Free mini-print!

We made the move! After weeks of long hours, sweat, help from great friends, and hundreds of decisions...we are in our new space and it's beautiful.

We are getting tons of compliments on our floor. Thanks to the hard work of everyone who worked on it! It's an acid stained concrete floor that absolutely must be seen. It has at least 10 coats of sealant on it which makes it shine like a polished stone. Of course thanks go out to everyone who helped with the non-glamourous projects too - lighting, wiring and hooking up computers.

There is also lots of new paint, a beautiful steel and walnut column, and of course, the ARTWORK! That was the best part - being able to set up all of our artwork in this gorgeous new space. What fun! We are having a great wildlife exhibit right now, full of Steve Lyman, Bonnie Marris, Daniel Smith, and Rod Frederick. Come in today and get a free mini-print by Bonnie Marris -- Flat Foot. A wonderful representation of a grizzly bear as only Bonnie can do.

To top it off - we're celebrating our grand opening by offering 20% off our custom framing. You get all of our experience and expertise in designing and also our meticulous attention in the execution of your piece when you choose The Lakewood Gallery & Framing. Come in to see us today!

Here is a little video to give you an idea of what it looks like...

We are MOVING!

It's been a while since I've updated - we have been pretty darn busy fixing up our NEW gallery space! It's been a whirlwind of building permits, trips to the hardware store, painting, building, and staining!

Our new space is 15 blocks north of our current location. It's at the Lakewood Colonial Center and our new address is 9514D Gravelly Lake Dr. SW.

We had intended to downsize our current space and ran into some roadblocks so we ultimately decided to make the move! After 51 years in this location it was a tough choice. But...we are really excited to start fresh with a brand new space, designed and decorated exactly how we choose.

We are hoping to be open in the new space on Sept. 15th, however with permits, utilities changovers and more we are leaning more toward the following weekend....we'll see, and we'll keep you updated....

Thank you to all of our loyal customers who have been so supportive all these years in this space, we are so excited for you to see how the new one will look! Plan on visiting us sometime between the 15th and 30th of this month!

NEW RELEASE FROM BEV DOOLITTLE --- The Arrival $345

Painted in 1977, this piece from Bev Doolittle has been unearthed and is now for sale!

Contact us today to order yours - (253) 584-1774

Going to the beach!

We will be CLOSED on Monday, July 25 so that Jan and I can have a little getaway! Not only do we work together, but we are also great friends so I'm really looking forward to this trip.

We're heading out to the coast, to Ocean Shores, just for one night. We've already talked about spending the time playing cards, watching movies, Scrabble...and maybe a couple of margaritas! It'll just be total girl time. I've heard the Olympia Farmer's Market is great too, so we may stop there on the way.

So...don't come in looking for us on Monday, we won't be here!

Holly

P.S. They don't allow dogs at the condo - so no Lulu on girls' weekend :(

Free Wysocki

We are looking for a few great projects....

You ALL have great projects! We love to hear the stories behind the framing, now it's time to share them with everyone. Whether it's the violin bow from your Grandpa, or the Thai tapestry you brought back from a vacation, or photos you found in your great-aunt's things... we want to share your story with people who visit our website!

Bring in your project and tell us your story to be featured on our website, and we'll enter you in a drawing to win a FREE framed Montana de Oro cat image by Charles Wysocki.

Scavenger Art

The Gallery welcomes its newest artist, Mark Orr.

Mark's company "Scavenger Art" centers around

the raven's reputation as a gatherer of found

objects. The keys they hold symbolize change and new beginnings and the billiard balls are balance in our lives. We are very excited to represent these very striking hand carved pieces. Priced from $130 - $190, these are sure to fit beautifully with your "found" objects.

Janet Nelson

Great little images from our new artist - Janet Nelson. These originals are quaint and affordable at

$65 - $95.

Lulu's Corner

Some of you may not know our sweet little Lulu, she is our mascot here at the gallery. A rescued Chihuahua, she now spends most of her time sleeping in the office. What has she been doing back there? It turns out - studying all of our materials regarding art and design! Watch for her updates on the tips of the trade...and if you happen to be in the area, stop by and say hello to Lulu. She's sure to have her little nose in a book somewhere...

