How to Store Your Artwork

This guide covers:
➡ General tips
➡ Things to consider when storing paintings, drawings, sculptures, and digital works

Introduction

I want you to think about storing your work like you would buying insurance. It’s an initial investment that will pay off later, especially if something goes wrong. 

I’m going to start with a little story so hopefully you can learn from my mistakes. March of 2020, when COVID first shut everything down, we were tasked with packing up our studios at school. Most of us, it being our last year and gearing up for the grad show, had a bunch of large-scale works, and works that we wanted to hopefully show in the first year outside of art school; so we couldn’t just let them go to the dump or the sculpture graveyard. My bestie Cassia Powell (you might have seen this name before in some of our other support docs or heard them in this episode of the J&J Show) and I needed a spot for our work ASAP. At the time they were living in a cramped apartment with roommates and I was living with my partner in a tiny basement suite - both with no extra room for large works. So when our friend who was renting a house that had a basement offered us the storage space, we jumped at the idea! COVID was only going to last a couple weeks right? Maybe a month or two? Well, we didn’t come back for our work until about a year later when we both moved into new places and Cassia started renting a studio. Much to our naive surprise, our work was covered in black mold… Mind you, the city we live in is notoriously damp - long rainy winters near the ocean - we left our works on the floor of an unfinished basement that looked more like a cave with a washing machine, dryer and a single light bulb. Much panic, vinegar and bleach later, I was able to salvage my video installation piece but Cassia had their John Baldessari moment and had to let go of their work. Countless hours and money gone, pieces that Cassia intended on starting their career with, lost because of poor storage!

While that is an extreme example, we made this mistake so you don’t have to!! That’s why we’ve created this support doc, to help you properly store and take care of your work!

Part One: General Tips & Things to Consider

Space

We all have access to different resources at different times. For example, you could store your work in your studio, a storage unit, your parents house, a friends place - wherever you have access to, consider the following:

Longevity of Your Materials and Work

• Almost everything has a shelf life which can be prolonged with proper care. For example: most newer oil paints can have a shelf life of 30-40 years if you keep them in an airtight container in a cool, dry, dark place.

• Depending on what materials you’re using - look into how you can best care for them.

• Make sure you check on your stored work/materials every couple of months to ensure there’s no damage. If there is, try and take corrective action immediately in order to save your work!

Temperature & Humidity

Temperature and humidity have the biggest impact on the life of your work and materials. They also may seem like they are out of your control… However, when you think about storing your work, think about the type of temperature control that place may have and putting a dehumidifier there. 

• You’ll want to avoid attics or basements unless they are finished and have climate control. 

• You’ll also want to use wooden pallets or shelves (depending on the size of the work) to keep the art off the floor.

• We’ve linked a couple small dehumidifiers you can get on Amazon here & here. (Try and shop local when you can! But since these support docs are reaching people in many different countries I wanted to show some examples from a worldwide website.)

Organization

This might seem redundant, but if you’re anything like me, if I’m done with a project, it’s getting shoved in a bin only to be pulled out months later with regrets I didn’t care for it properly. So take some time to get a system in place!

• If you’re using bins, I recommend shallow clear bins so you can see inside and don’t have to dig deep to unearth a material at the bottom and make a mess in order to do so. 

• Label things!! It’s taken me years to do this… I now just have a piece of printer paper taped to the outside of my bins with a list of its contents written on it.

• If you are storing fabrics/soft materials and are considering a vacuum sealer: be mindful of how much air you’re taking out of the bag. If the items are too aggressively sealed in, it can break the fibres over time. If possible open the bags every couple months to let things breathe.

Part Two: Storing Specifics

1. Drawings

For drawings I came across a couple different storage methods and containers.

Solander Cases: These are a book-form case used for storing manuscripts, maps, prints, documents, old and precious books, etc. This method is commonly used in archives, libraries, museums & print rooms.

Create your own custom case out of foamcore: This uses the same concept as the above mentioned cases, but you can make these custom sized to your individual drawings at home. These are great for storing as well as shipping if you need to send your drawings in the post. There are step-by-step instructions on how to make them here.

Negative Storage Boxes: Similar to solander cases but can fit more prints, photo negatives, drawings etc. and are usually cheaper. These boxes (as the name suggests) use negative space so the works don’t touch each other.

General Tips:

• Use matboard to separate art if stacking together (paintings, drawings)

• If you’re working with charcoal: try using a spray fixative or glassine paper (which is different from wax paper. You can buy it from most craft stores or printmaking shops)

• Glassine is resistant to moisture and grease, “toothless” (non-abrasive), does not shed, and is static-free.

2. Paintings

Storage examples:

The storage method (pictured here) from the AGGV is great if you:

a) have the storage space for something like this and

b) if your works are either framed or separated safely with varnish or matboard.

Kate Tooke works with oil paints so she stores her painting face out on shelves like this (pictured right) to dry. When storing oil paintings it’s a good idea to use shelves or hang them on a wall (but make sure to add wire and brackets BEFORE you paint because the canvas will have to be face down to mount those on there).

