Bella Creations Winner – 2016 Late Summer Edition

A PRISMA TRIBUTE TO THE 1960s
VINTAGE ART MEETS MODERN FRAMING

Please join us in congratulating the winner of this session of the Bella Creations contest. We are pleased to present this amazing Prisma project created by Michael Fitzsimmons of Westwood Gallery. Michael was only a young lad in the 60s so he missed out on a lot of the fun, but he did enjoy plastering the walls of his teen bedroom with day glow blacklight rock posters.

This project is a labor of love for 60s nostalgia, great creativity in framing and a continuation of a decade long frame design quest. Michael has experimented over the years with various methods of creating a handmade finish to give a “faux peacock” effect. Using various layered and combed paint techniques, Michael has created numerous custom painted wood frames for Grateful Dead posters and Peter Max prints over his 33 years in the business.

And then Prisma came into Michael’s life. Having access to the unique shapes and patterns available in the Prisma acrylic frame line inspired Michael to try a new approach to this “wavy-gravy” style of framing.

After finding the perfect rock poster, Michael designed his Prisma frame. He chose a 3” wide Nouveau shaped frame engraved with the Cascade pattern. We sent Michael his frame all carved, polished and ready to paint. His ambitious idea was to paint the thin wavy stripes in a gradation of yellow-green to blue-purple while the field color transitions from purple - hot pink, to red – orange, to yellow – green. The background colors are placed in contrast to the colors in the poster’s type design. A final coat of white was applied to maximize the brightness and reflectivity of the fluorescent paint.

The end result is truly unique and totally in character with our credo of pushing the creative boundaries of modern picture framing. Michael’s design was the “Creations” winner by popular vote. Winners receive free Bella product and are entered into the grand prize contest for a free ticket to the West Coast Art and Frame show in Las Vegas in January. Be sure to find us on Facebook to enter your own Creation and follow along to find out who gets the big prize!