Do you love and collect artwork or have any special oil paintings or works on paper that you would like to highlight in your home? As an art lover, this is a topic that I began to investigate in earnest a few years ago. While many of my paintings looked very good in their current placement, there were others that seemed dark or just did not have enough natural light or even nearby light sources. These especially, but it seems nearly all paintings can benefit from a picture light. The problem is finding the right one for you that will effectively light your artwork, will not harm the artwork due to heat generation, looks good and is somewhat affordable.
If you search for picture lights on Amazon or Google, you will find art lights from many different companies ranging from about $20 to well over $400. What kind of a light should you purchase and how much should you spend? While I am not an expert on lighting and have not researched every company available, I have purchased many lights from a few different companies, and can discuss and comment on my personal experiences with these. This article is meant as an aid to help the reader to find the best light for him or her, and not as an all-encompassing review of every style, type and manufacturer of picture lights.
The traditional type of picture lights that you may remember from many years ago are incandescent, just like the old style light bulbs. These bulbs emit heat and can potentially damage your artwork. I would stay away from any incandescent picture light. You can also buy halogen picture lights. These also generate heat. Many halogen lights can effectively light your artwork, but are not mounted near the art, they are instead mounted in the ceiling as track lights to shine down on your art from a distance. These are high quality lights, but can also be very expensive. If you have standard height ceilings, a ceiling mounted track light may not be appropriate for your home.
The new style of picture lights, just as those used for other lighting in your home, are LED. The first LED picture lights were not of the highest quality. Some early adopters have determined that LEDs are not effective for fine art, but with the newer lighting, that should not be a foregone conclusion.
I have tried some inexpensive LED lights purchased through Amazon, which were battery powered, and which looked acceptable, but did not provide the amount of light or quality of light that I really wanted for my paintings. I also found that the batteries needed to be replaced frequently. These lights are generally in the range of $20 up to about $80. In this case, “you get what you pay for” is generally accurate. I found my $80 light much better than my $20 light. However, now I have found newer, brighter, and much more effective LED lights for my paintings.
I will discuss two manufacturers that I have purchased from, and that I currently use in my home. While these lights are more expensive than what I had purchased previously, the effect on the paintings is amazing. Both of these manufacturers offer both battery operated and plug-in electric versions of their lights. While I have tried battery operated, I much prefer the plug-in electric version of both manufacturer’s lights.
The first manufacturer that I will discuss is Cocoweb. Their products can be purchased through their website www.cocoweb.com or can be ordered on Amazon. Cocoweb offers LED picture lights in various styles, but I prefer their “Tru-Slim” LED picture lights. I currently have over 50 Cocoweb LED picture lights in my home. Their Tru-Slim lights range from a 12” light to a 43” light and come in many different finishes including antique brass, oil rubbed bronze, satin nickel, chrome, copper, black and gold, and black.
The Cocoweb Tru-Slm lights have a color temperature of 2700 degrees Kelvin and a CRI (Color Rendering Index) of 90. This provides a warm golden light for the artwork. Their lights are very low voltage and only use 6 Watts of electricity. Each light comes with a wired dimmer switch, but there is an option of adding a remote control with dimming capability with a wireless receiver to the light. There is an additional charge of $50 to add the remote control and wireless dimmer, but it is well worth it. I will explain this later.
Cocoweb offers a battery pack option, which is also an additional charge. There is a 4 battery pack, which used 4 D batteries for $40 or an 8 battery pack which has a longer life and uses 8 D batteries for $70. What I’ve found is that these battery packs are huge and it is difficult to hide these or fit them behind artwork. You will also have to replace the batteries. If you have multiple lights, replacing batteries could drive you crazy, with each one going out at a different time, just like a smoke detector. In my personal opinion, I would avoid the battery pack set-up.
Each light comes with a plug in A/C power adapter without any additional charge. By adding a remote control and wireless receiver, this allows you to turn on or turn off your light at the touch of a button. You can also dim the light using your remote control. These are also programmable, so that you can program more than one picture light on a single remote control. These work on RF (Radio Frequency), which allows the user to use the remote without pointing it at the light. I have over 50 lights all programmed on a single remote control. One push of the on button and all 50 of my lights, throughout various rooms of my home, all come on at the same time. I turn them on when I wake up and turn them off when I go to bed. You might wonder how long do these lights last…. Cocoweb says that each light will last up to 100,000 hours of use. This means that you could leave them on 24 hours a day and never turn them off, and they should provide at least 11 years of life. I have heard of people leaving them on all the time. If you used them for 12 hours a day, they could last up to 22 years. Because of this ease, I would always recommend the remote control and wireless receiver for each light that you purchase. I even have some paintings high on the wall, as much as 12 feet above the floor, which are very large and the remote control allows me to turn these on from a great distance without touching the light itself.