P.S. Lulu doesn't work all the time - pictures to come of her latest boating vacation...wearing her life vest of course!

We want you!

Plenty of you have taken advantage of our new website promotion - thank you for your business! We're excited about being able to keep our website fresh, current and full of imagery that keeps you interested.

We've had some feedback that there's been difficulty in making comments on our blog through the "comment" option. You do need a "Blogger" account to make a comment. This is a safety feature that makes it so inappropriate comments can be tracked with user information. If you'd like to send us a comment, feel free to do so through our "contact" page on our website - we'll definitely get the message there and we'd love to hear from you!

We are excited to welcome back to the gallery the artwork of Kathy Hastings. Kathy kayaks through the Puget Sound area and takes beautiful, up-close photos of rusting boat hulls - creating near-abstract images. Lately she's been taking similar imagery and creating encaustic pieces which greatly highten the depth of color and texture in her work. They truly have to be seen.

WANTED: We are looking for someone with an interesting framing project to be featured in our "Projects" section of our website. This can be anything! Whether it's a family heirloom or photos, or something to be shadowboxed. Anything with a great story. We want you! We would love to feature you and your project. Don't put off preservation of your stories any longer, contact us!

As we head into this holiday weekend, I wish you all a safe and happy Fourth of July!

Holly

Stepping into the blog

Holly is determined to keep me young, so this is it...my first blog!

This week at the gallery we're working on several projects. We're working up an insurance claim for a customer whose house was flooded. They had 19 pieces of artwork stacked against the wall and all were ruined. We will need to change mats and backing boards, find replacement artwork and in some cases replace the frames.

We're also doing some framing for Linden Golf Course in Puyallup where my brother Rick was just chosen to be the head golf pro. (Way to go, Rick!) One of the images is an aerial shot of the golf course taken 25 or so years ago - there was sure a lot open space surrounding the golf course back then.

Our work on the huge antique map continues. Yestereday we mounted down all the backing boards and built the inner frame (one of four frames to be used in this project). Today we will tackle the linen covered liner and possibly sew the mat to the backing board. Next step: order and join the two outer frames. This is a complicated project but once you see the finished product we think you'll be oohing and aahing along with us.

Only two days left in the Greenwich Workshop BOGO sale! This is a perfect chance to buy a piece of artwork for yourself and get one free to give as gift...or keep for yourself! Remember...we're offering 20% OFF FRAMING with any BOGO purchase.

One blog down, many more to come...

Jan

Up and runnning

Finally the site is up and running! I'm pretty excited. I'm proud of it and think it looks great. The best part about the new site is that it's easy to update. I'm looking forward to keeping it fresh and new, full of things that will hopefully be of interest to our customers.

It's been a busy week full of deadlines. It feels good to have a good amount of work on the books. Thanks to all of our loyal customers we've had plenty to do lately.

I've been communicating this week with a new artist - Carol Schiff. She's shipping to us some of her amazing still lifes from her home in Florida. I think our clientele will really appreciate these wonderful paintings of fruits, vegetables, and some with tea pots. It will be nice to get some fresh work in the gallery.

We had a customer interested in having a commission done by Janet Nelson, our artist who does the fun fifties inspired series of women. Janet agreed to paint a portrait of the customer and her friend in the style of her choice - what a great keepsake! And what a wonderful way to commemorate a lifelong friendship. I'm looking forward to seeing what she creates.

That's all for now...

Holly

Here we go!

This is pretty exciting....a new website, almost up and running, and a blog to boot. We are finally taking the gallery into the 21st century! Jan and I have been wanting to do this for a while and here we are...

Busy, busy, busy. We have been working like crazy this week! (okay, we did have a bit of a break being closed on Monday - I camped in the rain, Jan spent the day watching her granddaughter master her newfound skill of walking) In between helping customers, we finished 7 retirement pieces for the Lakewood Fire Department. They looked great framed with badges, coins, and certificates. We also framed an amazing (pictures to come) Tibetan plank with the most intricate painted detail. The framing design on this one is a home run! With a total of 3 frames, it is set off beautifully.

Our next challenge: framing a 5 ft x 7 ft antique classroom map....more to come on that one!