Designing Your Lighting for Art - After You Paint (24 of 27)

How you arrange your lighting within a room is another aspect of lighting that can have a big impact on how viewers see your work. If lighting for your studio or workspace, it affects how you see your canvas. Let's look at the four types of lighting design and then discuss what is considered best practice for art. There are generally four kinds of room lighting design. ambient, task, accent, and decorative. Ambient lighting refers to general all over room lighting. This is usually achieved through the use of evenly spaced recessed lighting or basic ceiling lights. These lights are not usually flexible. They're often unidirectional and they tend to cast a broad light beam, giving the room an allover illumination. Task lighting refers to light aimed at a specific work area or an activity space in order to provide additional illumination such as an art studio, a computer desk, a reading nook, or a cooking area. Places where you might need a little more light. It's usually achieved through track lighting, pendants, and standard lamps. Accent lighting creates drama and interest. It highlights a specific object or point of interest such as a painting, a plant, or a sculpture. It's normally three times the brightness of the ambient room lighting and can be achieved through a variety of light fixtures, often spotlights or floods. And then there's decorative lighting, which is really more about the specific lamp rather than the light it puts out. Its uniqueness is more the objective and is something used as a design element. As artists, when we create art, the need is for ambient and task lighting. For displaying art, it's usually preferred to use a combination of ambient and accent lighting. But let's see what professional galleries and museums do. Art galleries and museums appear to use one of three lighting designs. Either they have soft, even all over lighting produced through many wall washes of light or they create a dramatic lighting effect through the sole use of spotlights or flood lights on each piece of art. Thirdly, they may use some combination of ambient lighting and spot or flood lights. This last method tends to be easier on the eyes and easier to move paintings around while still featuring each individual piece. I currently use a version of this in my studio gallery and even in my workspace. Once you decide on the lighting design that you prefer, the question then becomes, what form of light fixture is needed to achieve this look? To determine this, let's look at some of the related light fixtures. specifically wall wash, picture lights, down lights, and track lights. Wall wash lights are meant to illuminate an entire wall with even coverage. The benefit of this kind of presentation is that you can hang multiple paintings on the wall and interchange them at will without having to reposition lighting. It can also create a very contemporary, pleasing appearance. The effect is usually created through the use of recessed surface or trackmounted lights. The drawback is that individual paintings are not visually featured. Picture lights are normally slim directional lights that illuminate the painting from directly above and in front of the artwork and are mounted to the wall behind the piece or attached to the frame of the individual painting. They can be hardwired, wireless, or plugged in and tend to create a very intimate feeling when looking at a piece of art. Because the light is so close to the painting or image, however, it's especially important that the light be UV safe and not emit too much light. LED is ideal for this kind of fixture. Look for lights that have a broader spread for more even light coverage. Down lights are any recessed or ceiling mounted light that has the ability to tilt in order to aim directly at the individual painting. They're nice in that they tend to meld into the room as they're tucked fairly well into the ceiling. They're normally placed at a 30° angle from the piece in order to avoid glare or shadows. The bulbs used for these fixtures can be either spot flood or what's called a wide flood. Generally speaking, spotlights have a more narrow spread. Floods are wider and then there are extra wide floods for a wall wash effect. Another type of light is the track light, which are movable and flexible forms of lighting that provide the same kind of lighting as ceiling mounted accent lights. Individual lights can be repositioned at will. A handy feature when repositioning or changing artwork. It's also a little easier to install. The drawback is that it's a little more conspicuous. It doesn't meld into the ceiling like the ceiling mounted lights. It is however a popular choice with museums and galleries. A watercolor or silver point drawing, for example, can't normally handle as much light as an oil painting or a solidly painted acrylic. they run the risk of getting washed out a little where the colors are not as easy to appreciate. A large painting needs more coverage, so a wide spread of light or a split light source where light comes from two sides will be necessary. Consider your art. Ultimately, the end result is up to you. We've covered a lot of material in the lighting section and we've learned about the various aspects of lighting which is applicable to both our work areas as artists and display areas where we want to show our work. Let's summarize what the best practices are. It may work well to paint under the same lumens, light temperature, and CRI as the work would be displayed. It may not be possible, but it is something to consider. Artwork is most pleasing to viewers when seen under a light temperature of 3700K, give or take 2 or 300K. You may have to decide on your personal preference. Maintain the same color temperature throughout the display or working space. You want consistent light color in order to avoid visual confusion. CRI over 90 is excellent, but over 95 is even better. The higher the better. Try not to exceed a lux illumination of 200, even 250 lux. Average home lighting should be safe. If working with LED, make sure you choose the best quality you can afford as the higherend versions have almost no UV radiation. And if you can try to avoid LED with blue light levels as that can add to viewer eye strain. Natural light if filtered and indirect is great for painting and acceptable for display if controlled. North light is best. East is next best. And when possible safely integrate natural light into your work and display space. Remember to filter UV rays when needed, whether in window panes, in the frame glazing, or on light fixtures. Consider a combination of ambient room lighting and art safe accent lights, such as spotlights, situated from the ceiling at a 30° angle over the artwork. Larger works of art may require what is called wall washing or split lighting. Always consider a dimmer switch when possible so you can lower the lux when appropriate. Some works on paper look better with less illumination. If your lighting has the ability to change color temperature, that could come in handy when hanging work created under specific lighting conditions. We just learned a lot about lighting. Let's close out this subject by applying it to real life. In the next lecture, I'm going to take you on a tour of my studio gallery and my workspace, and I'll show you what I do.