Painting Restoration Repair Tips And Methods

Painting restoration repair can be difficult, and certainly requires a lot of time, patience and energy. Should you have a badly damaged artwork, then consider applying the following repair ideas and strategies. If done right, these methods can help bring back your painting to its best condition.

Undoubtedly, a painting restoration professional's worst nightmare is a badly flaking and scorching oil painting. These extremely damaged artwork could be a problem for the most advanced repair specialist. When fixing a flaking and blistering oil painting, consider using the following restoration tips and methods.

Fixing paintings with holes and tears is best done through a process of "recanvassing." Essentially recanvassing consists of purchasing a brand-new canvas, and taking out the oil painting's original canvas. As with any painting restoration step, take extreme care with detaching the canvas from an old artwork. Much more harm is made on an annual basis by people trying to repair paintings, than fire and robbery combined.

Do onions make you cry? Well if they really do then become accustomed to crying! Onions work great when repairing artworks. The same chemicals which make your tear ducts well up also work to get rid of stubborn grit, dirt and grime from oil paintings. The process of painting restoration has included onions for decades or even centuries. The secret is to slice the onion in half and carefully rub the onion in a circular manner across the painting. Make sure to keep light pressure on the onion. Do not press down hard on the canvas, because the onion might easily make a hole or tear in the oil painting.

Aside from onions, beeswax is yet another gift from nature that can also help to restore paintings. Restoring paintings by combining beeswax with damar is another age-old strategy which has been used throughout the years. Mixing up beeswax with damar is referred to as "Dutch Style" painting restoration. Covering a painting with beeswax and damar helps to prevent the oil from separating from the canvas. Once again take extreme caution when using the mixture. Use a light, circular rubbing method to avoid creating more holes and tears. Usually a cotton ball is used to repair artwork in this fashion.

Over the entire painting restoration process, remember that different shades and colors will respond differently to the methods described in this article. More often than not (especially with regards to oil paintings)lighter colors will repair superbly. The grime and dirt that is embedded in lighter colors is usually taken off easily, which is definitely a great news for the painting restoration professional. However darker colors can be a lot more persistent. Take great patience when restoring paintings with lots of dark colors. It might take a little more time and energy to get those dark colors glowing like new.

In summary, always keep in mind that a majority of amateur painting restorations result in more damage than good. It's very easy to ruin a painting, particularly an old oil painting, with all the above mentioned methods. Nevertheless a full and remarkable painting restoration can happen with the hand of a skilled and patient professional. If you have a painting that's in desperate need of restoring, then go ahead and apply all these strategies. Just make sure to keep a light hand and sharp eye on the methods you use for oil painting restoration repair.

Painting Restoration: Find out How to Fix a Damage Or Warp in an Original Painting You Bought

If you bought a artwork on stretched canvas, here are a couple frequent occurrences which have easy and quick remedies:

Dent or Canvas Sag

Let's say you unintentionally pushed against the backside of the stretched canvas painting which created a dent, or maybe the canvas has simply sagged over time because of temperature and humidity levels...

Remedy:

Sprinkle the backside of the canvas with lukewarm (not hot) water and as the water disappears the canvas shrinks back into shape. Don't over-saturate. It is advisable to continue this procedure a couple of times in intervals of one hour, instead of over saturate it the 1st time. This works 99% of the time

Distorted Stretcher Bars

Let's say if your artwork was travelling from it's original location to you and was totally exposed by the shipment carrier to intense heat, cold, and/or humidity OR after some time in your own house, due to a change in temperature and/or humidity levels, the wooden stretcher bars may have warped. Sometimes the warping can be significant, much of the time they're minor and undetectable.

Remedy for minor warps:

What you will need to have: Bowl, water, rag/towel, Kraft or Butcher paper, four books and 4 weights (either exercise weights or simply just 4 big rocks)

-Choose a location within your house that doesn't get a lot of traffic and will be out of your way for one day or two. Ideally the floor or perhaps a table.

-Create a clean dry surface in which you will later lay your painting face down. This is important: DO NOT use a plastic bag because it can stick to a painting, Don't use newspapers since the print can pass on onto the painting. Use clean non-stick material like butcher or Kraft paper.

-Fill up a container with luke-warm water. Flip the painting over, put it facedown on the area you've just made, and wet the wooden stretcher bars with a soaked rag/towel, ensuring to keep wetting the bars until you see they are completely wet. Put 1 book on each of the 4 edges of the canvas and then put your weight on the top of the books. Wait 1 day. For good measure, I would recommend taking the books and rocks off after 24 hours, rewetting the bars, and placing the books and rocks back for another one day.

IF this does not work, sad to say it means the warp is a significant one and the painting will have to be brought to a local stretching and frame store to be re-stretched.