How to Light Art: 5 Tips for Lighting Artwork in Your Home

Artwork lighting is a specific type of lighting that highlights fine art in your home. Art lighting typically refers to light used to showcase pictures on a wall, but it can be used for sculptures. Lighting is an important consideration when displaying your artwork. You want to choose the right light for the size and position of your artwork to minimize glare and highlight details. At the same time, improper lighting—like direct sunlight or fluorescent light—can potentially damage the artwork.

Choosing the proper lightbulb to showcase your artwork is critical because the wrong kind of light can fade your picture. Here are three kinds of low-damage light bulbs that are commonly used to preserve and highlight the artwork.

1. 1. LED light bulbs: LED bulbs are the safest and least-destructive lights for art. They are energy-efficient and come in a wide variety of colors. Additionally, they don’t emit any ultraviolet light, eliminating the risk of UV damage to your painting.
2. 2. Halogen light bulbs: Halogen light is bright and cool, which makes it a popular choice for lighting artwork. However, the bulbs can become very hot. You can use halogen bulbs to highlight your artwork, but avoid positioning your light source too close to the art to avoid the risk of heat damage.
3. 3. Incandescent light: Incandescent lights have a warm glow, similar to natural sunlight. This can be flattering for certain artworks but may interfere with the natural hues in the art. Incandescents are also very warm and the heat could damage your art, so be sure there is enough space and airflow between the bulb and the light.

There are a number of artwork lighting fixtures to choose from. The right choice depends on the size of your artwork and the space you’re displaying it in. Here are four types of light fixtures used for art.

1. 1. Picture lights: Picture lighting is the most specialized art lighting option. A picture light sits directly above a painting or wall-mounted work of art. It is a small, covered lamp that is angled down at a slight angle to light the artwork.
2. 2. Accent lights: You can position ceiling-mounted accent lights to illuminate light works of art at your desired angle from above. Accent lights can be recessed into the ceiling or mounted on the ceiling’s surface.
3. 3. Track lights: Track lights are a series of small, flexible lamps attached to the ceiling on a track bar. You can easily adjust the position of these lights, which is beneficial if you move your art around frequently.
4. 4. Wall Washers: Wall washers are individual or strips of light positioned directly above or beneath a wall to wash it in light. This is a great option for a French salon-style hanging with lots of artworks on a single wall.

Lighting your artwork will depend on a series of factors from your artwork size, to your frame, to your space. Here is a brief overview of how to light an art display in your own home.

1. 1. Choose a spot for your artwork. Begin by choosing a spot on the wall for your piece. A single large piece of artwork may take up an entire wall. Pieces on a gallery wall, however, will influence the lighting in a different way.
2. 2. Pick your lightbulb. LED bulbs have the lowest risk of damaging artwork, so these are always a great choice if you want something bright. If you have some room between your artwork and your light source, consider a halogen bulb. Also, consider the fact that different light bulbs come in different sizes and will have different beam spreads, meaning the way a beam of light spreads over a surface. From five feet away, a 10 degree beam angle has an 11’ beam spread, a 25 degree beam angle has a 2’4” beam spread, and a 60 degree beam angle spreads 5’5”. Light sources will also come with a color rendering index (CRI) number (CRI) between zero and 100. The higher the number, the better the light source will match the natural hues in your artwork.
3. 3. Choose your lighting fixture. Choose your desired lighting source for the desired artwork setup. Some gallery walls are lit with track lights, while others use picture lights over each piece of artwork. You can also use track lights to illuminate a large piece of artwork on a wall, especially if you like to move it regularly. Consider installing a dimmable light fixture so you can control the amount of light that is directed at your picture.
4. 4. Choose your lighting angle. Your light should hit your art work at a 30 degree angle. This reduces glare and lessens the shadow of your frame on the wall. Once you've chosen the place on the wall where your art will hang, measure your light to hit the center of the artwork at a thirty degree angle. This will determine where you should place your lighting fixture.
5. 5. Install your lighting. Installing lighting like track lighting and accent lighting might require the expertise of an electrician or contractor. However, you may be able to install picture lighting or wall washers yourself. When you’re positioning your lighting, make sure that the light is angled at the center of your artwork.

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