Charlie

[Mary Sparrow]

Here is Kate's brother Charlie.

I have a question for the pastel pro's here. These were a "rush" job. I was asked to get these done for a Christmas present over Thanksgiving by a man in Conneticut. I don't have access to any frames, and my framer has 300 orders to fill before Christmas, so she is out of the question. How would you suggest I ship these?, Or would it be better for him to present pictures of these portraits and ship them after the holidays? I haven't ever had to ship these, and they are so fragile! Any suggestions?

[Leslie Ficcaglia]

Mary, I have no idea how you'd ship these but Charlie is just gorgeous! I don't know how you do it, particularly since you're implying that you had to work quickly. His eyes and hair and skin tones are marvelous, and he looks so alive that he seems to be coming off the paper.

Your idea of sending them a photo is a good one, I would think, but it will be interesting to see what other pastel painters suggest.

[Cynthia Daniel]

Very pretty, Mary! When I worked with Robert Schoeller, we always had plywood boxes built for shipping.

[Rob Sullivan]

Mary-

Wow - nice work! May I suggest not shipping it - just keep it for yourself??? No? Okay, that was just a gut-reaction suggestion.

Here's how I shipped very wet oil paintings when I was working as an illustrator. [*Note: the very fact that I had to do this shows my innate ability to get work in at the last possible minute. Oh yeah.. and I learned how to run down a speeding FedEx truck.]

Get a hold of some 1/2" thick Fomecore and cut two large pieces about 2" bigger than your artwork. Using china tape or some other low-tack tape, affix the work to one piece of board, leaving an even border.

Next, cut some 2" strips of Fomecore to create a "frame" around the piece, taping the strips to the border area.

Then, take the second large piece of Fomecore and place it on top of your "frame." Affix 4 pieces of tape to the top and over the back of the 3 layers of Fomecore, creating a top-hinge. At the bottom, use 2 long-ish pieces of tape and do the same, except fold the ends of the tape over, so you can use them like pull-tabs.

Take this whole thing and wrap it in bubble-wrap. If you can score some cardboard corners (or you could just make some), tape those to the corners of the bubble wrapped package. Slide the whole deal into a cardboard box, stuff any excess space with paper, add the invoice and ship it!

Oh, on the off chance that someone might pay attention to this, write "FRAGILE: GLASS" all over the box. Writing something like "DANGER: TARANTULAS" usually puts up a red flag. Plus, your client won't open it, I suspect.

Best,

Rob

[Linda Brandon]

Mary, this is beautiful and charming. You have such a nice touch with children, congratulations!

[Mary Sparrow]

Thank you everyone. Thank you Rob for the instructions, (Chris too for the email)

I talked the busy framer into cutting matts and foam core for me, so at least it will look decent.

[Sharon Knettell]

Mary,

This is really your best so far. What beautiful color in the skin.
I can't make the sound of applause so I am doing this ,

[Mary Sparrow]

Sharon, thank you so much. Since I consider you one of the best pastel artists I "know", your thumbs up mean the world to me.

[Jimmie Arroyo]

Great, absolutely agree about it looking like it's jumping out. Congrats.

[Denise Hall]

Mary,

Your work has really started jumping off the page. This is beautiful and if you did it quickly - more power to you!

You are a real master with the pastels and the skintone is wonderful. The client is going to be so pleased and with Rob's great instructions on mailing packaging (I love it!) you will have it safely delivered. I know I'm not around here much but I had to hit this as one of the highlights!

Have a great holiday with those cute kids of yours!

Denise