A Guide to Wet Painting Transportation
You’ve painted a majestic art piece away from the studio….now what?
As a self-proclaimed neat freak, I am quite particular about how I store my wet paintings. One of the great frustrations in my life is getting oil paint on things I value. To mitigate the issue I always use a carrier of some sort. I know artists who choose not to follow this practice and it’s mind-boggling to me that they can accept to have paint everywhere. It magically appears on street clothes, it stains the trunk of their cars, and over time, their gear is coated in a thick layer of accumulated paint muck. Gross.
So, have I convinced you to get a wet painting carrier? I sure hope so.
Now on the market, there are a variety of options available for both stretched canvas and panels but today I’ll be focusing on what I see most often from students to professionals.
Let’s first talk about the thrifty options: just lay down a blanket of Viva or an old beach towel in your trunk to prevent unwanted mess or use an empty Amazon box as a clamshell or DIY an old picture frame. As a student, I personally DIY’d and I kind of regret it. I was always fighting the mechanism to keep the painting from falling out and wasting valuable “starting another painting time” or “I need to get out of the rain or I’ll be soaked time”.
Let’s move into the consumer market options!
To make a more affordable choice, there is the Guerrilla Handy Porter. It’s a specially designed cardboard box that will fit a couple of paintings of either stretched canvas or panels. It’s kinda bulky and hard to hold due to its construction and if you run into rain it may fall apart. But overall, it does the job and can lay flat when disassembled.
One of the more popular and expensive options is the Raymar Carrier, a satchel-looking box made of fluted plastic. It’s a really good option for carrying many paintings of different sizes but you have to wear it or try to stuff it in your bag and I find it a bit wide. I prefer to be hands-free when scouting another location to paint. Also, since it’s made out of plastic the edges can be sharp but it is water resistant.
Then there’s my personal favorite, the Panel Pak. It works “by holding 2 panels face-to-face, separated at a fixed distance by a wood spacer. Paintings are supported around all four edges, much like they would be in a picture frame. When secured with heavy-duty rubber bands, the unit is compact, fully enclosed, and easy to handle.” It’s lightweight, slim, strong, and fully protected, comes in a variety of sizes, and is so nice and easy to toss into your backpack but you are limited to one size unless you take multiple.
What I’ve learned is that tools can make a great difference in your painting experience. You can definitely go without these luxuries but I’d highly recommend getting something so you don’t stain your car. Feel free to message me about what you use and/or new tools that I might not know about at emmajeanfineart@gmail.com or @emmajeanfineart.
Happy Painting!
Emma Jean
