How do you transport large paintings?

I am doing a portrait which measures 7x10 feet and need to transport it 4 hours by car. Do I paint it on a wall and then frame it at the client's apartment? Or do I frame it and paint it then take it off the frame and put it all together at the clients?

How do all these artists move these huge paintings from a gallery to a house? Please help!!!!!!!!!!

[Stanka Kordic]

I've never painted one so large, but I have a good friend who does this fairly often. He just completed a 20 ft. commission that was shipped to Florida. He painted it stretched, removed it, rolled the canvas up loosely, and dismantled the stretcher frame (which was built in sections). Everything was put together at the destination.

Hope this helps. Good luck!

Stanka

[Virgil Elliott]

I try to avoid painting anything larger than will fit in my van, but if a commission calls for it, I can either rent a larger van for delivering it, or paint it on canvas, so it can be detached from the stretchers and rolled up for easier transporting. This is why canvas was adopted as a painting support in the first place; to accommodate the delivery of large commissioned paintings to the cathedrals and palaces where they were to hang. However, there are shipping companies today who can handle just about any size painting, and my preference is not to roll them, out of concern for possible cracking or other problems. I seldom paint on stretched canvas any more, due to those very concerns.

Virgil Elliott

[Cynthia Daniel]

When I managed Robert Schoeller, we actually had a wooden crate built for each painting and shipped it. If it was small enough, it could go UPS. I don't remember who we used for paintings that exceeded their size restrictions.

[Virgil Elliott]

I have had only good experiences with Federal Express. I cannot say the same for their main competitor, with whom I will never again ship anything important.

Virgil

[Peter J. Fasi]

Who built the crates?

[Mari DeRuntz]

When I lived in DC, I worked as a freelance museum specialist, installing art for the Corcoran Gallery of Art and the Smithsonian. Great job. Both museum systems used Globe Movers. I have no idea of the costs involved, but I pulled this quote from their website:

"Picture Crates are built with 3/4" plywood frames and 3/8" plywood sides. The crate is lined with 1" polystyrene board. Stretched canvases and gold leaf frames are covered with pH neutral glassine paper. Multiple pieces are separated by full size corrugated cardboard. Artwork with glass is wrapped with 2 layers of bubble wrap. This crate can be built to hold a number of pieces and offers excellent protection for shipping."

If you're interested, I found their site at http://www.Globemovers.com.

The art we installed at both museums arrived of course as pieces of whole shows; I would think moving a single piece would be most efficiently done by you. Larger cities may list art transport/installation specialists in the telephone directory, or you could call the registrar of any local museum to see if there's anyone offering freelance service. They would know.

When moving art ourselves, we used an unmarked panel truck. You don't necessarily want the general public to know the value of what you're transporting.

As an aside, I have great Washington memories of unloading the Globe trucks next to the Corcoran, and having Bush, Sr's motorcade drive by, and him sticking his arm out to wave. What a great city.

[Peter J. Fasi]

Thanks for the information.

[Cynthia Daniel]

Peter,

We just hired a handyman to build a crate to our specifications.

[Mary Reilly]

For boxes for shipping paintings I use a company called Airfloat. Their boxes are puncture proof, and make packing a painting very easy. Although to my knowledge they don't have boxes for 7 foot paintings, they do have boxes that handle paintings up to 5 feet. Their website is http://www.airfloatsys.com/.

Fed Ex is the shipper that I use. I've never had a problem with them.

Mary Reilly