Wall Art Lighting

Proper lighting of your wall art is crucial. Using the wrong light source or technique can damage your pieces, or hold back the beauty of the colors within them.

Below are some explanations of how different lighting options can affect your wall art:

Natural Sun Light

Most people would think that natural light is the way to go when lighting wall art, but this is not the case. Natural light can actually cause harm to the paintings or sculptures because of their UV rays. When you leave something sitting in the sun for an extended period of time, you’ll notice that its colors tend to fade, and this is something you do not want to occur with your fine art.

Incandescent Lights

Incandescent lights have both good and bad characteristics.  The good is that they highlight the warm colors in your wall art like your browns, oranges and reds. This can really make fall landscape paintings and dark colored wall art sculptures come alive. The other side of incandescent lighting though is its tendency to flatten brighter colors such as blue, green and violet. Incandescent lighting, unlike natural light, will not fade your paintings, which is definitely another good trait.

Fluorescent Lighting

Fluorescent lighting is not the answer for illuminating your wall art. This type of lighting has two major problems. Like sunlight, fluorescent lighting also emits UV rays that could damage your paintings. It’s light also does not cover the entire color spectrum. So in general, I do not recommend using this form of lighting for your wall art.

Halogen Lighting

Of all the different forms of wall art lighting, halogen lighting definitely delivers as one of the best options. It emits a strong white light that can really accent the colors of the art without damaging it.

Final Notes:

• Even artificial light can damage your art over time, so do not leave a direct source of light on your art at all times.
• Try to avoid hanging your wall art in direct sun light.
• Halogen lighting is your best overall option for wall art lighting.
• Incandescent lighting is a good option for art that has only dark, warm colors.
• Fluorescent lighting should not be used to light art.

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