Lighting array for wall hangings

Abstract

A lighting system and exemplary array is particularly adapted for use with large wall-mounted objects, such as paintings, sculptures and other art objects. The lighting system provides a substantially uniform amount of illumination over the entire length and breadth of the art object. A lighting array is mounted directly above the art object and spaced outwardly from the plane of the object by several inches or more. The array consists of a housing containing a plurality of lighting elements. Each lighting element is arrayed linearly so that, with appropriate reflectors, lenses, attenuators, and/or diffusers, each lights a portion of the art object. The desired effect is that all areas of the art object are equally illuminated. Alternately, the lighting elements can be selected for intensity such that the array may have elements of different intensity directed at the different areas of the art object. In a second alternative, a pulse width modulated dimmer device allows adjusting the brightness of any picture light without changing the color temperature of that light. This allows the user to set the brightness of a picture light without changing the color temperature from a pre-set color temperature.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.