Is Your Oil or Acrylic Painting Dirty or Damaged?

How cleaning, repairs and restorations can make a difference.

Do you have an old painting that has been in your family for generations? Maybe you’ve acquired a painting that was previously owned by someone who smoked, or possibly the painting spent years hanging over a fireplace? Over time oil and acrylic paintings accumulate dirt, dust and smoke.

Cleaning and restoring a painting is an exacting difficult and detailed process best left to the professionals. Once in the hands of a professional however, the results are incredible. Whether your painting has monetary or sentimental value a good cleaning can make you fall in love you’re your painting all over again.

A good restorer will start slowly and delicately with a mild solution to first remove accumulated layers of dirt and grime. Once the dirt and damaged varnish has been removed the restorer is now able to touch up any areas where paint might have chipped off or cracked. The next and last step is to apply a new coat of varnish, which not only protects the painting but also enhances the paint colors. The final result is a painting that is clearer, cleaner and of course touched up, bringing the painting back to where it was when the artist first painted it.

Quite often we see paintings that have tears in them (oops, don’t know how that happened) or older paintings that have dried out and the canvas has cracked or even torn because they are so brittle. Paintings like this can also be repaired; a good restorer can place a patch on the back of the painting where the tear is and then using gesso he will fill in the hole on the front and then retouch the painting, blending in the colors very carefully. In the case of a very old, dried and brittle canvas the restorer will adhere the old canvas onto a new canvas rather than just placing a patch.

If you have a dirty or damaged painting, help is here!

We have a professional restorer that we have been working with for over 20 years. He has cleaned and repaired hundreds of paintings for hundreds of our satisfied clients.