Oxfordshire Art Restorers
Specalists in fine art conservation for over 30 years
Revitalize your artwork with our expert services: Varnish Replacement, ensuring a fresh protective layer; and Discolored Paintings and Torn Canvas Repairs,
A torn, punctured, or disturbed canvas can lead to widespread instability in the paint layer, particularly around the tear, causing flaking and detachment. The longer a torn painting is left unattended, the more extensive the damage may become, necessitating a more intensive restoration to prevent devastation.
Our expert painting conservators possess extensive knowledge in repairing torn or punctured paintings, addressing issues ranging from small holes to visually disruptive rips. After assessing the damage and considering the painting’s vulnerabilities, a tailored treatment plan is implemented. This ensures that restoration methods cater to the specific needs of the artwork, considering factors such as age, canvas type, and any additional issues it may be facing.
Our team can professionally restore:
- Large tears on historic and contemporary paintings
- Small holes or punctures
- Severe tearing across a canvas
- Loose and unstable canvas paintings
- Paint loss surrounding tear damage
- Tears that have occurred recently or historically
- Tears resulting from accidental damage and household disasters
- Varnish replacement
- Retouching
Be it an antique masterpiece or a modern creation, tear repairs are a viable solution for damages of any magnitude. Once the torn section is meticulously restored, it undergoes a delicate filling and retouching process using historically and artistically sympathetic techniques. This meticulous approach includes the precise application of pigments perfectly matched to the original colors, ensuring a nearly seamless repair. This not only restores the artwork aesthetically but also guarantees its safety and security for the future.
Rigorous steps are taken to ensure restoration doesn’t compromise the cultural or monetary value of the painting.
Carefully selected treatments and solutions guarantee the safe preservation of the artwork. Surface testing, including shining UV light, helps identify any layers of unoriginal overpainting or prior alterations to the paint layer.
Varnish removal, conducted meticulously with small handmade cotton swabs, can span several hours depending on the painting’s size. The gradual process, avoiding cross-contamination, underscores our commitment to the artwork’s safety.
Post-varnish removal, any additional stained or discoloured restoration work is undertaken before applying a final layer of conservation-appropriate varnish. This variety is non-yellowing and UV-reducing, ensuring ongoing protection for the painting.
Paintings may appear to have a cracked surface simply due to age. They could also have developed deeper, unstable cracks due to their environment, such as high heat or mould growth. A rapidly changing temperature and humidity level can lead to a contract contraction and expansion of a canvas or wooden panel, creating continued damage until the atmosphere is stabilised.
Disasters can create and increase the severity of surface cracks, with fires, floods and leaks bringing further instability to the paint.
A very common cause of cracking is accidental damage, such as a push or dent to the surface leaving a circular spider web pattern.
In contemporary and modern art, we find that flaking is often due to the way in which the artwork surface was prepared. Heavy impasto paint layers crack and flake away due to a lack of support or an appropriate ground layer.