I spend most of my working time creating paintings, but sometimes I need to think about how to get them to a collector or a gallery. Shipping paintings can be a little stressful. I’ve had the most success using strongboxes, which are heavy-duty corrugated boxes, with a customizable interior foam lining. I get those mail-order. For this batch of paintings, I didn’t have enough time to order these. Luckily, I kept the boxes that my canvases were shipped to me in. They’re not as strong as a strongbox, but they are padded with foam cut to the correct sizes.
The first step (after using tape to remove dust and cat hair!) was to cover the surface of the painting with a sheet of glassine. This protects the paint layer. I folded the edges over and taped this on using artist’s tape.
Then I put the painting into it’s pre-cut nest, put on the lid and used packing tape to close. For extra strength and cushioning, I’m having the shippers put all four boxes into a larger box which will be padded with paper coils.
That took quite a while, but it’s worth it for my peace of mind.
Linda Mann Artist 