Varnish Tips:

Varnish protects the paint, makes the painting last longer, and it looks richer with more depth and vibrance. Here’s what you need to know before varnishing your painting: 

• The painting has to be TOTALLY DRY, COMPLETE and PHOTOGRAPHED before varnishing.

• Varnishing isn't a “quick-drying” solution, you have to wait until the painting is dry before using it..

• Once a painting is varnished you can’t go back in to make edits without removing the varnish so don’t do this until the painting is ready to be shipped or shown.

• If the painting is varnished it can be difficult to photograph because of the glare.

Cardboard Tubes / Sonotubes:

While rolling up your painting in a cardboard tube is an appealing solution for storage, we don’t recommend it for long periods of time. Rolling a painting can distort/damage the paint by creasing or cracking it. Try and save rolling your painting and placing it in a tube for transportation. Make sure you roll the painting side out and as loose as possible.

3. Sculptures

When storing sculptures/3D works make sure they are cleaned off with a soft brush. Avoid using fabrics that will leave fibres behind because that may cause damage. Then carefully bubble wrap (or use honeycomb packing - if you’re looking for a more eco friendly alternative) your piece. Either place it on a storage shelf or pallet so it’s off the floor or heavily padded within a container.

Advice from Austin Clay Willis (an interdisciplinary artist working primarily with large scale paintings, sculptures, site-specific installations):

Austin thinks of his large-scale three-dimensional works and installations as two components: the framework and assemblage. The framework - made often with 2x4 pieces of wood designed to be the skeleton of the structure, the assemblage are all the other pieces that are then mounted on the frame. Once a work is complete, Austin thinks about how he can break down the work into sections and disassemble the components to then be grouped together with either cling wrap or ratchet straps and labeled for future construction. The framework gets broken down also, and the pieces of wood are organized by size and leaned up on the wall of his studio.

The key takeaways: create your own system for organization and think about how you intend to break down your work once an exhibition is over and store for future shows.

4. Digital

Shae and I CANNOT stress the importance enough for proper digital storage. Even if you don’t work digitally, photos of your physical work, applications, CVs & bios etc all need to be stored somewhere and you might not think about it until everything is gone.

This is why even though it sounds excessive… Have backups of your backups. Have a security plan in place by using multiple forms of storage. We recommend using a combination of an external hard drive and an online drive (which we’ll get into further). Read this article for some help deciding. There are four main places you can store your digital work:

• External Hard Drives

• OneDrive (Windows, Office)

• Google Drive (Google Docs, Gmail)

• iCloud (Apple devices)

How much storage do I need?

It can be hard to conceptualize how much a GB vs TB is, so here’s a run down of what 1 TB can roughly hold from this source:

• 472 hours of broadcast-quality videos;

• 130,000 digital photos;

• 150 hours of high-definition recordings; or

• 2,000 hours of CD-quality recordings.

Of course, if you’re using massive files for your projects, I would recommend starting with a 2 TB of storage. That will be plenty of space for what you’re doing and if it’s not… it’s a worthy investment to get more storage. 

Which one should I use?

We crunched the numbers and we think the initial investment (about $100 CAD for 2 TB of storage) of an external hard drive is best for long term digital storage and using free online drives for current projects.

Part 3: Summary + Key Points

I know storing your work is one of the least exciting things to think about when it comes to being an artist, but we hope that through our own misfortunes and mistakes you can see just how important proper storage is!

If you’re going to take anything from this support doc it should be:

• Think about the longevity of your work and materials - do your best to prolong the life of these things.

• Temperature and humidity are the things that can keep your art alive or destroy it!! Pay attention to these aspects when storing your work!

• Organization/creating your own system on how you want to store your work & materials.

• Every work is different and therefore will need unique storage, learn how you can adapt your storage plan.

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That’s a wrap! We really hope this guide has been helpful in storing a range of work, and will save you from some of the heartbreak we’ve experienced in the past! If it has, we’d love to hear your feedback!

If you liked this support doc and found it useful, consider becoming a Patron!! Each of these guides can take upwards of 20 hours to create and we do it FOR FREEEEE - you can show your support for as little as £1.50 a month if you’re able to. We would be so grateful, and it’ll mean we can keep on creating these guides and ensuring they are accessible to all!

READ MORE/BECOME A PATREON HERE!

Remember these are some tips to get you started, and that we’re both learning and growing with you! If you think we missed anything in this guide, just let us know!

Lots n lots of luv,

Shae and Georgia xo

Another example of me thinking I’m doing the right thing for storage and it backfiring…

Back when I was in school, I wrapped a sculpture (which I used paint & modelling paste as the main materials) in bubble wrap. I thought this was a good protective storage material. I then stacked a few things on top of it and when I pulled it out a year later, there was a bubble wrap imprint on the painting.

Kate Tooke’s storage method

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