Questions on canvas and handling...

[Cyclop3000]

Hello all.

I have a few questions i'd like your help with...

I have an oil painting to make that I will have to ship overseas as soon as possible. Never shipped a canvas before, but here is what I intend on doing:

- Mount canvas on frame
- Paint
- Retouch-varnish the painting once complete
- Wait for the paint to dry
- Unmount canvas from frame
- Roll up canvas in a shipping tube and off it goes...

Couple questions I had:
- I read retouching varnish can be sprayed on when paint is touch-dry. Is this the case? I am just trying to get rid of glossiness at this point.
- How long should I wait for the paint to dry before I can roll it up?
- I thought of using a layer of waxed paper between the canva's "turns", so paint does not touch the back of the canvas. Is this a good idea?
- When they remount the canvas on a frame once shipped, can they screw up the painting when it's time to stretch the canvas? I don't see why, if they are careful, but thought i'd bring this up...

Any help is more than welcome!!

Thanks!

[StupidIsAsStupidDoes]

I don't know about rolling it. Oil is quite brittle when it dries, so rolling it may cause cracking. I'm not entirely sure though, so I may be wrong. If you want to protect parts of the canvas, I'd recommend removable masking tape. In either case, make sure you completely prime it, or you could ruin parts of the canvas.

There are spray-varnishes available, but I honestly don't know how effective they are compared with brush-on varnish. Also, because you spray it, you seriously have to take special measures to make sure you don't breath it in, so wear a respirator, and have an extraction fan running (that stuff can linger in the air long after you're finished).

If you want to get rid of the gloss, you can add a bit of wax to your varnish. I've heard this works.

[Chris Bennett]

Make sure you roll it 'paint side out' so that any cracking that may happen will close up once the painting is unrolled and mounted. It is a good idea, as you have said, to put something on the surface like grease proof paper before rolling just so that the paint is not lifted by the back of the rough canvas - there is a paper that frame makers use that nothing sticks to, a sort of plasticy slippy stuff whose name I can't remember. I would not varnish it in any way before sending as it will 'enliven' the paint surface a bit and make it tacky.

[Seedling]

Unless you are shipping to someone who knows how to re-stretch a canvas, and has the equipment to do so, I advise against shipping this way. Your painting certainly can be messed up in the hands of someone with the wrong tools or no knowledge of what to do with a canvas. You may end up with an upset customer.

[Flake]

How thick will you be applying the paint? Thinly painted turpsy washes will dry a helluva lot quicker than thick impasto.

Which pigments? Umbers, Lamp blacks? They all have different drying properties..

Which mediums did you use, any driers etc?

Would it really be that hard to ship it flat? If it's 10x6 feet I can see that being prohibitively expensive, if it's 2x2.5, less so.

Not the most helpful post I know, but if you were to provide a little bit of extra info it would likely enable the knowledgeable peeps here to give you better advice..

[Cyclop3000]

Thanks a lot for all your replies.

Azeroth: To be honest with you I usually never varnish my paintings. So I know nothing about varnishes. I did scout my local shop and saw spray on varnish, and was told it's good for glossiness and of course preservation. I'm still unsure if I should varnish it or not, especially with Chris's quote on varnish...

Chris: "Rolling Paint Out" is a great idea, didn't think fo this...thanks!

Seedling: I have to ship this to a client in GBR, and I am in Canada. Rolled up it's going to cost me 100$ shipping. Unrolled it's gotta be more...size is an issue. For remounting I was told they know how to do this. But in case, I will look up the shipping price, never know, would certainly be much simpler!

Flake: No impasto, I don't usually paint thick. And definitely not for that painting, as it has a lot of details, realistic. Mmm...which pigments...hard to say, a happy mix of everything I got hehe. Sorry i'm not too knowledgeable with this technical stuff. I use Windsor or Pebeo oils, that's as far as I know right now.

I did buy a medium, Liquin (hope I'm spelling this right), it will be my first time using this. I usually just use lindseed oil to make paint easier to work small details...I was told to use Liquin for the drying speed benefits, and also serves same purpose as oil, to make paint thinner. Is this a good idea?

The painting is about 3'x2'...I will have to go to the post office and get actual pricing, I might just save me some trouble. I was afraid of damages to the painting if shipped on frame.

Again, thanks much for your answers!

[Aardvarkphil]

Just an idea. If you are going to Seattle maybe one of us, attending, Brits might be able to take it back to the UK and send it on when we arrive home. As long as the packaged size and weight were known. We could work out how much it would cost to send on over here. Oh don't forget to mention if you want it insured and for how much. This info should be enough to get a figure for postage. Something to think on anyway

[Elwell]

Rolling paint side out is important.
Flexiblity/cracking shouldn't be an issue with relatively fresh (>1 year) paint.
Make sure it is completely, absolutely dry, and avoid thick, glossy varnish coats. Facing the painting with a layer of glassine paper before rolling is a good idea.
Make sure you leave plenty of excess canvas when you stretch it to make restretching easier.

[Cyclop3000]

Phil: Hey thanks for the offer mate...although I am unfortunately not going to Seattle :(

Elwell: Thanks much for your reply, I thought about leaving something like 3-4" of canvas on all sides, think that's enough? I have plenty so no problem there!

Thank you for your replies!

[Elwell]

One more point: If you're working on preprimed canvas, you don't necessarily need to stretch the canvas at all before you paint it. Just rule out the final dimensions, leave a generous border for stretching, and tape or pin it to a nice heavy board, or even a wall.

[Bhrazz]

My GF had somewhat the same commission as you do. She did staple the canvas straight on the wall and left a generous border for stretching like Elwell said. Check out your Local ''photo'' store and ask if they have any tripod box you can buy from them. Is big and strong and the roll up will be big enough so you won't have to worry about cracking. Also, make sure you put something inside/outside the roll-up once in the box, newspaper should do fine if you wrap up your painting with plastic.

Hope it help

[Cyclop3000]

Amazing, thank you all for your help!

[dbclemons]

I once shipped a painting to a show in Germany that I decided to roll up. It was slightly smaller than yours, about 2ft square. What I did was tape it on a large sheet of flexible cardboard that I curled into a spiral shape instead of a round cylinder. This kept as little of the painted surface from touching as possible. I had to support the inside of it so it wouldn't uncurl by gluing some styrofoam to the sides of the box which only touched the cardboard, not the canvas. The box was about 1x2', and I shipped the stretcher bars separately in their own box. It all held up rather well and arrived safely. Generally, I would recommend shipping flat, but I realise that's not always possible.

[Verdaccio]

I just shipped two portraits to Australia flat. They were done on art panels, and I built a box for them out of 1/8th masonite and aluminum brackets. Put it all together with liquid nails. Wrapped the whole thing in bubblewrap, then put that into a cardboard box with stiff crumpled paper. They made it there just fine.

You could easily do the same with canvas. Put a piece of stacked foamcore on the underside of the canvas, and a slipsheet over the top with more foamcore over the top. Cut top and bottom pieces to 1/2 inch larger than your canvas. Foamcore on the backside the same size. Now you have a neat little sandwich that you can tape up. Wrap that in bubble and put it in a strongly built box. I reinforce mine with...yes, you guessed it, more foamcore.

Unless they drive a truck over it, it should make it there just fine. :)

[Qitsune]

I work in a courrier company and we usually recommend sending canvas rolled up, not flat. The reason why is that corners from other boxes are the major enemies of large flat packages and the large flat side is often perforated by a corner, even if we are careful (which is not always the case, no matter what company you take) also many transport companies do not insure artwork that was not professionally appraised.