Charter Lighting offers a range of expertise in areas of fine art lighting, art conservation, architectural lighting integration and advice for specialist applications. We care passionately about the work we do, and we bring these attributes to all the projects on which we collaborate to ensure the best, most enduring and rewarding results.
~ Consultation & Survey ~
Our team comprises both lighting specialists and product designers who will work with you to find an optimised solution for your art. This includes taking surveys of your collection where appropriate, discussing the best lighting for different painting types, setting out conservation strategies and finding the best overall integrated lighting solution.
Your favoured approach may simply be to retain the picture lights you already have. Because everything is handcrafted in our workshops, we are fully-equipped to take your traditional picture lights and give them a complete upgrade, using our contemporary LED technology and unique variety of lenses to deliver vastly improved light distribution from within your existing hardware. Working with detailed dimensions for both new and retrofit picture lights, we deliver the best possible results for your art in its setting.
In properties where a more general renovation or re-decoration is envisaged, it may be feasible to integrate a fibre optic lighting solution within the space. A site survey is usually beneficial to establish appropriate locations for hardware and fibre routing as well as optimal positioning and type of optical output heads to ensure the very best results.
~ Specification ~
Our bespoke range of LED Art Lights are specified according to the dimensions of the canvas, taking into account both its height and its width. In some instances, it is also useful to know if there is any specific detailing in the picture which might benefit from being highlighted. The resulting Art Light will vary in head width, arm length and LED lens beam angle to deliver the most uniform and balanced lighting across each painting.
We adopt the same approach when determining which elements to use during a retrofit exercise. Even when existing head widths are very restrictive, we are usually able to astonish our clients with their new picture lighting, which enables them them to see details in their paintings they hadn’t known existed.
Even with our standard range of Fineline Art Lights, we still select the lenses to ensure the best distribution of light for either a portrait or a landscape canvas orientation.
The correct specification for fibre optic solutions requires an in-depth knowledge of this technology. You could not be in better hands; Absolute Action have been leaders in this field since 1983, and our exemplary fibre optic lighting systems are in use all around the world.
~ Installation & Commissioning ~
Charter Lighting offer a full installation and commissioning service, working alongside our clients and their staff as well as with professional art handling teams.
For all our LED Art Lights, mounting brackets may be fitted either to the back of the frame or on the wall. Where mains power already exists to special sockets behind each painting, we can simply wire into these. If the circuit is on a standard rotary dimmer switch, we also provide the dimming element which ensures compatibility with today’s LED technology and prevents flicker. Other dimming protocols can also be accommodated.
The final professional service which we provide is in the focusing of the individual LED modules. The key to these is their adaptability, enabling adjustment in tilt, lens selection and placement. This service is especially valuable when lighting many paintings in a given space, as we can then ensure that all the picture lights throughout the space are properly balanced in relation to their own individual canvas style and also between each other.
For any fibre optic lighting application, we engage closely with you and your local subcontractors to ensure the smooth integration of all associated works. Our expertise in fine focusing delivers the final glorious results - which in almost every instance surpass all expectations.
~ Bespoke Manufacture ~
The Charter Lighting workshop, with Absolute Action Ltd., collaborates with various lighting designers, architects, scientists and specialist suppliers to create bespoke solutions for lighting art.
We are also well-equipped to undertake retrofit works for all manner of traditional lighting fixtures - not just picture lights - updating and adapting them with today’s best quality contemporary LED components. This is of particular benefit to heritage properties where the retention of original fixtures is critical to the historical honesty of their presentation.
We particularly welcome the challenges presented to us by specialist lighting consultants and art curators, as it is through gaining an ever-deeper understanding of their conservation and display concerns that we know how best to evolve our own technologies.
If you have any queries or special requirements, please do not hesitate to get in touch with us. Our specialist team is here to help and to spring our bespoke machining, modelling and crafting facilities into action.