Transporting acrylic paintings ?

Question

I have acrylic paintings on block canvas that i need to transport via airfreight, how do i go about this ? I am worried about untacking the canvas and rolling them as i'm not sure that acrylic paint can withstand the stress of being rolled and unrolled without some damage or cracking. Will it help if i varnish them first? and with what? is spray laquer a good option?

Answer 1

Your question is a bit more complex than you may think.

Your paint will not have any problem with being rolled up. It is the primer you should be worried about. Test an blank canvas to see if any cracks appear. If not your painting should be fine.

Varnish ONLY with acrylic varnish if you are going to. Varnishing a painting will not help protect your painting much in this case. Varnish is only for optical enhancement and you can remove dust from your painting a bit better. It has almost no impact in the protection from physical harm. It may however (depending on the acrylic paint you used) prevent the paint from sticking as acrylic paint can stay a bit tacky a long time.

A basic way to do this:

1) Be sure your paint (and the varnish if you decide to use that) is completely dry.

2) Put a sheet of (ironed wrapping) paper on the canvas before rolling. It will make the whole thing a bit more sturdy and prevent the backside of your canvas from imprinting on the acrylic.

2a) Flip the painting on the paper on it's face side, so you roll the painting face side out. Loosely. Better reroll the whole thing than doing it one time to tight.

3) Be sure the tube you put your painting in is a snug fit. If it can move around in any direction just ad some wrapping paper. Don't make it tight, just limit the space.

4) Don't forget to send the original frame you took your canvas of of. It may not be appropriate but in some cases it is viewed as part of the work of art.

Answer 2

Block canvas? Do you mean on stretcher bars?

The best way would be to pack on their stretchers in a crate. If you can't afford that maybe second best would be to take them off and roll them up. That can work providing the paint isn't thick. If the paint is pretty thin then it might be flexible enough to roll up. Heavy impasto will flack off. And you'll never get it on the stretchers exactly as it was.

I wouldn't varnish or laquer. It'll change the overall appearance and won't provide much protection. If you do, it has to be water based laquer.

Answer 3

I transport pictures all over the world it is of course always worrying.. Make a box of wood and hardboard...planks round the side and hardboard top and bottom . Wrap canvases in bubble wrap ( measure dimensions for box when pics are wrapped ) And nail down well . Mark you pictures
' handicraft pictures' to make them sound unimportant on the label. so they won't be
Never take canvases off the stretchers if you can help it .
Good luck

Answer 4

I clamp them together, face to face with some spacers between them. Never a problem. It can take weeks before it is dry. No device except blowing on it...but I doubt it helps much.