Painting Care
Moving
Each time the painting is moved, it risks damage. Use the waxy side of freezer paper to touch the paint part. Avoid wax paper that can stick too, and try to avoid moving the painting. Pick a place & let it stay there. If you like to rotate paintings or move around from house to house a lot, please keep all packaging supplies for each painting, so it has a protected place to store the painting in.
If you must move or ship the artwork, pad with non-stick freezer paper and place around the painting to protect all areas and edges with non-stick padding. If there's a lot of high relief and impasto used, rumple up freezer paper into a ball with the waxy side touching the painting, and secure the padding, possibly with duct tape. See how painting rests upside down (to the right) on the waxy side of freezer paper padding.
Don't rest edges of the painting that has paint on it, on anything when moving, or the paint could become damaged (like standing it on the floor on one end). Better to hold it flat, plan a spot to move the painting to, then move it right there without resting the painting on the floor or table. If the painting is large & heavy, placing it on the top of your shoe while holding it can help ease back strain during the moving & placement of it, or getting a 2nd hand to help you.
Try to hold the painting in your power zone (area right in front of stomach), & not out at any length to avoid strain on your back. Any weight held farther out away from you, more than triples in weight pressure on the back.
If the painting must be moved without a person holding it at all times, or held by hanging on a wall, then wrap the painting in a bed sheet and lie it flat. Keep other objects from falling on it.
Do not rest any sort of paper, cardboard, back of another canvas on the paint, or it will stick and ruin the painting. Maybe not right away, but any length of time, the paint will fuse to it. This especially applies when moving or shipping the artwork. Do not lean the painting against another canvas board or any kind of paper. Many times the paper on the canvas board backing has stuck to the paint, ruining it, unable to get the paper off the paint.
If you receive the painting in the special shipping box that came with it, it might be a good idea to save the box & wrapping for moving it later. You never know when you might have to relocate or transport the painting for viewing or whatever reason.
Cleaning
Use a giant soft paintbrush to dust that has no chemical contaminants on it. This can be found at Michael's craft store. The "Artist's Loft" brand of a brush this size will be the least expensive.
To clean the painting if light dirt smudges get on it, lightly rub with a water-damp lint-free cloth without chemicals on it. No soap.
To tighten a canvas that may be sinking some in the center, moisten the canvas back all over & everywhere so that the canvas material gets a little wet enough. As it dries, it will tighten on it's own around the canvas again.
Keep indoors & out of heat. Store or display, avoiding extreme temperatures, even away from hot lighting, or it will get sticky and somewhat melt or fuse together & attract dust to stick there permanently. Avoid placing paintings near stove, oven, dryer, kitchen grease, or in shower area where you want to avoid heat, moisture, humidity, or contaminants.
Don't wrap the painting in tissue, paper, cardboard, or plastic, or it might stick to the thick acrylics & ruin it. Use lint-free cloth sheet, pillow case, or freezer paper to store, wrap or ship the painting. If shipping, use all the extra rumbled freezer paper to pad the edges, with waxy side out.
Touching
Touching the painting or not, depends on the purpose you have for the painting you desire. If you have archival concerns about keeping the painting in it's best conditions over time, then try not to touch the painting. Touching leaves fingerprints, hand oils, germs, etc. on the paint film. Don't press your finger nails into the acrylic as it can leave an actual dent in the soft paint. Use painting handling gloves. You can get these at Aaron Brothers.
If you want a painting you can purposely touch because of the wonderful texture, and want to enjoy it this way, that is fine, but may reduce the painting life, or increase the need for cleaning more. You can get vinyl gloves (at drugstore) that are mostly finger tight so you can get maximum feel & yet still protect the painting from hand oils.
If you happen to have received a "Blind Painting" (a painting of texture with a scene meant for blind people to touch), this is meant to be touched in order to "see," but the same precautions still apply. All paintings have been coated with varnish to protect the paint to some degree.
Avoid these things coming in contact or being around the painting:
Smoking (insurance for paintings costs more in homes where smoke is present)
Incense
Outdoor fire smoke coming inside through open door
Hands (oily hands/dirty hands)
Aromatherapy oils
Kitchen cooking grease
Windex/Lysol type cleaners
Air fresheners
Hair spray
Spraying anything with window open, blowing toward painting
Sneezing
Sticky hands
Direct sunlight (to not fade colors over time)
Paper
Tissue
Cardboard
Rubber
Heat/Cold
Skunk odor/or stinky animals
Heat
Keep in mind the nature of acrylic paint, especially the sculpted 3-D paint, that tends to stick to itself. Heat makes it stick worse, or anything that would come in contact with the paint. Even when dry, it has a sticky nature.
Framing
If you want to minimize dusting, you could frame it in a shadowbox with glass, or non-glare glass.
A floater frame would help protect the painting edges that are often painted, as long as no part of the painting edges are touched by the frame. A floater frame would enable the painting back to be adhered to the frame where it can't move, with the frame edges surrounding the artwork having space in-between. This makes the frame come in contact with anything that could bump into the painting, rather than the artwork be bumped into.
If you want to have the painting wired on a different side (like to view an abstract a different way). Aaron Brothers or a frame store can do this professionally for a few dollars. They use the correct hanging accessories & thickness of wire to hold the weight of the particular painting. This, however, means moving the painting, so take precaution to move the painting with non-stick rumpled freezer paper padding surround it in packaging during transport.
Hanging
Find a stud or crossbeam in the wall, by knocking or using a magnet. Drill hole then screw in a long & fat wood screw for back of painting wire to rest on. Use 2 screws few inches apart for bigger painting if possible. A screw would be sturdier than a nail. If securing to just the drywall & not a post inside, use anchors for screw to hold better, & use two screws & anchors instead of one each. Stand back & adjust the painting to rest evenly.
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