K.S. Art Restoration in Katoomba, New South Wales | Tutor/teacher

K.S. Art Restoration

Locality: Katoomba, New South Wales

Phone: +61 415 773 494

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25.01.2022 A beautiful story about the healing power of art . . . https://www.mvtimes.com/2020/02/19/art-heals/

24.01.2022 Some more photos of the Albert Henry Fullwood painting I posted about a couple of days ago. These are detail shots of the painting. They highlight what I admire most about traditional landscape painting - lots of different views to discover in the work, each almost worthy of a painting in their own right.

24.01.2022 As a restorer, people come to me from time to time hoping that theyve found an undiscovered masterpiece, or that my restoration work will reveal an undiscovered masterpiece. Im not an art valuer and mostly I encourage people to get their painting restored because either they love it, or because it is a little piece of history worth preserving and enjoying, rather than purely for financial reasons. But these kind of stories make you think. The woman who owned this painting was 90 years old: it makes you wonder, would she have lived her life in the same way if she had discovered and sold the painting earlier in her life? https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-50201691

22.01.2022 This lovely 19th century painting of a peasant girl came to me a little while ago for full treatment including varnish removal. It had an obviously false signature in the bottom-left, claiming Corot, and during treatment the abraded original signature of the artist Jan Schmidt emerged in the bottom-right corner. The cracking throughout the paintfilm looked the most disturbing in the blue skirt of the girl, and was repaired partly by laying down the paint and closing the cracks and partly by retouching of the cracks. I personally love the way the skirt has been painted - so loose and sketchy. #oilpaintings #artrestoration #paintingrestoration #Corot #varnishremoval #paintingcracks

22.01.2022 This beautiful little portrait was a lucky find for my client. It needed a bit of conservation treatment to remove a brown surface layer and to restore a cluster of small paint losses. The colour contrast in the sitters clothing and background is so striking in this work and has really been recovered in the treatment.

22.01.2022 This farmhouse painting came to me recently for treatment. It was painted by my client's great grandmother who lived both in England and Australia. I removed the very yellowed varnish and a long horizontal line of darkened overpaint near the bottom edge. Several tears and holes were repaired, old paint damages were retouched and the painting was re-varnished. I don't normally treat a painting inside it's frame but this painting was attached to the frame in an unusual way. I did eventually find a way of safely detaching it to finish off the treatment. The farmhouse looks more English to me than Australian and was probably painted in the early 1900s.

21.01.2022 I think so often artists get portrayed by Capitalist administrations as outcasts and fringe people who live on the dole and dont contribute much to the GDP of the nation. In fact, artists are often called in to bring life, heart and a sense of community to a place through pop-up galleries and studio spaces to increase real estate values, as was recently done in Central Park in Sydney, Parramatta, Penrith and Katoomba. Here is another beautiful example of artists bringing valuable tourism to an otherwise overlooked part of Australia. https://www.abc.net.au//rochester-cashes-in-on-sil/9918800

21.01.2022 Ive recently discovered the beautiful landscape paintings of John Singer Sargent, in the book Sargent published by Abbeville Press. I had only been familiar with his portrait style works up until now. Here are some examples.

21.01.2022 This pair of small still life paintings is a good example of the big change in appearance that can sometimes be achieved with a light cleaning and varnishing treatment. I really like the birds nest element in the flower painting and the way its been painted.

21.01.2022 Show your support for Arts employees and casual workers effected by the Covid-19 crisis by signing the petition. I heard this morning that half a million Arts/events workers in Australia are effected by this and out of work.

21.01.2022 Do you have an eye for detail, just like me? Here are some more beautiful detail photos of paintings. I like these even more than the ones in my last post. They all have a water theme.

20.01.2022 Are you missing strolling through galleries looking at painting details, like I am? Heres another dose of detail images - these are all plant and still-life themed. Enjoy!

