Happy Tuesday folks! Today's blog is all about attaching sturdy fixtures to the back of your artwork, which every artist should know because no painting should ever leave the studio without being ready to hang. But it's super easy and a canvas (or wood panel in my case) should take no more than 15 minutes to prep for hanging once you've learned how.

Unless specific plans have been made with your gallery or client, each of your paintings should have hanging fixtures. Galleries have enough on their hands with displaying and promoting the works, plus they don't want the liability of damaging your piece. And clients will be excited to get your work home and see it on the wall immediately. They may choose to get your work professionally framed at some point later on and the framer will have no trouble taking these fixtures off, but until then, give your client the opportunity to enjoy your work in their home 'right out of the box' so to speak :)

Please Note: I would actually advise attaching fixtures, or at least screwing in the holes, before painting on the canvas since a lot can potentially go wrong when using power tools with artwork. I paint on linen which I later affix to my panels, so there is no artwork on the other sides of these ones in the demo. However, I have successfully and CAREFULLY affixed the hardware on finished paintings previously.... just use your best judgement!

Materials:

ruler
pliers
wiresnips
drill with screwdriver attachment

canvas or wood panel
picture hanging wire
1/2 wood screws
pencil

I went ahead and painted the sides and back rim of my panels so they would be ready to receive my paintings. You may decide to leave yours unfinished, especially if it's a wrapped canvas.

Let's get started!

1 - Mark your panel. Using the ruler on the back of the panel (canvas), make a tiny mark 3 or 4 inches from the top edge where each screw will go on either side. Make sure to be even on both sides. You can choose 3 to 4 inches based on the size of the painting. Please Note: I would only advise using today's hanging technique on paintings weighing no more than 6-8 pounds.

2 - Drill in screws. Now line the screws up to your marks and screw them in using the drill with a screwdriver attachment. Make sure you don't drill the screw all the way down at first. You want to leave a little room for affixing the picture hanging wire.

3 - Cut the wire. Unspool a bit of the picture hanging wire and cut a piece that is about 4 inches longer than where the screws meet on either side. For example, this panel is 10 inches wide so I cut the wire about 18 inches long.

4 - Attach the wire. Take the wire and loop it around one of the screws twice leaving about 3 inches in excess length. Use that length of wire to wrap around itself all the way to the end.

5 - Tighten the wire. Once the wire has been wrapped securely, use the drill to finish screwing the wood screw in deep enough to hold the wire tight.