Caring for and Framing Dry Pastel Paintings

Here are some general things I've learned about caring for and framing a soft pastel painting at home.  Feel free to reach out with any questions.  If you would like a more in-depth/visual explanation, click here for a helpful video by a woman with a sweet accent.

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Smudging- Even with fixative, dry pastel paintings will always smudge if touched.  This is because pastels are almost entirely made of pure pigment in a powdered form, mixed with a tiny bit of binder.  When framing your piece, only handle it by the edges of the paper.  

 

Framing without a matte- the pastel can be pressed right up to the glass or some spacers can be added to the inside edges of the frame to create a little distance between the piece and the glass.

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Framing with a matboard- If your painting is ever bumped or moved, some small amounts of pastel dust could fall onto the mat board.  To prevent that, you could add spacers (about the thickness of cardboard) along the inside, inner edge of the matboard.  That will allow the dust to fall behind it, rather than on it.  However- don't stress too much about dust!  You can always buy a new matboard, they're not that expensive.

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Glass- If you're hanging your piece somewhere where it will be exposed to lots of light, as with most art done on paper, I'd recommend going to your local frame store for some UV resistant glass.

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No glass- If you're hanging your piece somewhere where it won't be exposed to too much light, and there's no chance of someone accidentally bumping into it or smudging it, feel free to hang it without glass. Then you can enjoy the beautiful texture of the pastel pigments.

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Questions?? Feel free to reach out =^._.^=