A storage unit is a great investment for you if you have a lot of canvases and you’d like to store them. Try storing your canvases in mirror boxes within the storage unit. This gives extra protection as the boxes are long and flat, keeping out any potential dust or bugs. No matter how large your art collection or what size unit you require, we have storage units to fit your collection.
How to Properly Store Canvas Paintings
Whether you’re an art collector, a student at college, or have a casual interest in art, it’s likely you’ll have a few canvas paintings to store as part of your collection.
While canvases look incredible when hung on the walls, they can be difficult to store thanks to their square shape and fragile nature. By following these top tips you’ll be able to properly store your canvases and keep them looking good as new.
Storing your canvas paintings safely and securely
The first rule when it comes to storing artwork and canvas paintings, is to avoid direct sunlight. Not only can sunlight fade the colors in the canvas, it can also break the strength of the canvas down, which can lead to irreparable rips and tears.
It’s important to bear this in mind when displaying the canvases in your home, as they can also fade or become damaged if hung up in direct sunlight.
Not only is it a good idea to keep artwork out of sunlight, they also need to be stored in a cool, dry place. This is because moisture can seriously damage your paintings, weaken the canvas, and cause images to become distorted.
Supplies you’ll need
To store your canvases safely in your home, you’ll need a large space where you can stack them out of the way from any pets or children.
An attic might be a good place for this, or a basement, but make sure they are not damp. Leaving canvas artwork – even when wrapped up securely – in damp areas can mean they’ll become ruined by the time you take them out again.
To pack up your artworks, you’ll need a few dust sheets to cover them with. Tape these around to make sure they are secure, being careful to avoid placing any tape directly onto the canvas. It’s worth investing in specially created art storage boxes – frame boxes will work just as well. These can be sourced to fit canvas artwork of any size without taking much unnecessary space. You’ll find these at many print or art supply stores.
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What Are The Wooden Pieces That Come With a Canvas? And How To Use Them
If you’ve ever bought a pre-stretched canvas you may have been surprised to find a small bag of wooden pieces attached to the back of the canvas stretcher. A lot of people wonder what they are actually for; this article should help answer some of your questions!
Most pre-stretched and primed canvases will have good enough tension to allow you to start painting on them as soon as they are in your hands. Occasionally you may find that the surface has slackened slightly, before or after you have started painting. In most cases, your canvas will come with a bag of wooden canvas wedges (also known as canvas keys), which can be used to tighten up the tension of your canvas if you find it has loosened.
During the painting process, the addition of paint, collage and other elements will burden your canvas with extra weight, which over time can cause the surface to loose its tightness. Environmental factors, such as temperature and humidity, can also cause the material on your canvas to move and shift. If you have completed a painting and find that it is slackening on the stretcher you can use canvas wedges to tighten it back up again.
How to Use Canvas Wedges / Keys
If you have never used canvas wedges before, you can follow the steps below to install them quickly and easily.
1. In each corner of your canvas you will notice some slots cut into the wood.
2. Place each of your canvas wedges into one of the slots in the corners of the canvas. The diagram to the left will help you install them in the right orientation.
3. Before you secure the wedges with a hammer, it is a good idea to place a piece of scrap card behind the wedges so that the surface of your canvas will not be damaged by your tools.
4. Stand your canvas upright and use a hammer to gently tap each of the wedges upwards to fit them securely into the wooden slots, while supporting the rest of the canvas with your free hand.
5. Make sure you use the wedges to move one stretcher at a time, in order to keep the canvas square.
6. Rotate your canvas and hammer in the remaining wedges until you have achieved your desired tension.
Your canvas should now be perfectly stretched!
If you have any other questions about canvases don’t hesitate to get in touch with us in the comments or on social media.
What does ‘lining’ a painting mean?
Lining is the technique of attaching a new fabric support to the back of a canvas painting.
The process can help to safely support the painting if the original canvas has been severely damaged or grown brittle with age.
However, lining is a major treatment, which should only be carried out when absolutely necessary. The 1974 Greenwich Lining Conference sought to broker an international agreement on how and when to carry out the process.
The history of lining
Paintings conservation is a broad field, and lining paintings is a specialist skill that not every conservator would feel confident to attempt. Conservators may be trained in the aims, ethics and aesthetics of lining but might practise lining relatively rarely. A lining executed with a poor understanding of the materials can have disastrous consequences for the condition of a painting.
Historically, most linings took place in smaller, specialist workshops where practical skills were passed down across generations from a liner to their apprentice. It is important that we do not lose sight of the specialized knowledge which lining workshops foster, and instead aim to keep these practical skills in lining alive.
The Westall Lining Project aimed to share practical skills and specialist knowledge with the wider conservation community.
Lining in action
In 2021, Royal Museums Greenwich hosted a series of lining masterclasses at the Prince Philip Maritime Collections Centre and The Courtauld.
A painting from Royal Museums Greenwich’s collection, View of Cape Townshend taken from Mount Westall, March 1802 by William Westall (1781-1850), was chosen to be part of the project.
The work is part of a larger series, and skills gained during its treatment could be used to inform future treatment on the other paintings in this series.
View of Cape Townshend had been lined in the past and, when examined by paintings conservator Sarah Maisey along with other conservators, it was found that this old lining was in very poor condition.
The painting had also been strip-lined as a short-term measure to avoid re-doing the lining, meaning that long strips of canvas had been added to the edges of the painting where it was attached to the stretcher. The strip-lining was now starting to bulge and ripple as it aged.
Since no alternative treatment could be found, we could not delay addressing the old linings any longer. Both the old strip-lining and lining had to be carefully removed so a new lining could be carried out, thus ensuring the long-term structural stability of the painting.
Follow the stages of the project below to learn more about how paintings are lined today.
