Rimrock Art & Frame has been operating out of the same building on Grand Avenue since 1976, which in Billings terms makes it practically an institution. Most people drive past it a hundred times before they actually walk in, and that’s a mistake worth correcting.
The shop sits in a low-slung commercial strip west of downtown, easy to miss between a tire place and a dry cleaner. Inside, it’s a different story entirely. Floor-to-ceiling shelving holds thousands of frame samples — raw wood, gilded, lacquered black, distressed barn-board — and the cutting room in back hums with the kind of quiet competence you don’t often find in retail anymore. The staff here have been doing this for decades, not months, and the difference shows.
What makes Rimrock worth your time isn’t just the framing, though. The gallery wall up front rotates regularly, spotlighting Montana and regional artists working in oil, watercolor, photography, and printmaking. These aren’t vanity pieces from weekend hobbyists — some of the painters shown here also exhibit at galleries in Bozeman and Santa Fe. Prices run from around $150 for smaller works to several hundred for larger canvases. Nothing about the display is precious or intimidating; it reads more like a working artist’s studio than a hushed white-cube gallery.
The custom framing side of the business is where serious collectors and casual customers alike keep coming back. Turnaround is typically one to two weeks depending on complexity, and the staff will talk you through mat color combinations with real patience — not the kind of patience where someone is waiting for you to just pick something so they can move on. They pull samples, hold them up to your piece in natural light, tell you honestly when a choice isn’t working. A standard 11×14 frame with single mat runs somewhere in the $80–$120 range, higher for archival UV glass, which they’ll recommend for anything you actually care about.
They also carry a solid selection of ready-made frames, local art cards, and a small but thoughtful range of art supplies — not enough to replace a dedicated art store, but enough for the painter who needs a couple of tubes of cadmium yellow and doesn’t want to order online and wait a week.
The best time to visit is mid-week in the late morning, when the shop is quiet and the staff have more time to talk through a tricky framing job or steer you toward something in the gallery you might have walked past. Saturdays get busy, especially in fall and around the holidays when people are framing photos and gifts.
Parking is straightforward — there’s a small lot directly in front. Hours are Monday through Friday, roughly 9 to 5:30, with limited Saturday hours, so it’s worth calling ahead if you’re making a special trip.
Billings has a handful of places where craft and commerce sit comfortably together without either one apologizing for the other. Rimrock Art & Frame is one of them, and it’s been that way since Gerald Ford was president.
