Learn More:

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• Contact Our Fine Art Specialists
• Fine Art & Display Lighting Services
• Fine Art Specialist Bios

Texas Lighting Information:

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• Houston Texas Lighting
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Additional Lighting Information:

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• Clientele
• Commercial Clients
• Design Partners
• Residential Clients

Illuminations art consultants travel across Texas and nationwide to offer art lighting advisory and design services to private and professional art collectors.  Our client list includes both private collectors and commercial organizations in a variety of high-end markets and eclectic industries.  Art collections themselves can contain anything from high-end photography as office art, statuary and 3-dimensional abstract art, prints, and fine paintings.  Often collections contain more than one type of art and require complex lighting designs, or a combination of sophisticated recessed lighting fixtures, to properly illuminate.  This is where an art consultant steps in to advise and recommend artwork lighting options.  In most cases, clients call us because they are having difficulty on one or more of three major problem areas: glare, spill light, and shadows.  All three of these areas have both technical and design-related origins and most of the time require a trained art consulting professional to determine the best solution to developing a more balanced and refined presentation.

Minimizing and Redirecting Glare
Another important thing that our art consultants look for is proper “angle of incidence.”  This is a lighting term that simply describes the angle at which light strikes the surface of an object.  In modern art lighting, angle of incidence is very important at minimizing glare.  It is impossible to eliminate glare entirely, but it is possible to direct it away from the eye of the viewer so it remains undetected.  Illuminations art consultants are trained in these picture lighting techniques, having worked with interior designers and museum decorators extensively over the past 27 years.  By changing where the light strikes the artwork, art consulting teams also change where the reflection of that light travels.  The goal is to prevent it from striking another large object, a nearby wall, or the eye of a viewer looking at the piece.

Eliminating Spill Light
Spill light is never desirable.  It looks sloppy, and it detracts the eye away from the work of art being viewed.  Spill light is usually caused by light that is too intense.  Retail grade art lights are notorious for this and often have to be replaced with commercial grade fixtures that allow for finer tuning and adjustment.  The rule of thumb that art consultants follow in getting rid of spill light is to utilize lighting equipment that can be dimmed or brightened at will.  They also prefer to use fixtures that allow the light beam to be shaped and focused to match the frame, canvas, or three dimensional objects on display.  One of the most popular ways of doing this is to use a framing projector mounted in the center of the ceiling that can direct an invisible beam of light toward any piece(s) in the collection.  When the beam strikes the piece, it suddenly becomes visible in the form of a aura of light that appears to emanate from within the art itself.

Shadows
There are different types of shadows in the world of high end art lighting.  Most are undesirable and have to be eliminated in order for proper showcasing of art.  Frame shadows are the worst.  When light from an inappropriately chosen or positioned fixture strikes the frame, the frame blocks the light and casts a shadow over the picture.  Art consultants will either have to move the fixture to a different lighting angle of incidence, or replace the fixture with a more controlled and adjustable lighting source. 

When it comes to three dimensional art, fine art consultants are less absolutist in their insistence on eliminating shadows all together.  Statuary and modern art feature contours and angles that are often “flattened” by too much light.  Art consultants look for ways to integrate some shadow into a comfortable level of illumination that is appropriate to each piece.  This helps create a more lifelike, realistic presentation of statuary, and it contributes as well to the avante guard nature of abstract pieces.

We invite you to contact us toll free at 800-863-1184 to learn more about our fine art lighting company.