While you can allow the power cord to run down the wall to plug into a power outlet (the cords are black, but you can call them and order white instead), the preferred method is to install a power outlet behind your painting. If you are not handy with electricity, I would recommend a licensed electrician for this work. You cannot install a standard outlet behind the painting, as the plug is quite thick and your artwork would have to be spaced out from the wall quite a bit. Instead it is best to install an in-wall box, such as used for an LCD TV installation. This does make a rather large hole in your wall behind the painting, but the final look of your art will be worth it. I use the Carlon Flat Panel TV box, which can be purchased through Amazon, https://smile.amazon.com/Carlon-Flat-Panel-White-Boxed/dp/B002YEPJP6/ref=sr_1_4?dchild=1&keywords=carlon+flat+panel+tv+box&qid=1586967164&sr=8-4 or at a lower price from Menards for about $17.99.
The light can be attached either to the wall or to the back of your picture frame. I always attach to the back of the frames. Cocoweb provides all of the hardware and instructions needed to attach the light to your frame or to the wall.
Cocoweb is based in California, and the lights are high quality, metal housing (not plastic) but are made in Taiwan.
The second company’s lights that I have used extensively and would highly recommend is Situ Lighting. Their lights can be purchased through their website www.situlighting.com. The lights from Situ lighting are made in the USA and are also high quality all metal lighting. These lights are also LED although are brighter with a 3000 degree Kelvin temperature and also a CRI (Color Rendering Index) of 93-95+.
Situ Lighting offers a number of different styles and types of lights, but I will only discuss those which I have purchased and currently use on my artwork. These all come in various finishes including brushed brass, antique bronze, silver and black. The first type that I have used is the Rechargeable Micro Series. This is a single, bright LED light with focusing lens which shines on your artwork, and which I have used for a small painting in which I was unable to install an outlet in that location. The light works great, and the batteries are fully rechargeable. There is no mounting, as the light just sits on top of your frame. I use the light daily and find the need to charge about eery 5 days. It has two brightness settings, and I use it on the dimmest setting to preserve battery power, and find that works best for me.
The new lights that I have purchased the most of from Situ Lighting is the Plug-In Micro Series. I have about 25 of these lights on my artwork. This is a plug-in light that can be ordered with either one, two, or three LEDs. These can be used on quite large paintings, and are very bright. The LEDs are individually movable to highlight different areas of the painting. These also come with a remote control for no additional charge. Even better is that you can program brightness for each individual picture with its own remote and then use a master remote control to turn all of them on or off with a single button. Because these lights are smaller, you do not need to use the large in-wall box for installation. They have designed these to be able to use a duplex recessed standard sized outlet. The plus still protrudes slightly from the outlet, but it is typically not a problem as there is usually enough space for the artwork to cover the extra space. I cannot say enough good things about this company or these plug-in Micro Series lights. They are fantastic. If these were available previously, I would have purchased many more of these instead of the larger Cocoweb lights to put on many of my paintings. While I have not changed any out for these, I am considering it. The lights, the company, and the customer service are outstanding!
Situ Lighting also offers something called the Plug-in Vision Series. I have only two like this in on my artwork, but will certainly be buying more. This is somewhat similar to the Cocoweb style bar light, and is typically needed for larger paintings. These come in three sizes and also have option for a much taller painting so that some of the LEDs can be functioned toward the lower portion to even light the entire painting. These also include a remote control with dimming function without any additional cost, and the remotes can be programmed in conjunction with the Plug-in Micro Series lights if you own some of each they can be all controlled from a single remote control.
While there are other manufacturers offering these new LED style picture lights, I have only written about those with which I own and have experience.
If you are in the market for high quality picture lights, you will not be disappointed in either of these manufacturer’s lights, and I would recommend both of these. I would still recommend additional research through each website and also compare price to determine which would be best for your specific artwork and application.