Studio Shop Staff Art Show, July 2013

This July The Studio Shop is doing something new and completely different, a staff art show to display the multi-talented creativity of our awesome Studio Shop team.

  

   

Ty Nguyen brings his digital photography skills to The Studio Shop where he photographs the art work and performs digital retouching and printing for clients.  He is a recent photography student at the Acadamy of Art University in San Francisco where he prefers to shoot in film and then print in both darkroom and digitally.  The above scene is a panoramic photo collage of an iconic San Francisco location,  made with over 90 prints and spanning almost 8 feet.

Gary Mohan is the Studio Shop head framer and is a multi-talented artist with work in photo printing, mixed media and sculpture(on the right). 

In his early artistic period Gary experimented with unique methods of photo printing which included Vaseline, photo paper and a face plant.  Sounds weird but the results are amazing and you have to come in and see for yourself.  One of his prints won first place in a Marathon County, Wisconsin, photo contest but then was unfortunately lost when it went to the state contest in Madison.  Now this extremely rare work of art is probably in someone's attic waiting to be rediscovered by Antiques Roadshow and acknowledged as the ground-breaking work that it truly is. Another print from that series has survived and will be on display.












Steve Stowell is the frame builder and master of wood finishing at The Studio Shop.  He is also an extremely fine photographer with a career spanning several decades from a Sears camera with flash cubes to shooting weddings with a Mamiya medium format film camera.  Today Steve carries a digital camera on hikes and bike rides capturing his visions of pattern and composition.

    

Kristen Benson, gallery manager, art consultant and frame designer extraordinaire, is a long time artist with an art degree from Humbolt State.  She has worked in textiles, mixed media and currently a lot of painting.  The piece on left is painting on canvas and titled Moment by Moment.

    

Carl Martin wears many hats at The Studio Shop including web meister, art installer, IT, HR, photographer, trombone player and janitor.  While his trombone playing will not be on display, some of his photography will be. The architectural photo on the right is of an office stairway in Belmont and part of a series of other Bay Area locations.

Also, Janet Martin and Julie Venosa, too late for photographs so come see their work in person.

Julie's finely executed landscape painting reveals a powerful dose of artistic DNA from her father, life long career artist Joseph Kertesz.  Julie gained another couple decades of arts education by successfully running the family's Kertesz Gallery in San Francisco in the 80s and 90s.

Janet began her arts education by growing up with her parents at The Studio Shop.  During her college years she supported herself as a working artist by carving and selling wood sculptures.  More recently she has delved into mixed media/found art sculptures which will be on display at The Studio Shop.  

Studio Shop Staff Art Show, July 2013

Congratulations to Gary and Carl!

Congratulations go out to Studio Shop staff members Carl Martin, owner, and Gary Mohan, head framer, for receiving their Certified Picture Framer (CPF) accreditation from the Professional Picture Framers' Association (PPFA), the leading organization of picture framers in the U.S. and Canada.  The Studio Shop is now the only shop operating in the SF Bay Area with Certified Picture Framers on staff.  Gary and Carl took the CPF test at the annual PPFA convention in Las Vegas in January and received their awards yesterday, March 5, 2013.

While we are proud of them for proving their expertise, it really comes as no surprise since they have almost 46 years of picture framing experience between them.  Carl has been in the picture frame business now for 16 years.  And Gary has been at The Studio Shop almost 10 years and has been picture framing for almost 30 years!  Now that's experience!

The CPF test covers a wide range of picture framing knowledge from art identification to the selection of proper frame methods for long term preservation.  An oil painting on canvas gets a different rabbet liner than an acrylic painting on canvas.  A digital print from an HP printer needs to dry for up to two weeks before framing, whereas a print from an Epson printer can be framed after one day.  Whether framing a watercolor, pastel or needlepoint, they all have their unique properties that require special considerations.

Congratulations to Gary and Carl for showing your picture framing expertise.  Now how will they frame them?

Congratulations to Gary and Carl!

We're finally getting a mural painted on the side of our building.  Nancy Torres of ArtAttack! is doing a fabulous job directing the project along with her art students and colleagues.  The scene will depict a girl swinging through time.  Come check out the progress before Nancy finishes this weekend.

About the Studio Shop

The Studio Shop and The Studio Shop Annex are Northern California's premier resource for fine art and fine custom picture framing. Both stores are committed to providing you with personal service, archival materials, and expert designs.

The Studio Shop in Burlingame is the oldest retail business, established in 1915, and has been operated by the Benson-Martin family since 1955. The Studio Shop Annex was added in 2008 to offer a more eclectic range of picture framing, art and gifts.

Full Service Framing
Both stores offer a full spectrum of picture framing services for enhancing family photos and memorabilia, protecting art collections and production framing for corporate accounts. While both stores have 1000's of moulding samples, we also offer a stunning collection of museum frames in period and contemporary styles, hand carved and hand gilded with 22k gold and white gold.


John Karl Claes, Bountiful Feilds, Oil on panel, 7 x 8 inches

Fine Original Art
The Studio Shop and Annex galleries offer exceptional fine original art by painters and sculptors from California and around the world, whether it be to enhance a corporate environment or add pleasure and perfection to a home setting.


Maya Eventov, Golden Sunset, Acrylic on canvas, 40 x 48 inches

Giving Back
The Studio Shop is proud to be part of a wonderful community and has taken an active role by providing both direct aid and goods and services, as well as implementing an employee matching program, to support fundraising efforts for local schools, arts groups and other non-profit organizations on the Peninsula.

About the Studio Shop