Lyons Share Custom Framing and Gallery

Fairhope’s De La Mare Avenue has long been the working heart of the town’s art scene, and Lyons Share has been part of that block for more than three decades. The custom framing shop and gallery sits at 330 De La Mare Avenue, tucked among the other independent galleries that give this short stretch of downtown its reputation as a destination for collectors and browsers alike.

Lyons Share began as a framing business, and framing remains the backbone of the operation. Customers bring in everything from watercolors bought on vacation to family photographs and needlepoint pieces passed down for generations, and the staff works through mat choices, moulding samples, and glazing options until the piece looks the way its owner imagined. That kind of one on one, hands on framing work has largely disappeared from big box retail, and it is a big part of why locals keep coming back.

Alongside the framing counter, Lyons Share operates as a working gallery representing a rotating roster of regional artists. Painters working in oil, acrylic, and watercolor hang salon style across the walls, with subjects ranging from Mobile Bay shorelines to abstract compositions built around bold color blocks. The gallery represents a mix of established Alabama and Gulf Coast painters alongside newer names, and the lineup shifts as artists rotate in and out of the space throughout the year.

One of the gallery’s featured painters, Lindsey J. Porter, works in a loose, expressive style that has become popular with visitors looking for a piece that captures the feel of the coast without being a literal beach scene. Her work, along with pieces from several other artists represented by the gallery, is often refreshed after each exhibition, so a wall that looks one way in the spring may look entirely different by summer.

Lyons Share keeps regular retail hours Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., closing Sundays and Mondays. Like its De La Mare Avenue neighbors, the gallery opens late and often stays busy during Fairhope’s First Friday Art Walk, when the street fills with people moving gallery to gallery, and artists are sometimes on hand to talk through their process with visitors.

For anyone in the middle of a framing project, the shop is worth a call ahead, since turnaround time depends on the complexity of the piece and the moulding chosen. For gallery visitors just browsing, no appointment is necessary. The staff is used to fielding questions from first time visitors who wander in off the sidewalk as much as from longtime Fairhope residents who have been getting art framed there for twenty years or more.

Because Lyons Share sits within easy walking distance of the Copper Column, Hello Gallery, and The Kiln Studio, it makes a natural first or last stop on a self guided tour of Fairhope’s independent art district. Visitors who care about buying directly from small businesses, rather than mass produced décor, tend to find the De La Mare Avenue block one of the more rewarding parts of a Fairhope visit, and Lyons Share, with its long history and steady rotation of regional artists, is one of the anchors that keeps that block interesting year after year.

Beyond the retail framing counter, Lyons Share also handles conservation style framing for older pieces that need extra care, including archival matting and UV filtering glass meant to protect watercolors and photographs from the strong Gulf Coast sun. Staff members regularly work with clients who are framing pieces bought at estate sales or inherited from relatives, walking through options that balance cost against long term preservation. That kind of guidance, paired with a gallery wall stocked with original regional art, is what keeps Lyons Share woven into the daily life of Fairhope rather than functioning as a purely seasonal, tourist facing stop.

Street parking is available directly in front of the shop, with additional public lots within a block or two, and the sidewalk out front tends to be busy on weekend mornings when the downtown farmers market and shops along Fairhope Avenue draw a steady stream of foot traffic past the De La Mare Avenue storefronts.