If you haven't seen artworks well lit in a gallery or museum, or haven't been in a position to make comparisons, you will be surprised at how much lighting, good or "otherwise," affects the presentation of artwork. Many people purchase artwork and never include lighting in the artwork installation process, but it is definitely worth the effort. Proper lighting will bring out nuances and effects in your artwork that you might not have seen before. Also it will tend to bring out the artwork, in terms of importance in the design of a room or environment. If the artwork doesn't rate such importance for you, prints can serve much of the same purpose as original art, and at a much reduced outlay of money in many cases.
Lighting artwork is definitely something that can be learned. I recommend lighting upgrades (to halogen lighting) in many home and gallery applications. I'm not talking about those Torchiere floor lamps with the halogen bulbs, but a specific type of bulb to go into track lighting and/or recessed lighting. It makes a big difference in the appearance of the artwork and the overall ambience of the area being lit. Of course, I will be honest and admit to using said floor lamps to light artworks on numerous occasions! For me, having proper light on the art when I really want to view it is quite important. I have track lighting, but there have been times when I used what I had available. And, being a light experimenter, I enjoy viewing art under different lighting conditions.
Light Damage to Artwork
Artwork needs to be protected from light damage. First of all, don't light it all day. With electric utilities at their current cost levels, I may not need to bring this up...but, just in case. A safe rule of thumb is to light the art when you are viewing it, and keep the light off at other times. Also, keep direct or very bright sunlight AWAY from your artwork, always. Have I always followed my own rules? No. As I said, I am a light experimenter. I have taken artworks outdoors to view them in the sunlight. Sunlight makes art look wonderful.
WARNING! Sunlight has massive UV rays. They will sunburn you, and they are SO harmful to artworks that they will, over time (and not all that much time) fade works on paper, especially pastels, prints, photographs, and watercolors. Also, textiles will fade in sunlight in a matter of only a few short months, or less. Another excellent rule of thumb.
Keep artwork away from fluorescent bulbs, at least from unshielded, standard white bulbs. I had a watercolor fading accident. The purples and violets faded to gray after 3 months of hanging about 3 feet from fluorescent bulbs. Of course, this was basically violating the principle of keeping art away from any sort of excessively bright light with long exposure times (a store for 8 hours per day, 6 days per week).
Incandescent light is less harmful than fluorescent light, but standard bulbs give a very imbalanced light, shifted far too much to warm colors. The bulb manufacturers are now starting to introduce incandescent bulbs that compensate for this shift. The actual bulbs look a little blue, and do a much better job with color balance. The Philips brand is called "Natural." I definitely recommend them over standard incandescent or fluorescent bulbs. Time will tell if the general public accepts them enough for the manufacturers to keep producing them.
For the museum world, the debate is still in progress as to the status of halogen lighting. Museums have their own special needs and rules. I may talk about that more, later. We do use halogen bulbs in the gallery where I am the lighting technician, so I am devoting a special section to it.
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Lighting Paintings, Sculptures and Other Artwork in the Home
There are special light fixtures available for lighting single paintings. You can try
Dick Blick online; Michael's; Hobby Lobby; or your local art supply store for single painting lights...
If you are lighting a precious painting you dearly love, however, I recommend one particular light fixture which you will find at this website:
Solux Lighting (click on the SoLux Art Light Fixtures Link)
Following is an excerpt from their website:
The SoLux Art Light was developed to ensure optimal viewing conditions for paintings both in the gallery and in the home. SoLux is specified by the world's premier museums and art galleries on paintings by Picasso, Monet, Degas, Van Gogh, Vermeer, and Rembrandt to name a few...The SoLux Daylight Bulb in combination with the diffuser emits the closest simulation of daylight with lowest UV of any light source...the SoLux Art light can easily light a 3x3 foot painting...The low voltage transformer supplied with each Art Light provides a steady stream of power to the lamp that lasts an incredible 6,000 hours.
