How to light art and other paintings in your home – Part 1: Layout and Placement of Lights

One question I often hear from friends and customers alike is “How do I light my new painting?”

This is a question most don’t even consider until we get the painting home and put it on the wall – only realise that things just aren’t quite right.

Properly lighting your art will allow you to enjoy the piece as the artist intended. It will allow the colours and textures to be rendered in all their glory, and will create a sense of deliberate focus to the artwork on the wall

Because all these factors are integral to one’s enjoyment of the artwork, I wanted to create an in-depth guide to the art of lighting art.

This post discusses the type of light fitting to choose and placement on the ceiling . For a complete breakdown of the light bulb/light source, check out Part 2 which can be found HERE

Design considerations – what to watch out for:

Before we get stuck into picking a light fitting, we need to take a look at the considerations and constraints we face when designing lighting for artwork.

Reflections and glare:

The first consideration is what sort of art medium will we be lighting.

Oil paintings for instance, can be difficult to light because of the glare and highlights that are created when intense light is directed at the painting. Therefore, a wide, diffuse light source is best for lighting an oil painting. This also goes for acrylics with varnish and shellac finishes, and framed pieces with glass insets. We’ll discuss beam angle and diffusers a bit later.

Most Acrylic paintings however are not glossy and consequently don’t have the glare problems associated with oils or artwork framed under glass. Any type of light source can be used in this case.

Understanding Beam Spread – How many lights do I need per painting?

The beam angle determines how wide a circle of light your fitting will produce. The beam angle is measured in degrees from the centre point of aiming.

A 25° bulb in a ceiling-mounted fixture will light a medium-sized painting of around 40”x 40”. A 10° bulb will light a petite painting brilliantly. 

As the beam widens, the intensity of light decreases. This means the centre of the painting will look ‘hot’ while the outer edged may be underlit.  

There’s not much you can do about this, so when lighting larger paintings, we recommend setting two or three separate lights on the piece, rather than purchasing a wider beam bulb. 

The following table shows the recommended painting size vs. beam angle for different ceiling heights.

Ceiling height	Beam angle	Picture size

What sort of diffuser should I use for lighting art?

As mentioned earlier, glare is our enemy, and any medium with a reflective surface is prone to this problem. The best method to combat this is with what is called the diffuser.

A diffuser is the word used for the material that sits in front of the light source. this could be plain glass, frosted glass, prismatic (plastic with lots of little dimples), or even just metal slots.

F or our purposes we should look for a frosted or prismatic diffuser to try and reduce the glare from the light.

Light Placement

Correctly placing your fixture is essential to getting the most out of your product. Install ceiling lights so that the light has an angle of about 30°- 45° to the artwork.

If the fixture is placed too directly overhead, you will have harsh shadows down the painting. If the light angle is too flat, then you will get unpleasant glare off the art. 

Aiming Angle	Effect
<30deg	Harsh shadows. Textures exaggerated.
30-45deg	Even lighting
>45deg	Glare. Possible shadowing from people.

Reduce Glare: Place the light at a 30-degree angle to the work of art to minimize glare. Add 5 degrees to the angle for a larger frame, to avoid casting a shadow. Subtract five degrees from the position to accent the texture of a painting.

If the ceiling is very high, then you’ll also want to get a bulb with higher wattage and narrow beam to compensate for the longer distance. A 10° bulb will light a 30”x 30” painting when mounted on a 20-foot ceiling.

Types of lighting fitting

1.   Projectors and Pin Spots

Projectors are small spotlights the surface mount to the ceiling and direct light onto individual artworks.  They offer a great deal of flexibility as they allow the direction of light to be adjusted. Some can even have adjustable beam angles which is great if you move your art around often.

Pros: Adjustable aiming and beam angle.

Cons: Expensive. Fixed location. Visible below ceiling.

• Recessed lights 

Recessed lights are less flexible than track lighting, but easier to conceal if you don’t mind committing to the location.

