Shipping artwork overseas is a bit stressful. The combination of extortionate shipping rates, rough seas and customs caprice always has me cautioning a client before they make a purchase. After over a decade of doing this, I’m pretty good at building sturdy boxes and tidy paperwork trails. That said, I still breathed a sign of relief when Spacemonkey emerged from a ship’s hull in London six weeks after I had shipped it.
Mick Flynn has been collecting my work for years. When he saw I was promoting Spacemonkey in a couple of Toronto group shows, he wrote to tell me he would give the locals first chance at the painting, but he was interested if it did not sell. Fast-forward a couple of months and Mick has added the painting to his collection, where it joins a lion I painted to celebrate the birth of his son Leo (and a groovy felt “bug” Christine sewed). He sent me lovely note to let me know Spacemonkey had arrived:
OMG! It’s amazing! It’s exquisite R! I have already temporarily hung it in Leo’s room. The colours are so vibrant and it is stretched so beautifully. As you said, it really does pop off the wall. Gonna go and see my chap who will fashion a frame for it. . . I am thrilled I bought it Rob, I got lucky – your Canadian audience missed out on this one . . . P.S. Packaging was phenomenal!
Leo the Lion, 6″x6″, acrylic on panel
Felt “bug” Christine made for Leo.
Spacemonkey, 20″ diameter round canvas