This light mounts above the painting and comes with two wiring options, the standard wall plug or behind the painting outlet option. At $150 (approx) it really is a good value for a treasured work of art.
Various lights can be installed in the ceiling, including track lights and adjustable lights with cans similar to track cans but which are mounted like regular ceiling lighting. These are easy to install yourself (turn the power to the circuit off first!) By install yourself, I mean in place of an existing ceiling fixture. For relatively inexpensive ceiling mount fixtures such as these, and track lights, try your local home improvement center, to start. I will discuss track lighting more on this webpage further down.
Halogen Lighting
I work for the Landmark Gallery as a lighting tech. We use only halogen bulbs, specifically Philips brand Halogena indoor/outdoor flood line (says this on the top of the box) bulbs, in sizes ranging from par 20 to par 38. The sizes are oddly measured in 1/8th inches so par 20 is about 2 1/2" diameter. Par 30, our most common sized bulbs are 3 3/4" diameter. Well, you can see why calling them par is a good size designation. In Texas these Philips bulbs are available at Home Depot (or other outlets). I now buy most of our bulbs from
Bulbs.com They ship quickly and shipping is very cheap, as are their prices. Plus, they are a nice group of people to work with.
These bulbs cost approximately $7.75 each (much less from
Bulbs.com) which seems expensive but they are superior bulbs, and do last for a long time (2500 hours it is claimed on the box). Additionally, as these halogen bulbs age they don't dim and "brown-down" as much as the incandescent bulbs, and other halogen bulbs I have tested.
Philips recently dropped their 30 degree bulbs in the par20 size. They are now stocking a 25 degree bulb. I don't want to irk the Philips Corporation by giving my opinion of this corporate decision. I'm sure it is a fine bulb for many lighting uses. I will just say that it will not work for lighting the artwork in any of our galleries, except in certain conditions, where there are a lot of other bulbs being used, and its central bright spot is minimized..
This has caused me some difficulty, trying to find a replacement. I've tested several brands of par20 halogen bulbs. None have the quality of the old par20 30 degree Philips. Either they have a bright spot in the middle of the lighting "field" which is not good for even lighting of artwork, or they don't have the nice, bright white color of the Philips bulbs.
We have finally decided to go with the Sylvania Capsylites. They make a good par20 bulb. At some point I am hoping the powers that be at our School of Art will come up with a grant for a new lighting system based on low-voltage MR-16 lighting. That will probably solve our issues. Since we have a total of 4 galleries, we are talking a substantial grant indeed.
Other typical brands of halogen bulbs have inferior light. I did a side by side test with several other brands and the Philips bulbs had the best quality light. These are not specifically made for lighting artwork, however, so I don't "necessarily" recommend them for museum usage, of course.
The wattages are more complex, because the beam spread comes into play. 50 and 75 watt bulbs are available in the par 30. (I'm not going to discuss the par 38 bulbs because they will overly complicate an already complicated subject).
The bulbs have a curved back which helps determine how focused the light will be. A flood gives a rather large to large area and a spot gives a much smaller beam. This sounds simple, of course, but in practice things become a little more complex The smaller par20 bulbs don't flood as big an area as the par30s. And there are "in-between" bulbs - the narrow floods. They can be useful, though. Sometimes the spot is too hot and the flood washes over too large an area without putting enough light where you want it.
The 50 and 75 watt bulbs give a very different amount of light, which makes a big difference in an overall effect.
Now that I have you completely confused...I will try to clear up some of the confusion.
The light from the 75-watt spot bulbs is almost ALWAYS TOO STRONG and focused for most art uses. I occasionally use them, but not often. Most of the time they sit on the shelf.
The 75-watt par30 floods are good for fairly large spaces. Don't buy six at once! They might be too bright for your space. We use a lot of them in the gallery, however. You will want to try them because the 50watt par30s may be somewhat "dim" for your space, especially if your tracks are mounted high up.
The 75-watt par30 narrow floods are good for special needs. Too bright for many uses, but with their narrow beam, they are good if you are lighting something from a track that's farther away. Or if you need to put more light on something than the 75-watt flood (with its wider beam) will give.
