How to Care for your Paintings Contact Us Site Search Preservation Services How to Care for your Paintings To understand how we should care for our family treasures, we need to know what they are made from and how they deteriorate.
Paintings generally consist of a paint layer on a support such as canvas, and are usually framed.
The support can also be a variety of materials such as canvas attached to a wooden frame called a stretcher, or wooden panels, prepared cardboards, composition boards, metal sheets, bark or any other flat surface. It is the interaction of these various materials which will determine the way a painting reacts to ageing, storage and display. Deterioration Dirt, sticky residues, aerosols, atmospheric pollutants, light, mould and deposits from flies and other insects on the paint surface can cause chemical damage, fading, staining and other deterioration. The most common supports, wood and canvas, contain acids which, over time, cause them to become fragile and discolour. Paint layers also change chemically as they age, becoming harder, brittle and developing networks of fine cracks.