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Very often we artists are asked to paint a motif in such a way that it matches the decor of a room. This we gladly do, as we are professionals.

And sometimes we meet customers who do it the other way around -- they paint their wall to enhance their new painting. I was sent this photo (shown here with permission) by a customer who had chosen a muted blue for the wall, a colour they found in several of the shadows of my painting Ad Astra. To further enhance the painting, they had mounted a spotlight to light it. A lovely wide spotlight that shines on the whole painting.

In my experience, it is generally so that a painting with a golden frame and predominantly warmer colours (yellow, orange, red) looks best on a cooler wall (blue-violet, blue, blue-green, and muted green). While a more blue or green painting with a silver frame tends to shine on a warmer wall.

It is a question of both finding contrast, and finding what creates a harmony. This customer really nailed it.

You know how it goes when you transport paintings to an exhibition: frames get dents, glass gets scratches, wires poke holes through canvas -- no matter how carefully you try to avoid it. And when a collector buys a painting straight from the walls of your show, how are they going to get the painting home with no accidental damage to it?

Here is my solution to the dilemma:

I decided to create envelopes for each painting.



My first thought was to use bubble wrap, but skipped that idea as I realized it would be difficult to apply tape to the bubbly side. So what could I use instead? It hit me that I could go to the hardware store and get some rolls of underlay for floating flooring. This underlay consists of thin foamy plastic that is smooth on both surfaces, and takes well to taping.

I tested the idea by cutting a wide enough bit of it, and fashioned an envelope. First I folded it so that it would create a flap that could be tucked into the pouch, and then I taped the sides together to create the pocket:

I used clear packing taped for the taping. First I applied half of it, lengthwise, to the top part, and then I folded the piece of tape and taped it to the part under it (image above). The process was repeated for the other edge.

For the sake of stability, I also taped across the top of the pocket:

Then I cut the corners of the part that is to be folded in:



The design worked, so I was happy. As many of the smaller paintings were of three sizes, I decided to make a template for each size, and decided on cutting the underlay with a knife:

The templates also allow for cutting through several layers of underlay in one stroke.

Here's a neat stack of finished envelopes:

All ready-made, awaiting the inserting of paintings that will be protected from all sides. Putting the paintings inside the envelopes is very easy and a quick procedure. The envelopes can be reused for paintings of similar sizes, of course, and in order to make that easier, I marked each envelope with the size that would fit into it. The envelopes protect paintings of both small and large sizes, as well as both pastels behind glass, and oils without frames. I recommend a larger/longer tuck-in-flap for paintings that are large.

These envelopes will also allow customers to transport paintings safely, too.

Here you can see the securely protected paintings sitting in boxes, waiting to be moved to the gallery:



So, this was my solution. What is your favorite way of protecting paintings?

Many pastel painters hesitate to frame their paintings against the glass. Let me tell you why I am all for it:

I too used to frame with mats and in a few cases with spacers. Then I decided to test framing against the glass. The reason for that was that I had seen many pastel portraits from the 1700s that were looking pristine although they were framed against the glass -- and hanging in drafty old manors.

It is much easier, and a bit cheaper, to frame against the glass, provided that your backing board is flat. What most people fear is that their precious artwork would be destroyed in some way by this manner of framing. Some loss of pigment is feared -- but that is easily rectified by adding more pastel, provided it is even needed. The biggest fear is if humidity causes mold to grow on the painting, as that would truly ruin it.

Maybe we pastel painters would be less anxious of mold if we knew that most pastel stick manufacturers add a fungicide to their formula. Additionally, most pastel painters do their artwork on modern sanded papers, and sand is not organic matter. It will not soak up humidity.

I have been framing against the glass for about 20 years, successfully. I have not experienced any of the feared problems.

Today I'm preparing for a show, where all the frames should be white. I have just moved a sketch that was framed against the glass in 2013 to another frame:

This gave me an opportunity to show the actual amount of pigment that adheres to the glass:

And a closeup from the above picture:

I should add that the size of the sketch and the glass is A4, which is about 12 inches high.

Here is the amount of pigment I wiped off the glass, with a dry piece of paper towel:

Most of that dust is actually charcoal, which I used as a black in the sketch. The loss of some of the very finest particles of pigment is not even noticeable on the painting.

But, you ask, what about humidity?

Well, I know a professional pastel painter who had one of their paintings on their bathroom wall, for many years and with no problems whatsoever. I have kept some of my framed paintings in our unheated garage, and our winter temperatures normally are well below the freezing point, with no problems (and we had a leak with mould growing on the concrete floor). But if you live in a place on earth where there is a monsoon season, I would advice you to test framing against the glass using a failed painting, and see how it fares over a number of years.

Conclusion:
Let framing be an easy procedure and trust that framing against the glass is safe for your painting.