Have you ever walked by a painting, but something catches your eye? You stop, examine, revel in the work. Do you ever look at the frame?

The frame. It compliments the painting like a good haircut surrounds a pretty face—supportive, never stealing the thunder.

“They’re beautiful, they’re hardworking, they’re always overlooked,” says Deborah Davis, the Montclair author of “The Secret Life Of Frames.” She calls frames the “Cinderella of the art world.”

But it wasn’t always this way.

Davis points out that at one time, a long time ago, painters (e.g. Leonardo Da Vinci) waited to release their paintings until the frame was finished.

Frames usually correspond to the period of the art. Sometimes, they are a product of their environment. Davis says she found some Dutch frames are always dark, designed to off-set a local tradition of white walls.

Davis wants to put frames back on the front lines. One week from tonight, you can catch her at the Montclair Art Museum (www.montclairartmuseum.org) along with Larry Shar, president of the Julius Lowy Frame and Restoring Company. Their lecture is called The Art Behind the Art.

How does all this affect us… the clueless who visit those U-pick-it franchise framers? Davis was one of those until she wrote the book, then re-framed every painting in her home. You may want to do that too, after you read the book.

So next time you find that fabulous painting, stop, look and revel. But check out the whole package. You may be overlooking the one thing that pulls everything together… the perfect wallflower.