Lighting to Make your Wall Art Look Dramatic

With your fine art on the wall in a well balanced layout, you may think you are done and ready to sit back and enjoy. If your room is well lighted with floor and table lamps you may feel these sources are adequate to light the photographs and other wall art as well. Consider, however, how much more dramatic and effective the wall art could be with the proper lighting to highlight it. Colors are more vibrant and seem to glow or pop on the wall. Fine detail is also easier to appreciate.

Kinds of lighting

Track, recessed, and individual picture lights are the main types of light fixtures available. Additionally, different types of bulbs including spot, flood, quartz and tungsten also effect the quality of lighting.

The choice of type will depend on your office or home’s construction.

Light Bars

Light bars can be a quick and easy way to get better lighting to more areas on a wall or corner. They replace existing single light fixtures with multiple light heads usually 4 or 5 along a 3 to 4 foot span. The individual lights are adjustable both up and down and side to side. Their main drawback is that the length of wall one light bar can illuminate is relatively small in comparison to regular track or recessed types.

Aziano Lighting 3 Fixture Light Bar

Recessed Lighting

Recessed Fixtures can be installed from above the ceiling, if there is enough space. This type works well with drywall and dropped ceiling types. The lighting unit is above the ceiling and light shines through a finished hole cut in it. Recessed lighting is less noticeable as only the circle of light can be seen from below .

Eyeball Trim Fixture from Pegasus	Low Voltage Trim Fixture from Pegasus	Light Housing for sloped ceilings from Pegasus

Track Lighting for Flexible Illumination

When there is no space above the ceiling, cutting holes is undesirable, or greater flexibility and directionality is needed, track lighting can be used. An electrified track is attached to the ceiling and one or more light fixtures plug into it.

Recessed lighting is generally used when a “wall washing” of light is desired. Some “eyeball” types of recessed lighting combine low profile design with excellent directional flexibility.

Track lighting can be adapted to both flooding one area while spot-lighting another. Both types can use a narrow beam spot, or wide coverage flood types of bulbs. Bulb type also determines the color temperature of the light - whether the color of light produced is white, blue, red or green tinged.

Quartz bulbs give off a hot, bright white light. Care must be taken to not put them too close to wall art or flammable window coverings. Tungsten bulbs normally give off a warm, orange-tinged light. Excellent, tungsten bulbs are available with a closer, more natural white or daylight full spectrum light. These make the colors in works of fine art much more true to the art pieces.

If lights are on properly sized dimmers, even more control and dramatic effects can be achieved. The best designed interiors have a mix of lighting types to create mood, direct attention and provide adequate light for activities.

To achieve an effective lighting effect, fixtures must be placed properly. If they are too far away from the art, the light will be dissipated and lose its dramatic effect. If lights are too close to the wall art, circular hot spots will occur.

Because of the variability in fixtures and bulb types, it is difficult to offer more than rules of thumb. Track lighting offers the advantage of easily changing the number and spacing of bulbs. Asking a lighting professional for help with recessed lighting could be a good idea.

Cal Lighting Track Set

Individual Picture Lights

When other types the lighting for whatever reason will not be practical, picture lights, if used properly can work well. Newer styles of picture lights are overcoming the narrow, limited light spread and orange-colored light cast of more traditional types. Some use MR16 quartz bulbs and are mounted on flexible "goosenecks" which makes positioning them for optimal performance a breeze.

MR16 Halogen Flexible Display Light Pegasus	MR16 Halogen Flexible Wall Light Pegasus

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