I generally paint my very large paintings on to loose sheets of canvas fabric. In other words, the canvases are ‘un-stretched’. This enables me to send my paintings around the country via couriers, with the canvases rolled up and carefully sent in strong cardboard tubes. I’ve tried sending very large canvases that I have stretched on to wooden frames with couriers but it has not worked that well. Most customers then use a picture framer in their local area to get the canvas painting stretched on to a wooden frame in order to hang it on their wall. A few customers choose to stretch it themselves. I’ve written more about the options for stretching my canvases yourself here.
Alternatively, if you can collect from me in south Somerset, I can stretch the canvas on to a wooden frame for you. You will then just need to add your own picture hook to the back of the wooden stretcher frame in order to hang the painting on your wall. Prices to stretch one of my canvases are normally from about £70 and will depend on the size of the painting. If you’re interested, please contact me to discuss this option.
I would always encourage you to measure your car boot or van space to be sure that the stretched painting will fit in it. Once or twice customers have been surprised at the size of some of my stretched paintings and it has been a struggle to fit the painting in the car! Though not essential, a means of holding the painting still whilst it is being transported in your vehicle can also be useful, such as with elastic cord or rope.
Please note that I only stretch my own canvas paintings and not other peoples’ canvases.