How To Pack A Painting

The Biathalon Painting

Every work of art deserves special care.

I created a painting once (emphasis on “once”). It was supposed to be a painting of a skier, skiing happily down a white mountain to the forest below with the sun setting beautifully behind. Unfortunately, I painted the reds too dark, the blacks too black, and the ski poles too short, which changed it from a happy painting, into a nightmare biathalon to hell.

The best part of the painting, the skier, was in fact the only part I didn’t paint. The painting class I participated in, had a pre-made “skier outline” which required no artistic talent and only a minimal knowledge of gravity to properly position on the two-dimensional mountain slope.

And yet I haven’t thrown the painting away. It has a certain value to me, because I painted it. Every work of art is valued by someone (even mine, if only to me), and deserves special care.

Moving your paintings to a new house? Here are a couple things you can do to make sure they get to the other side unscathed:

Oil?

There is a very multipurpose kind of paper called “glassine” that can protect oil paintings from damage. Glassine is also used in meat and bread packing, as well as fireworks and a certain kind of adhesive tape. As I said, very multipurpose.

Frame?

After you’ve protected the artwork itself, you can wrap the entire painting and frame in regular moving paper. Make sure not to use newspaper, the ink can rub off onto the frame, and while it might be entertaining to have today’s headlines permanently etched onto it, I’m pretty sure it would get a bit old after few days, both literally and metaphorically.

Box?

Put the (now fully wrapped) painting into a picture moving box and seal all the openings to prevent any dirt or grime from getting inside. With the proper wrapping and packaging your paintings should look as good as new when you reach your destination.

Done?

That’s it, then. Well done.

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