On my easel & filing a claim for a lost painting with USPS

Shh! Your Life is Beautiful
Prints are available here

I know I said a while ago that I wasn’t going to post my portrait paintings anymore. I want to keep the look of my blog and website cohesive because I mostly paint florals, birds, and landscapes now. However, this portrait has a story behind it, so I thought it was worth writing about here. 

Back in November I sold, and shipped this painting off to China. About a month and a half after I shipped it, the buyer wrote me saying she hadn’t received it yet. I checked the tracking number I had given her, and it looked like it hadn’t left the USA. It was somewhere between my studio and Chicago. I thought maybe the tracking number hadn’t been updated. It was the busiest time of year, right before the holidays, so I wasn’t too concerned. I’ve heard horror stories of packages taking 6 months to a year to ship overseas. I told the lady it was on its way, and we should probably wait a little bit to see if it showed up. I showed her how to look up the tracking information on USPS.com, so she could track updates. 

She wrote to me again about 6 weeks ago, and the painting still hadn’t arrived. I checked the tracking number, and it hadn’t changed. It looked like the package had gone off the radar. It was time to file a missing package insurance claim with USPS, so that’s what I did. It took them about a month to get back in touch with me. Because it was an international shipment, I had to wait for China to research what happened. I got an email that read like a form letter saying we were going to proceed with the claim. Unfortunately, I’m not dealing with a real live person to ask any questions, so I’m just going to assume it was somehow lost or perhaps stolen.  

The reason I’m writing about it today is to urge artists to keep immaculate records when you ship paintings out. USPS asks A LOT of questions because they don’t like paying out money on insurance claims. I had to send proof that I had shipped it. Not only did I have to fill out a form online, but they also sent me more paperwork in the mail to fill out, and mail back in.

progress shots
You’re not seeing double, I promise. 

If you ever need to file a claim with USPS, you have to provide them with a printed sales receipt, and proof that the item was worth what you claimed it was when you purchased insurance. If you don’t have that information available when they ask for it, the insurance you bought is useless. 

I’ve filled the forms out, and mailed it in. Now to wait some more. In the meantime, there’s the nice lady buyer to think about. She’s been waiting ever so patiently, and has been so sweet and understanding through all of this. I feel just horrible about what happened, and that it’s taking so long to correct. I thought I’d try to fix it in some way by painting another portrait to offer her. It’s not exactly like the original one, but I’m hoping it’s close enough, and she’ll like it. 

oil paint palette

I had extra oils leftover on my palette after I had finished, so I figured why not? I went ahead and painted another one, so that’s why you see two on my easel. I hate to throw away paint. If the buyer decides she’d rather have a refund, I’ll be listing both in my shop. 

Shh! Your Life is Beautiful
No 3 and No 4

It was great practice. I haven’t painted a portrait in about a year, and it’s been a while since I painted with oils. I felt nervous before I started, but I was quickly back into the groove in no time. I don’t know if it was the fumes or what, but I felt a little giddy painting with butter, I mean, oils again. Need I say it was FUN? 🙂 I started to miss portrait painting, at least a little bit, so I figure why stop here? I’ve got my other shop in good order, so I can take a little break from the flowers. Those who think portraits are my best work will be happy. 🙂 I’ve been asked repeatedly to re-paint one of my paintings titled Little Dude ever since the original sold a few years ago. It’s now on my to-do list. I just might blog about it, despite my “no portraits” rule here on my blog. Rules in art are made -just- to be broken, I say. 😉  

******

Remember when I used to do “on the easel” posts every week? I had nearly forgotten about it, until I started writing this one. I’m thinking of making it a weekly or biweekly topic again. Maybe on Tuesdays?