Some different types of recessed lights

• Scoop/Scallop – the most minimalist look, but with a limited beam angle. Most will go up to 35degrees.
• Aperture – these are the most discrete, and capable of providing very directional light.
• Retractable – These produce noticeable down from the ceiling, which may be undesirable, but can give very shallow angles.
• Gimballed. My personal favourite. These have a tiltable yolk with the pivot point above the ceiling. These are an elegant way to get adjustable lighting.

There are a few different ways to use recessed lights when illuminating your artwork, including using wall washers to bath the entire wall in light or a more concentrated spotlight with a directed beam. Typically, the beam angles are described as follows:

• Wall wash / wide – 45-55° beam angle
• Medium – 25-45° beam angle
• Narrow – 10-25° beam angle
• Pros: Discrete, flush with ceiling. Inexpensive. Some are tiltable.
• Cons: Fixed location. Can’t be moved without leaving a hole in the ceiling.

3.   Track lights

Track-lighting systems, once exclusive to commercial buildings in art galleries have now made their way into the residential setting. these systems are easy to install and give the end user unlimited flexibility if they want to change the light types position and aiming later down the track.

There’s also the possibility to add lights and remove them as needed. The trade-off is that you have something that may not be so beautiful installed on the ceiling.

Pros: Flexibility to move lighting around. Can change type of light.

Cons: Expensive.

4.   Wall washers

Wall washing is the idea of lighting the entire wall which gives greater flexibility in terms the placement of at along the wall.

These lights come in many forms But will typically be a number of downloads projectors or lineas with a wide beam angle and evenly spaced to distribute light evenly across the surface of the wall.

5.   Picture lights

Picture lights usually fix directly to the frames of the artwork. Becoming less and less common these lights are a feature within themselves – Coming in a number of decretive finishes.

because they’re so close to the art they are typically very low power

Some picture lights are designed to be fixed the wall above the painting which means there cabling is concealed behind the wall. for this amount of if it’s odd recommend looking past but she lights and going for a ceiling mounted lighting solution.

Pros: Novel aesthetic. Good if you don’t want to install permanent lighting or can’t because you’re renting.

Cons: Messy wiring, uneven lighting, eye sore.

Integral light engines or swappable bulbs

Historically all lights would have replaceable bulbs as the halogen or complex fluorescent technology would typically need replacing every 10 to 20,000 hours,

now as the world shifts to lead technology Manufacturers a building more compact elegant fittings where the light engine is integrated into the body is it never needs replacing.

this is really personal preference but typically these integrated light fittings cutting edge technology and a better-quality option if it’s within your budget.

Tip: Avoid Natural Light

Placing artwork in direct sunlight exposes it to UV and infrared light, which will cause it to fade. Make sure pieces are positioned away from strong natural light sources to avoid damage.

Frequently asked questions:

What type of light bulb is best?

For this you should read part two of our series on lighting as in your home (found here). I recommend LED fittings with a colour temperature between 3000K and 4000 K and a colour rending index of (CCT) 90+.

What about up-lights?

As you may have noticed, it’s not common to up-light works of art. This is for good reason. While up-lighting may be an effective method to illuminate the piece, it will also create shadows in the upward direction.

This causes a kind-of ‘subconscious discomfort’ when viewing the painting. Something just doesn’t quite look right. Fair enough when we are so used to downward shadows in nature – from the sun always being above horizontal.

In short; I don’t recommend up lighting for art.

What’s the best lighting for oil paintings?

The trick to light oil paintings is to install the light fitting so the angle is around 30 degrees to the painting. Oil paintings by nature are very glossy and lighting them from the wrong angle will result in a specular glare the ruins the look of the piece. By lighting from around 30 degrees it ensures the reflections directed down to the floor – meaning that an observer standing horizontal to the painting won’t see this reflected glare.

Don’t feel you need to light every piece

Don’t feel an obligation to light every single piece of art in your house. If you go overboard, your house will feel more like an art gallery than at home. Instead, try to pick out the most impressive pieces. Less is more. Also bear in mind that excessively lighting the walls will bring up with the light levels throughout the room.