The 50-watt par30 floods will probably meet most of your art lighting needs, unless you have unusual lighting circumstances. Experiment with a few of them to begin your lighting journey. 50 watt par30 spots can be very useful for putting a highlight or emphasis on a certain piece.
As I already mentioned, as an attempt to rectify some of the par20 bulb issues, we are experimenting with MR16 bi-pen bulb fixtures.
Though I have more limited experience with the MR-16's, so far, they have some definite advantages. I will add more to this part of the webpage as I get more data.
In the meantime we are switching to Sylvania Capsylight par20 50 watt halogen bulbs for our small gallery, and using par30 50 watt bulbs for larger artworks, when needed. But the Sylvania bulbs do not make the whites of art "pop" in the way the Philips bulbs do. Thus, the search continues. Eventually we will probably switch to MR16, low-voltage style lighting. The MR16 bulbs do not seem to have a problem with filament flicker, which is very annoying. No one wants to view art from a flickering light. This has been a problem in certain areas of our gallery where the ventilation system causes too much vibration. The main culprits are the par20 bulbs. In some areas of our gallery, the ceiling is 8' high, and artwork lit in those areas becomes too bright when par30 bulbs are used. So it becomes a problem.
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Lighting Artwork: The Debate
Everything I've said so far comes from my direct experience with my own artwork, and with working for a gallery. You might not be hanging an art show, or a number of pieces, but might be simply hanging one or two pieces of art in your home. In that case, the rules "might" be a little different. I have read some information on other websites about lighting artwork and I agree with some of it, but not necessarily with all of it. So I will continue with the "lighting discussion, as a "sort-of" debate.
1. Never let picture light be larger than artwork.
It would not look good to use the lights that light your artwork from underneath, if they extend too far, beyond the borders of the painting. This brings up another suggestion for lighting artwork. The size of the actual light on the artwork. It's good to try to light the entire piece evenly. If you are using track lights, it might take two, or even three, for a very large artwork. You might have to try several configurations, with the cans at a 45 degree angle, or some other angle. Take your middle three fingers, place them together, hold them near the can and wave them back and forth (with the light on! HA HA). This will give you a good idea of exactly where the light is pointing. You might have to practice this a few times, but after a while you will become an expert. You will begin to see subtleties that your friends and family won't notice. This can be a blessing and a curse, of course. This process involves the next "rule of thumb" as well.
2. Put as much light on the picture as you can.
I definitely wouldn't take this as an absolute. In the gallery lighting situations I find myself in, on a regular basis, I always have to adjust the brightness of various pieces of art. If you are only lighting one piece, this rule "might" apply, but this rule is one that I basically reject. I would say to put the correct amount of light on the piece. And, light is not really a good thing for art anyway. Most light has at least some harmful UV rays (the rays that damage - fade artwork) and it's not good to light your artwork like a bright day! You can certainly light it well enought to bring out the wonderful subtleties, but I would never recommend this as a rule of thumb. Also, certain types of art can't take the light as well as others. I won't even try to go into all of that here. Am I an expert in the field of art restoration; art archiving techiniques, etc? No, but I have been an artist for decades and I did go to art school, and I have researched this quite a bit, not only because I would like for my artworks to last a while, but also because I have had some trouble with art fading because of artificial light exposure, as I already mentioned. So, this rule is only ok for short periods of time. You can light your artwork safely. You just need to take some precautions. DON'T PUT DELICATE WATERCOLORS, PHOTOS, PASTELS IN A ROOM THAT GETS TOO MUCH BRIGHT NATURAL SUNLIGHT! IF you are using the SoLux lights, it's probably safe.
REMEMBER! TOO MUCH LIGHT CAN BE HARD ON YOUR ARTWORK
3. Even low-wattage light can damage artwork. Incandescent lights give off less UV radiation than other types, but it can still be damaging. It's a good idea to light artwork only when you're in the room to enjoy it; otherwise, turn out the lights.
