I am only writing today because I want to share with other Denver artists a lesson learned. Being new to the world of shipping paintings, the process is definitely an eye opener. And most of the paintings I have had to ship have been large paintings. Friday I took the Alley Hollyhock painting to get it boxed and shipped to arrive in Scottsdale on Wednesday. Unfortunetly, it has a large thick frame on it, being 3" deep and 4.5" all the way around. It added a lot to the cost of shipping, I found out. I went to 4 shipping centers today, one refusing to even pack it, before I found Navis Pack and Ship. Navis is located on 2306 S. Colorado Blvd. The young man was helpful, pleasant, and was going to build the box for the painting to size, instead of fitting it in a too large of a standard size (UPS) for which I had to pay for the extra size and packing materials, of course. With insurance, Navis was about $100 less than what UPS quoted me. The other point was that I needed to include a return label in the event the painting doesn't sell. Navis will do that and charge me only if the label is used. UPS I have to pay up front and then submit paperwork to get reimbursed if the label is not used. In the defense of UPS, I did use them for my two prior art shipments and all arrived in good shape to the best of my knowledge. But if all goes well with this latest and largest painting, Navis will have my future business.
A few things I have learned since I posted this on my other blog: An artist friend of mine said Navis also has an outlet in Colorado Springs for those of you living in the southern part of 1-25. My sister also tells me that she used Navis to ship her art collection and antiques when she moved to Hawaii 4 years ago. Everything arrived in perfect condition.