Caring for an acrylic canvas: dusting, protecting, moving, without ever damaging it

Dust settles on a canvas as on furniture, a little faster if the room is ventilated. It does not damage it, but dulls the colours over time. The right move: a wide flat soft-bristle brush, perfectly dry, passed top to bottom in light strokes, without pressing. Twice a year is enough in a normal interior, four times if the canvas is near an often-open window.

What must never be done: a damp cloth, which leaves marks and can lift an impasto; a feather duster, whose fibres catch on relief; a household product, whatever it is. Dry acrylic resists water, but surface pigments and matte areas can mark. When in doubt, do not touch: a slightly dusty canvas is better than a rubbed one.

Direct sun is the first. UV slowly degrades all pigments, starting with reds and pinks; a canvas in full sun a few hours a day loses saturation within a few years. The hanging wall must not receive direct sun, or only behind a sheer curtain at the harshest hours. LED, by contrast, emits almost no UV: an LED ceiling light is risk-free.

Damp comes next. Above 65% relative humidity continuously, a canvas can slacken on its stretcher and eventually host mould on the back. So avoid the bathroom, the kitchen near the hob, and the wall of a poorly ventilated north-facing room. Heat, finally: a radiator just below, a fireplace opposite, a halogen close up dry out the paint layer and the stretcher. A metre from any heat source is enough.

A canvas is held by the stretcher, both hands on the sides of the wooden frame, never by the painted surface or the top alone. Fingers leave greasy marks on matte acrylic, and pressure on the canvas can create a permanent mark on the paint side. To take it down, lift the bottom first, then free the hook, without sliding the canvas against the wall.

Once down, the canvas is set on a clean, dry surface, painted side facing you, never face down on a table. If it must stay off the wall a few days, store it upright, painted side to the wall, with a sheet of tissue paper or clean card between the paint and anything that could touch it. Never flat under other objects, never in a damp cupboard.

For transport, reproduce the original packaging: corners protected by card or foam corner pieces, a sheet of tissue paper on the painted side, then a rigid box the size of the canvas, with a little play filled with crumpled paper. Bubble wrap never goes directly on the paint: it can mark a matte surface and, with heat, stick to it. It goes around the box, not inside.

In a car, the canvas travels upright, wedged, never flat in the boot under boxes. In a house move it leaves last and arrives first, in the cabin rather than the van if possible. The IS × SEY Maison canvases ship in packaging with protected corners; it is worth keeping it folded somewhere for the day you change wall or house.