I agree with this rule of thumb of course. This will keep the electric bills lower as well!
4. Never use halogen bulbs to light artwork -- they get much too hot.
Apparently, I don't quite agree with this statement. I do understand the reasoning behind it. The halogen bulbs do get very hot. There doesn't seem to be any perfect light. You would NOT want to use halogen light in a picture light that is mounted close to your artwork. But if you are using track lighting, recessed ceiling lighting or some other ceiling fixture that will accomodate halogen bulbs, it's not going to be a problem. If you had a small room, and 12 halogen bulbs it might start to become a problem if you left them on for 3 hours, but you would then be violating the rule of keeping the artwork lit for too long. You may be asking about galleries. They keep artwork lit for a long time. Yes, they do. It's still not good to keep your artwork lit continuously for long periods. You can rotate your art, if you have several pieces.
5. If your painting is behind glass, consider using a mantel light to help cut down on reflections and glare.
You may find that glass glare and reflections bother you. Glass can reflect so badly that from certain angles it's sometimes hard to see the artwork for the reflections. Certain hanging locations are worse than others. Experimentation can help. Also, special glass is made to drastically cut glare. Non-glare glass helps a lot, but it does fuzz the art somewhat (not always as objectionable as much as glare and reflections from regular glass). Other kinds of glass are available, but can get rather expensive. A mantle light can help. Lights in just the wrong place can reflect directly into your eyes when you are in the perfect viewing location. This is why mantel lights are sometimes better.
6. A simple rule of thumb when you're deciding whether or how to light a piece of art: Decide how much you like the piece. There's no use lighting a piece you're not crazy about.
This is true. However, good lighting will bring art to life in ways that may surprise you. If you really don't like a piece of art, why do you have it hanging on the wall? But you might try some makeshift lighting just to see what it can do for an artwork. You might be pleasantly surprised at how the artwork that seemed ho-hum begins to sing when it gets the lighting just right!
7. Remember: Incandescent light will always be a bit warmer than other types. They'll add a yellow hue to whatever they light.
This is true, and one of the reasons I recommend the Philips Master bulbs for halogen and the Philips Natural bulbs for incandescent. As artworks age, and especially artworks that are already old, they can begin to yellow. This is not as true of the modern mediums used (at least not in theory) but certainly it was true in the past. Some of Rembrandt's "golden light" may have been "golden yellowing" of his oil mediums and varnishes. He may not have intended that at all.And fluorescent emit too much UV unless shielded. I don't trust them too much, personally.
8. If you're hanging two pictures together, don't use two picture lights. Instead, hang the pair above a table and place a lamp on the table to illuminate the area.
Well, you may or may not like this solution. Give it a try. I realize that track lighting is an investment that you might not want to make. There are also lights available that have two or more cans like track cans that mount in one place. They can be aimed similarly to a track but don't require track installation. On the other hand, this method will not give you the wonderful results of track lighting, or a good recessed overhead light or two.
Track Lighting - More Information
Track lighting is probably the best lighting for multiple artworks. Recessed lighting can work, but once it is installed, it really can't be moved. Track lights are very versatile, and can be adjusted to fit the artwork on the wall quite well. Plus, there are so many styles of cans, accessories, and bulbs available now, they are really a great value for serious art lighting.
There are several factors to keep in mind when purchasing track lighting. As a user of track lights for 20 plus years, and a lighting technician, "track can mechanic", and professional artist, I have dealt with many of the pitfalls, problems, issues, needs, advantages, disadvantages, etc. etc. of the various styles of cans, tracks, recessed lights, and so on and so forth that one might come across when lighting artworks such as paintings, sculpture, jewelry, etc.
Art Lighting - Consulting
Be sure to visit my art lighting website
Terrell Lighting for much more information on lighting, and art lighting consulting rates.
This certainly doesn't entirely cover the subject of lighting. If you have lighting questions, problems, or suggestions, please
email me. And thanks for your interest.
