Painting renovation. Painting by Arthur Wilson Gay 1901 – 1956. Title ‘Autumn Painting’

Over the years I have picked up a lot of knowledge and some ability to restore paintings. I am however very careful in considering what renovation projects I take on and I will not take on anything that is beyond my abilities as an artist who specializes in painting landscapes and seascapes. So anything outside of this area I consider to be beyond the knowledge I have and will limit what I do to advice only.

With that said here is a small painting renovation project that was entrusted to me recently. I had not come across the artist before and as such did a little reseach on his work trying to view as many paintings as I could and obviously making note on when he was alive.

So the artist is not a big name in the art world but is respected as an artist who painted tranquil scenes of St Mary’s Isles of Scilly and did some accomplished portraiture too. The artist is Arthur Wilson Gay 1901 – 1958. So for a start I knew he would be using modern materials…..a big help. The painting is called simply ‘Autumn Painting’

I won’t go into an indepth analysis on how I went about this, simply because it is my knowledge…..and you cannot have it….put it down to intellectual property rights. Instead I will show you images of some of the stages with a simple description under each image…..

The painting had suffered from smoke damage and water damage but this was it’s first professional cleaning, which was good because it meant that I did not have to take into account any other attempts to restore the art work….It is clear that it needs considerable and careful cleaning. The painting is covered in dirt and grime and the original frame is in similar condition with damage to the corners, chips in the paint through to the wood in many places….

Corner damage…..I have started to clean the white border which revealed cracks and chips in the paint of the frame

Detail of damage to the frame after some cleaning work, which allowed me to see the extent of the damage.

Detail – Back of the painting – The old frame sealing tape was extremely worn torn and peeling off

Removing the old tape

Removing the backing board and the painting

Cleaning the frame – removing glue residue

Continuing to clean the frame….looking much better now…still some ways to go….

Water damage to the backing board is clear there was also water damage to the painting both backing board and painting had been warped by the water damage. Fortunately this was something I have much experience with and was able to de warp the backing board and the painting.

Continuing to clean the frame….still a long way to go….

Continuing to clean the frame and repairs to the damaged paint work

Now for the scary part…..

Starting to clean the painting. I first chose a small area to test clean taking it really slowly and over the next week gradually extended from bottom to top on the right hand side of the boats mast….

….Slowly slowly slowly…..

……And again slow slow slower…

Frame and painting are almost done and I just needed to pause for a few days to see if everything was ok…..

….And relief…..done

….And finished…..the the owners were amazed…….and I was relieved…..