By Clyde Noel

It’s one of the oldest businesses in Los Altos. Brush & Palette was started in 1947 by Boris Rydell and changed location and ownership several times before the present owner, Mahmut Keskekci, purchased it.

“I kept the name even though it was somebody else’s baby,” Keskekci said. “Why change it? It’s an institution around here.”

The original Brush & Palette was located at 177 Main St. It sold art supplies and picture frames. The owner kept a close contact with local artists and held exhibits and shows for them.

When George Basinet, the previous owner, became 72, he offered the store for sale. Keskekci, who owns RS Gallery in Palo Alto, purchased it.

“Back in 1947, when the store opened, there wasn’t any style to framing,” Keskekci said. “They only used oak frames, and they were either one or two inches wide. They used glass, and the frames never set off the painting.”

Keskekci is a native of Turkey. He came to Palo Alto from Istanbul in 1988 as an electrical engineer and started to work with Burt Keeble, framing artists’ renditions. Later he worked with the art consultant Ted Cohen.

“You don’t go to school to become an expert framer. Everything you learn is hands-on,” Keskekci said. “The eye has to be trained to all kinds of objects. When to use color, and when to let the art speak for itself.”

Helping him in the studio are Jeffery Vincent Adan and Sherry Keith, both professional framers. Keith has worked in the trade for more than 20 years, having received her training at the Legion of Honor in San Francisco.

“During the ’80s, most of the framing was done with metal frames. Today they are more fine art and bigger pieces,” Keith said. “Today, people bring those metal frames in to be changed to a more current style of cherry, maple or walnut, but no more oak.”

Keskekci has completed framing of more than 2,000 donations by Helen Bing to Stanford Hospital and Lucile Packard Hospital.

Most of Brush & Palette’s clients are local. At RS Gallery in Palo Alto, Keskekci does fine framing for art restoration and conservation.

Brush & Palette is located at 125 Main St. in Los Altos. For more information, call 948-4174.