to mount them for display.

I have a mount cutter and sometimes cut my own mounts, but I find it all a bit of a chore. I bought the mount cutter about 15 years ago when it was unusual to see ready cut mounts for sale.

As I will need a few mounts I thought it would be easier to buy them ready cut. The ones that are available now are “cut on computerised mount cutters for quality and consistency”. That sounds really good. ;-)

Of course the mount needs to be on good quality heavy paper or thin card which is acid free.

Aperture

The window cut in the middle of the mount for the picture is the aperture. This is normally made with a 45 degree angle cut for a better finish. This has 2 benefits. The sloping cut gives a lovely finish, and if you are using a coloured mount this cut edge shows the centre of the mount material (normally white) and gives a white line around the picture. This is a very pleasing look.

Of course you can always add lines on the surface of the mount to highlight the edge around the picture. Sometimes people paint a border on the mount to match the colours used in the painting.

Double Mount

Another favourite is the double mount where there are two mounts and the aperture of the top mount is a bit bigger than the bottom mount.

Often the bottom mount is in a dark colour and the top one in a pale colour.
So when you look at the painting there is the picture, and then around the picture is the white of the cut edge, next the surface of the dark mount, the cut edge of the top mount (white line) and finally the top pale mount.

This style of mounting gives a double edge which highlights the painting and can really enhance the final look of the picture. I like this style of mounting a picture.

Of course this is then framed with a glass fronted frame to keep it clean.

Landscape or Portrait

Landscape or portrait refers to the layout of the picture. If it is wider (than tall) than it is in the landscape format and if the picture is taller (than wide) it is in the portrait format.

A standard framing technique says to cut the bottom side of the mount a bit wider than the other three sides. This is makes the final framing look better. It has to do with the way our eyes see things. By making the bottom section of the mount a little wider the final framed painting looks better. (I have heard this described as adding weight to the bottom.)

However, when buying ready cut mounts the aperture is placed in the centre so that the mount can be used for both landscape and portrait layouts.

This is not a major problem but one to bear in mind when deciding whether to buy a ready made frame and mount for displaying your paintings and doing it yourself, or if you want to pay and have it professionally framed.

Is this a problem?

Not really.

I think that this would be important on larger pictures where the mount would have quite a big area, and so it would be more noticeable.

The other time this would cause a problem would be if you wanted to use a very wide mount. (I am sure you have seen small paintings with mounts bigger than the picture itself.)

Otherwise I think that ready cut mounts will work fine. If your picture is A4 size or smaller using a ready cut mount should be alright.

Traditional or Abstracts

Although framing using a mount is normally seen on traditional pictures it can also enhance abstract artwork too.

Abstract art often works best with stronger colours for the mount. A black mount on a vibrant painting can be very effective.

I recently saw an abstract picture with a black mount and a metallic strip added to the mount to match the metallic paints used in the picture. Stunning.

I hope you find this useful.