Storing Your Art - After You Paint (7 of 27)

Once you've documented your paintings and have a general understanding of how to properly handle artwork, the next thing to consider is storage. Artwork accumulates and not every piece gets sold, so your collection can grow rather quickly. The question then becomes, how should your work be stored? And we're specifically talking about two-dimensional art, paintings, prints, and drawings. Having a proper storage plan is a really good idea and can help ensure the piec's long lifespan. This is a broad subject, so I'm going to divide the topic into sections. General considerations when storing art, storage by substrate or surface, storage by painting medium, and then a discussion of the physical structures that are available. I'll also walk you through my studio and show you what I do for storage. First, artwork that's still drying, needs access to air circulation. Once it's dry, even touch dry in some cases, you can store them away. The method you use depends on the paint medium as well as the type of support structure. But first, let's look at some general considerations for storing art. Hanging a framed piece of art in a climate controlled location is considered the best way to maintain art. Framing is meant to both provide a decorative enhancement as well as protect the work of art from dust and damage. That said, hanging all of our work is not usually possible. You'll need some other options. And the first thing to consider is that the storage location should be clean and ideally have controlled humidity, temperature, and light exposure. Let's look at each. Cleanliness is fairly obvious. Avoid smoky or dusty environments for your art, but it's also important to avoid a high degree of humidity as water and damp environments can warp or damage a piece of art. Whether we're talking about paper, which can warp, canvas, which can slacken, wood, which can warp and crack due to expansion, or metal, which can corrode. For example, I have a print of one of my paintings in my guest bathroom that sits right over the toilet. Frankly, I purposely chose a print for that spot knowing there would be more exposure to moisture. And you can see that part of the paper did actually warp. Now, I could flatten it again, but it's an example of avoiding more humid locations when hanging or storing art. I have a small oil painting in the same room on the opposite wall, and it's doing fine, but it's farther away from the moisture. Artwork that's exposed to too much humidity, over 65%, is also vulnerable to the development of mold. It's said that work that's exposed to too little humidity, 35% or less, can cause paint to become brittle or result in cracking on the surface. That said, from my research, a reputable conservator commented that some museums now maintain a humidity much drier. So, apparently, a drier environment is not as much of a risk as a humid one. A humidity level of between 40 to 55% is what's recommended. It should basically feel comfortable to you. Now, I have what's called a hydrometer in my studio. It simply monitors the humidity level in the room, much like a thermometer monitors temperature. Mine cost about $10, although they have many hydrometers for about a conservator suggest avoiding hanging artwork on an exterior wall due to moisture that can seep through, but I would suggest it depends on the specific location and how long it'll hang there. It's also important to avoid intense heat or dramatic temperature change. All matter in this world tends to expand when exposed to increased heat and contracts when exposed to increased cold. It's a fact of nature. And different materials will expand or contract at different rates. So, a painting that's made up of multiple materials such as fabric, glue, wood, gesso, and paint could respond to a temperature change in varying degrees and thus make it more vulnerable to cracking and warping. Slight or gradual changes in temperature and humidity are better tolerated than sudden dramatic changes. For example, if you ship a painting from a dry, cool climate to a tropical hot one, there might be problems. Also, high temperatures can cause paint films to soften, making them more vulnerable to damage and dust. Cold temperatures can make the paint films more brittle, resulting in more vulnerability when it comes to cracking. The softening and hardening of paint films by temperature, believe it or not, is especially true of acrylic paintings. Avoiding direct sunlight is another important factor. Direct beams of sunlight can over time fade the pigments, the particles that give paint its color, and result in the painting appearing faded. Rays of sunlight trigger a scientific process called photogradation where photons in the rays of light break down pigment molecules thus changing the way they reflect light and therefore how we perceive the colors. The end result is the fading of colors and with this understanding the word lightfast takes on new meaning. Lightfast is a term that refers to how well a pigment can retain its color integrity when exposed to light. The longer a pigment resists fading, the more lightfast it is. This explains the benefit of choosing paints with a high lightfast rating. Light exposure can also speed up the yellowing of varnish if the piece includes that final layer. Interestingly, a few years ago, I took several painting surface materials or substrates, board and panel, and placed them in my garage for about 4 weeks in the springtime. The garage doesn't get direct sunlight or rain, but it does get hot, cold, and humid. I wanted it to function as an example of extreme condition change. I took photographs of how level each item was when it was first placed there and then again after a full month of exposure. The results were interesting and surprising. Most did very well and even the wood panel, which I expected to suffer dramatically, only warped a tiny bit. Now, over a longer period of time, they may have shown more wear, but this comforted me that many art materials can survive well in the short term when under less than perfect conditions. That said, I wouldn't want my works on paper to sit out there long. They would be more reactive. Now, sometimes art surfaces are affected by what we put on them, how we treat them. So, if we have a wooden panel and we put traditional rabbit skin glue on there, rabbit skin glue has a reputation for soaking up the humidity that surrounds it and therefore that would have an impact on our surface. There are many considerations. In general, when placing paintings in storage, give your finished artwork the best environment you can. Avoid moisture. Avoid dramatic temperature changes. direct sun and dirt. Try to keep the temperature around 68 to 72°. That would be ideal, which is 20 to 21° with about 40 to 55% humidity. As I mentioned earlier, think comfortable. Also, avoid storing hard surfaced paintings directly on the floor for long periods of time. Raising them off the floor just a little provides air circulation and protection from minor flooding. I use basic PVC piping to raise my unused canvas panel and board. A lift of 3 to 5 in is actually what's recommended. The storage handout includes a link for instructions if you want to build your own museum raised blocks for painting storage. I may do this at some point. Can you store paintings in an attic or a basement? Typically, the recommendation is to avoid those locations. Attics get very hot and basement tend to be humid. My studio and studio gallery are in my basement. And all is well, but I do have a dehumidifier on the ready in case the hydrometer starts to read over 55. If I couldn't control the humidity in this location, I would move my studio to a drier spot. So, it really depends on the individual locations. Depending on the type of paint and what it was painted on, some paintings are best stored individually, while others can be stacked. Some are best situated vertically while others do fine horizontally. Let's explore this further in the next section where we look at storage by substrate. [Music]