How to Store a Large Pastel Painting

'Lavender Surprise'          16x20           pastel        ©Karen Margulis
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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.

My shelf for larger finished paintings

Large paintings covered in glassine

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.

I have pulled some of my large paintings that haven't yet found a home (like the lavender field) and they will be on display at this weekend's open studio tour. Next job is to organize the paintings on the shelf so that I can fit more larger ones. I have some stray little ones that are taking up valuable shelf 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.