Wrestling Alligators & Shipping Large Paintings

Just sharing some thoughts with other artists the last few days about the difficulty of shipping large works (36"x48"). I commented that the last huge one I did really felt like wrestling an alligator- you need a large cleared space, and there are certain parts that you can't/don't want to let go of while you're in the middle of this.

Now, I know there is the option of taking the whole canvas off of the stretcher bars, rolling it & shipping it in a tube container. But, if your work has the edges painted, and a lot of texture like mine....I'm quite concerned with disturbing the surface of the work.

- First a use a thin foam sheeting(comes on a roll, from U-line) to wrap the painting in. It's enough to keep the next layers from rubbing/marring the surface & edges.

-Next, I make a "sandwich" of a heavy-duty corrugated cardboard...AND THE SIZE MUST EXTEND PAST THE EDGES OF YOUR PAINTING. First I tape the foam wrapped painting to the bottom layer of the sandwich, then lay the top part on & tape it to the assembled stack, marking the outer layer with any instructions you might want to give to the person opening. This essentially prevents the edges from getting dinged and hopefully (unless they drive a truck over the thing) keeps your canvas from being punctured.

- Then - you need a box that is bigger than this size...it should hopefully extend out past the edges 2-4 inches on each edge. I save the boxes from my framing company for the really large ones- It is the heaviest/thickest corrugated cardboard I've found. For smaller/midsized paintings, I use boxes from U-line. Depending on how your box opens will determine how you set it in there- but essentially all that empty space surrounding your "sandwich" will be filled with foam (I use foam peanuts & YES, I do recycle them).

- So far, this has been effective (over the last 4 years that I've been mailing/shipping pieces around). The smaller works go via Priority Mail & anything larger than 11x14 goes UPS. I think the biggest concern for shipping a large stretched canvas would be risk of puncture, so your "inner sandwich" should be a heavy-duty card board.

Now, all that said, there are some others who have various methods of shipping, one I'd love to point out is Stapleton Kearns, on building a crate. Quite effective, but I haven't given this one the 'ole "Girl Scout Try" just yet!

Please comment here if you have more questions, or email me at roxannesteed@gmail.com

(nodp)