Vignette 5: Care of Watercolors
Last edited 21 December 2018.
Shipping
Loose watercolor paintings should be placed in an archival cover and sandwiched between stiff board to protect against folding, bending, and sliding. A shipping box should be used that protects the painting against the environment, abrasion, puncture, tear, and other mutilation.
Storage
If the artwork is not going to be displayed immediately, it should be laid flat and kept in a dedicated drawer or shelf away from light and protected from humidity, moths, and other pests. By dedicated I mean not a place where you store staplers and saw blades or who knows what.
Display
Displayed watercolors should always be framed and matted.
Matting is important because it puts an airspace between the watercolor and the glass as an extra reserve against abrasion and condensation. It is also best to have a matboard backing to provide stiffness and puncture resistance. The best matboard is conservation matboard. The wood pulp used in conservation matboard has been treated to eliminate acids and lignins and buffered to resist acidification. Conservation matboard comes in only a limited number of colors. Alpha cellulose matboard is also acid and lignin free but comes in many more colors.
The frame should contain a UV resistant glass or polymer front because pigments will degrade with prolonged exposure to ultraviolet light. A watercolor painting should never be hung in a place where it receives direct sunlight. A front glass also protects the painting from inadvertent abrasion or puncture. Colored works survive best in dry environments lit by soft artificial light. Normal room temperature and humidity are acceptable, but cycles in temperature and humidity are to be avoided because they cause the paper to shrink and swell and over the years this can loosen the adhesion of the paint to the surface.
The picture itself should be attached to the matboard with acid-free tape in such a way that it is free to imperceptibly expand and contract with changes in temperature and humidity, such changes being kept to a minimum.
Restoration
If watercolors are displayed as noted above, damage is unlikely. Notwithstanding, things happen. If so, repair or restoration of a watercolor should be done only by a trained conservator. This is not the job for an amateur or even the artist. Bad "conservation" is worse than no conservation. Even something as simple as taping a small tear can cause bigger problems later. However, the artist can greatly aid any future conservator by listing the types of pigments (manufacturer, brand name, and pigment designation), the brand and content of paper used in the artwork, and the approximate date of composition. Preferably this list should be affixed to the back of the frame so it stays with the painting. Then should the watercolor become in need of restoration, the conservator will have the best knowledge for how to restore it.
