How to Store a Large Pastel Painting
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| 'Lavender Surprise' 16x20 pastel ©Karen Margulis click here to purchase $195 |
Bigger is better sometimes. I love painting large but I don't do it very often. Mostly because of expense. I want to paint something everyday so smaller paper size and less pastel use fits my budget. But every once in awhile I pull out a full sheet of paper and paint big. It is energizing and exciting.
But that leads to the other reason why I don't paint large.....How to store the finished large pastel paintings? The small paintings are easy. I just stack them in boxes with glassine paper in between each painting. But I don't have boxes big enough for anything larger than 16x20.
I have a system that is working for me....but I am now out of shelf space as you can see on the photo! When I finish a large painting I leave it attached to the foam core support and cover the painting with glassine paper. I then stack the paintings on a shelf unit in my studio. If I were more organized and neater I could stack a lot of big paintings this way.
Before I got the shelf unit I would stack the foam core/paintings against the wall in a corner of my studio. I sat them in the bottom of an empty box to help them stay in place. The big shelf is a nice luxury. I am lucky to have a lot of space.
How do you store large pastel paintings? My method works well for me but I am aways looking for great ideas!
About today's painting:
This is 16x20 on Uart paper with a turpenoid wash underpainting.
I have a system that is working for me....but I am now out of shelf space as you can see on the photo! When I finish a large painting I leave it attached to the foam core support and cover the painting with glassine paper. I then stack the paintings on a shelf unit in my studio. If I were more organized and neater I could stack a lot of big paintings this way.
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| My shelf for larger finished paintings |
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| Large paintings covered in glassine |
How do you store large pastel paintings? My method works well for me but I am aways looking for great ideas!
About today's painting:
This is 16x20 on Uart paper with a turpenoid wash underpainting.
4 comments:
I put them in Krystal Seal brand bags, you can order them from Blick or Jerry's.
They come in sizes up to 23"x31" and they are re-sealable and of course re-usable.
I then store them flat under the bed in the boxes that Blick ships my pastel paper in.
I have an idea, if it is of interest. I have placed a number of large pastels, interleaved with protective paper, together in a pile on the floor. I have then placed a large piece of cardboard at the bottom of the pile and one on the top, to make a sandwich. The pile is then held together at the top and bottom edges with two large bulldog clips.
The clips that I use have a hole in each of the two levers that you squeeze together to open and close the clip. I can then hang the whole pile up vertically...in my case the top bulldog clip's hole is hung over a nail that is tapped into the side of an old wardrobe in my workroom. A couple of really strong bulldog clips can hold the weight of quite a few sheets...I have fifteen in mine at the moment.
I like that you leave your paintings on the foamcore and with glassine on top before stacking but how do you keep track of what paintings are in your inventory? I would love to have a large flat file but I just don't have room for it so I pretty much do what you do but then I have to pull everything out to find what I want. Thanks so much; I love your videos.
I just saw an ingenious idea for drying paintings and think it coukd be adapted to storing large pastel or even frames. Stand a baby crib upright on its short side. Lay cardboard or foam core across the slats and voila! You have many narrow shelves of storage.
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