The artistry behind a painting doesn’t simply end once the creator puts down the brush and palette.

Area framing expert Dave Makielski will share his decades of experience in art presentation and preservation in a free lecture during the upcoming Dogwood Fine Arts Festival. The talk, entitled “Framed: Art Identification, Presentation and Preservation,” will take place at 7 p.m. Tuesday, May 10, at the Dogwood headquarters inside the Huntington Bank Building at the corner of Commercial Street and Pennsylvania Avenue downtown.

Makielski, the former owner of Makielski Art Shop and current gallery director and frame designer with Granger’s Max Black Fine Art and Custom Framing, will offer advice on how artists and art collectors can take better care of their paintings through proper framing techniques, he said.

“Framing involves both design and engineering,” Makielski said. “You have to build a structure that enhances the presentation of the painting as well as ensures its preservation.”

A good frame should not only draw a viewer’s eye to the piece itself, but also incorporate materials that will ensure that the painting’s materials and canvas are protected from the elements, Makielski said. The art expert’s lecture will focus on ways that people can better do this work themselves as well as on how to work with professional framers to get the results they want, he said.

Makielski will also give some pointers on how people can clean and store artwork properly to prevent pieces from acquiring mold and other types of damage, as well offer tips for collectors on how to know whether or not a piece is valuable and worth investing the money to preserve, he said.

While only occasionally dabbling in painting over the years, Makielski grew up with a family of painters and musicians, and helped with the family art supply and framing business since he was just 6 years old, he said.

“I understand how a painting is made, both structurally and inspirationally, since I’ve been around art all my life,” he said.

Makielski’s presentation should last around an hour and a half, with plenty of time for questions from the audience, he said.

“It will go by very fast, because there’s a lot to talk about,” Makielski said.

The 2016 Dogwood Fine Arts Festival takes place May 5-15. For information or tickets, people can contact the festival office at (866) 490-2847.