Feel the fear and do it anyways, right?
I was really apprehensive to drive across country with a car full of encaustic art. Ringing through my head was …. “don’t put encaustic in the backseat of a car”… and I was planning an 18-hour drive across country, mid-July with the temperature forecast in the 90’s, with 17 pieces in the back of my SUV.
My husband is a scientist. So, we planned an experiment. We went to Home Depot and picked up a roll of radiant barrier insulation. Then placed a small sample piece under a sheet of the insulation and parked the car out in the blaring hot sun on a 90-degree day. With an infrared thermometer we periodically took the temperature of the piece. To my amazement, it was out there for 4 hours and the temperature of the piece only rose to 85 degrees.
Whew. I felt a lot better. But was still a little reticent. This is my work. My livelihood. I had spent hours and hours making these pieces. I would be devastated if they melted.
I was dreaming up all sorts of ideas. I wanted to bring a Styrofoam cooler filled with ice that would slowly melt and keep the back of the SUV cooler. I wanted to completely blacken out the windows so no sun could penetrate them. I wanted to crank the A/C on high the entire 18 hours or better yet, drive at night, so the sun wouldn’t be an issue.
But smarter minds prevailed and reassured me that our experiment was sufficient. (I couldn’t help myself though and threw some denim insulation I had in the basement on top of the pieces under that shiny silver barrier…..just as added precaution.)
We set off with a packed car and the infrared thermometer at the ready. And it was hot. And there wasn’t a cloud in the sky the entire way across Kansas. I kept putting my hand back and feeling the pieces and to my delight they were always just fine.
We were careful to try to find shade when we had to stop and didn’t stop for too long in any one place until the sun went down. But the paintings were just fine. Perfectly fine.
So, my advice to you if you are planning on transporting your work, is to get yourself some radiant barrier insulation. I’m not sure I would have had the same results without it. From now on, it’s going to be a staple in my trunk, just in case I have to transport a piece on another hot day.
I’m curious to know, how have you kept your pieces intact when transporting them? Would love to hear from you in the comments below.
Be well….be creative,
LIKE THIS POST?
Sign up for my blog updates and never miss a post.
Great info!!!!
This is a very timely post for me, although I’m not transporting, I’m living. My workshop is now uncooled in the desert Southwest. I definitely don’t expect to create during the next 2 months. Nothing would set. Everything is tacky. Will pieces be ruined just due to storage? We’ll see…
(My best pieces are not in the workshop. Only lesser pieces.)
I’m glad your art stayed safe. The stress! And I hope your showing was fabulous.
Thank you Kathleen. It was a great show. I really, really like connecting with people and talking about art:) So I was in heaven.
Hi Claire,
I am happy to hear about your experience transporting encaustic in high temps. I live in Southern NM and it is always concerning when I transport pieces. I did not know about the radiant barrier insulation. It’s great information.
Where are you showing in NM?
Cheers,
Carrie Greer
Hi Carrie, I was in Santa Fe showing at Art Santa Fe. It was a fabulous weekend. I do so love your state!
Thanks for this tip Clare. Where I live (northern Australia) we often get days like that and although I’m very new to encaustic it had been a concern of mine.
With the right precautions Lee, you should be OK. You just have to be mindful…..and if need be, add a little more damar to your medium to increase the melting point.
Very Interesting Clare, sometimes its just a case of ‘suck it and see’… I’m finding that these pieces are more robust than we give them credit for…
I recently shipped (well, DHL did) a 5×3 foot piece to Maryland, from Scotland, the gallery insured it, packed it and crated it, and we crossed our fingers for two days… it arrived without a problem, and I’m presuming it traveled in the cargo area of the plane where the temperatures are very low, and it seems to have survived… I am also realising how robust our art is when you try to repurpose a board, ironically, the enormous amount of effort to remove the surface does not equate to the painless application.. ha ha
Congrats on a sale to the US. Nicely done. You are now an internationally selling artist!
With a little care, they are indeed robust paintings. One of the reasons I love working with encaustic!
It was great to finally get to meet you in person and see all your beautiful images in Santa Fe! I hope they all made it back home safely as well!
Nice to meet you as well Kate. Yes, made it home safe and sound…..all intact!
I work in a Quonset Hut in the desert SW. A steel building is not like an oven because it reflects a lot of the heat away but it is still hot. I have left encaustic pieces, ones that I couldn’t resolve artistically, in the heat and the freezing cold in there with no ill effects. When they are hot I wouldn’t want anything to touch the surface though. I was surprised that you stacked your paintings, Clare. Wouldn’t they be safer in vertical position, beside rather than on top of each other?
So, heat itself is not a danger so much as what might touch the surface if it is soft. To me the issue is how to pack them. Thanks for the radiant barrier tip, Clare.
Thanks for your comment Carol.
I had no choice but to stack them as it was the only way they would fit into the car. The cushions I put on the edges protect the pieces from each other when stacking so no pieces actually touched another. They were perfect. They didn’t get any warmer than room temperature and we’re not soft at all.
Hi Claire, thanks for this post!
We are having heat wave in NY and I sold a photo encaustic piece (YAY!) that I need to ship to Wisconsin. I am sending it by UPS ground, they will pack it…but I am nervous about it sitting it a hot truck! Do you have any advice for how you have prepared your pieces for shipping, when not driving them yourself?
Thank you!
Hi Lisa,
I always put insulation around my pieces when I ship them as well. It’s not the sexiest material to use, but it tends to keep the work protected from heat as well as cold. Ship on a Monday so it doesn’t sit anywhere over the weekend and think about sending it air via ground.
Congrats on your sale!
Hi Lisa,
I always put insulation around my pieces when I ship them as well. It’s not the sexiest material to use, but it tends to keep the work protected from heat as well as cold. Ship on a Monday so it doesn’t sit anywhere over the weekend and think about sending it air via ground.
You can search my blog via the search box and find a post I did a couple of years ago on shipping work.
Congrats on your sale!