CARE

It's important to take care of your painting. This page will guide you through whatever you need. If you have any questions please contact me.

RECEIVING and UNPACKING

I ship paintings packaged in a plastic bag or plastic shrink wrap (depending on the painting and size), then cardboard, and a whole lot of tape.

When you receive it, check it to make sure there's no damage. If it's damaged, take pictures with the package sealed and let me know.

Otherwise, use a sharp knife or scissors (a box cutter is really ideal) to very carefully cut through the tape only. I try to make it easy to open a painting.

Then unpack it.

If you plan on moving at any point in the near future - keep the packaging because it's really hard to find packaging that will fit these paintings properly.

SEALING

While I always add sealer to the painting before I send it - a couple more coats are always a good idea.

You can buy a can of spray acrylic sealer on Amazon, at Dick Blicks, Michael's, some Walmart or Target stores may have it as well, and some hardware stores may have it. You're looking for gloss acrylic sealer (unless you want a really matte finish, then use matte sealer).

I usually use a sealer specifically made for the paint I use: Golden Acrylic Sealer / Varnish ($16 at Dick Blick and you can order it online).

Applying additional sealer is important for three primary reasons:

- humidity can warp the canvas
- cigarette smoke (if anyone smokes in your house on a regular basis) will discolor it
- meat products cooked on a stove top (like frying meat in a pan) will also discolor the canvas and paint after a while.

To apply the sealer / varnish:

- take the painting outside,
- shake the can really well,
- then spray in even strokes across the entire painting left to right holding the can around 12-15" away
- do the edges of the canvas as well (they'll discolor too)

Let it dry around 20-30 minutes between coats. And then let it dry around 24 hours before hanging it (while you can hang it sooner than that I tend to give them a bit more time to cure to avoid potentially discoloring the wall).

Reseal every 5-8 years.

Hanging

Hanging your painting is easy, while you can use one screw or nail two is better. Just make sure they're level. Basically make the screws far enough apart that you have around 6-12" on either side of the nails to the edge of the canvas (so for a 24" canvas make them aroun 12-18" apart, for a 36" edge make them around 24" apart). You can't really have them too far apart, just don't make them too close together or you're putting all the pressure in the middle of the frame.

While these are very light canvases I do suggest using anchors with your screws or long thick nails with shallow heads.

You can also install a picture hanging wire on the back to use a single point hanging system, just make sure the top of the hanging wire (when extended) doesn't go past the top of the frame.

Cleaning

Every so often dust the painting (edges and front) with a microfiber cloth (no cleaning fluids).

If anything ever gets on the painting, a very very lightly damp cloth should be able to get it off relatively quickly and without damage.

You'll want to reseal it if that happens (it's rare that anything spills on them since they're on a wall but it has happened).

My frame Broke!

If your frame breaks (it happened to me once), you can get a professional to fix it or you can reinforce it yourself by using pieces of 1" x 0.5" wood (like a thin molding) and reinforcing the broken area on the inside of the back of the frame.

All canvases can also be removed and restretched - but that has to be done by a professional.

My canvas has a dent in it!

If anything ever pushes against the front or back of the canvas and leaves a dent in the canvas get a spray bottle of pure water - just normal water, then turn the canvas around so you're looking at the back of the canvas and spray the area where the dent is (and just a little around that area) and don't soak it (it will cause damage to the paint) but make it a little wet (a few sprays).

If some water drips down that's fine, it won't damage anything.

Then let the canvas air dry. The canvas will naturally tighten up as it dries. You may need to do this a couple of times.

Whatever you do - DO NOT apply heat to the canvas. No blow drier, no vents, just room temperature air. The fibers need to dry slowly to contract properly.

Other concerns

If you have any other concerns or questions - please contact me.

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