Packing Paintings

Transporting wet paintings is always a trick. On past trips, I have built piles of paintings, usually sort of angling them on each other, so that the touching and friction are minimal. I have made sure to park the car in the hot sun whenever possible to speed the drying process.

This time, with two of us in the van, there’s just not as much room for this messy stacking process.

So I’ve devised a method of storage that seems to work pretty well.

Before I left, I bought two bags of pipe insulation. These consist of three or four lengths of black foam rubber tubes that are slit lengthwise. I cut these into disks about an inch thick. When a painting is finished, I put four disks on it, one along each edge. Then I take another painting of the same size (or just a blank, wrapped canvas) and put four disks on it, making sure that the disks are in different positions on each canvas.

Then I put the canvases face to face, tie them together with string and stand them upright in a box. I have been able to fill one box with paintings fixed together like this.

For the most part, it works pretty well. It’s not perfect, but in this cool weather, with somewhat limited space, the paintings are as safe and secure as they could be.