Best Practices for Handling Art

Your art finally came in the mail and you’re super excited to take it out and hang it. But before you start handling your new art I want to share with you some best practices for ensuring the longetivity of your investment.

-Don’t hang it in an area where it will recieve long exposures to direct sunlight. Wether it’s a print or an original, the UV rays can slowly alter the appearance of the image.

-Don’t hang it an humid areas. I know it looks cool to hang your art in your bathroom, but you’re going to quickly damage it. If you hang a canvas in a bathroom where there is a shower, chances are very high that it will get moldy on the backside. Ewwww!

And while paper prints might not get moldy, the moisture might make the paper crinkle or worse yet spread the ink across the page. Even if you frame it behind glass, moisture can easily get inside. Keep art to powder rooms, living room, and bedrooms.

-Don’t touch the surface. Ever notice that art historians have white gloves on while handling art? It’s because we have natural oils in our fingers that can actually alter the chemicals in the paint/ink of the art piece, causing the image to change overtime, or simply get dirty.

-Don’t hang a painting or canvas print by it’s support bars. All of my original paintings and and canvas prints come “ready to hang” with is called a “wired back”, which is a heavy duty metal wire running across the support bars.

-Frame paper art prints behind glass. Otherwise they’ll get dirty of they are out in the open, and there’s no real way to clean paper. Better yet, if you can splurge a little and get UV resistant glass or acrylic I highly recommend it. If you order custom framing through us, our partner, Framebridge, uses this exact type of durable clear acrylic for all of their frames.

-Handle art prints by the edges, but not the corners. The corners of paper prints are super suspectible to damage. They can easily get frayed. It's best to handle these prints by the edges.

-Canvas prints don’t need to be framed behind glass. All of my canvas prints are sprayed with a protective finish that blocks UV light and keeps it from getting dirty from everyday particals.

-Keep it dry. Hang it in an area that is low humidity.

Follow these simple guidelines and your art prints and paintings will last you a lifetime!