Paintings Conservation

Treatment always follows examination, never precedes it. Full photographic documentation under normal, raking, and ultraviolet light maps the painting's condition — the soundness of support, paint, and ground, the nature of the varnish, and the extent of any earlier restoration — before a single intervention is proposed.

Stabilisation comes first: any actively flaking or lifting paint is consolidated immediately, since further loss can happen at any moment. Where the canvas itself has failed — slack, torn, or brittle — it's lined or locally strip-lined for support, almost always worked from the reverse so the paint surface is never touched. Surface cleaning then proceeds in careful stages under magnification, tested before it's applied and never taken further than the work allows.

Losses in the ground and paint layer are filled and inpainted using conservation-grade materials — colours that stay distinguishable from the original under ultraviolet light, so the extent of any restoration remains honestly legible. A final, reversible varnish protects the surface and settles the tone.