20.01.2022 Another amazing find - a re-attribution of a painting made during conservation treatment. And a surprising take on Artemisia Gentileschis work and motivation. I love hearing stories of people being spurred on to greatness by their negative experiences: turning evil to good. https://www.theguardian.com//artemisia-gentileschi-nationa

19.01.2022 Hi everyone, its business as usual here at K.S. Art Restoration Katoomba, though with some social distancing and extra cleaning measures thrown in. If youre spending more time at home you may want to get that damaged artwork looked at, which youve been meaning to do for ages. A little while ago I had this very special artwork come into the studio for repair. Its by the Chinese-born Indonesian artist, Lee Man Fong. The paint flaking of the blue-green skirt seemed to be rel...ated to the paint colour. The paint seemed very lean, meaning it didnt have enough binder holding it together. It was stabilised and retouched. The biggest challenge was imitating the stippled effect in the original paint. Please excuse the nudity, apparently Balinese women traditionally did not cover up their chest. This young woman is preparing an elaborate headdress to be worn at a festival/ceremony. See more

19.01.2022 In restoration there are certain treatments that are considered hair-raising. This is one of those! This canvas painting from the 1960s had badly cracked and had been crudely stuck down onto masonite board by a past restorer. The cracks in the painting were still very raised and the edges weren't sitting at all flat, making the painting look old and uncared for. Thankfully the glue holding the painting to the board had started to age and weaken, I was therefore able to carefu...lly remove it from the board. Next I needed to flatten the back of the painting canvas by scraping away the old glue and scraping back thick lumps of the artist's primer that had come through from the front. Then the crack edges of the paint were secured and flattened from the front. The painting was attached to a thick canvas to provide it extra support and it was re-stretched onto a new, custom-made stretcher. The old varnish was removed, the painting was re-varnished and any small paint losses along the edges were filled and retouched. The painting is by Dutch-Australian artist, Hendrik Kolenberg. These photos also show the back of the painting before, during and after treatment. See more

19.01.2022 I restored this amazing Brett Whiteley painting a few years ago. It had acquired a large smear of white paint in the bottom centre region. Whiteley tends to keep conservators on their toes and true to form, part of the painting was in oil paint and part in acrylic. Due to the great size of the painting it was treated on-site. The before and after treatment photos below. #BrettWhiteley #artrestoration #paintingrestoration #contemporarypaintings #oilpaintings #acrylicpaintings

18.01.2022 Do you remember this artist that I posted about recently: Violet McInnes? She painted still lives of magnolias, camellias and more common types of bouquet flowers. Amongst those, this still life with red eucalypt blossom. This is one of the few native flowers she ever painted, perhaps the only native flower painting done by her. It came to my studio because the varnish was uneven, with some mat and some glossy areas throughout the painting. The varnish also turned out to be somewhat yellowed by age. This was a straightforward varnish removal and re-varnishing treatment, and a nice change from working on more complex restoration projects. Have a look at the simple and sketchy way that the artist has painted the flower blossoms and gumnuts, yet it's so effective, and the gorgeous frame.

17.01.2022 Last year I had the privilege of restoring this spectacular landscape painting by Australian Impressionist artist and painting buddy to Tom Roberts and Arthur Streeton - Albert Henry Fullwood. This painting pulled at my heartstrings because it shows the Shoalhaven River and Mount Coolangatta where I grew up: I recognised it straight away. It had severe flaking of the paint in the sky which had to be secured and laid flat. But what I discovered was that the entire sky had been... overpainted to cover up some fairly minor paint damages, and the overpaint had since darkened quite badly with age. The dirt road in the bottom of the painting had also been overpainted for the same reasons, which had also darkened. The entire sense of light in the painting was changed as a result, and light is in fact the most important aspect of an impressionist painting. The flaking paint was secured, the darkened varnish and overpaint were removed, and the painting was re-varnished and retouched to restore the paint damages. See more

16.01.2022 Sometimes its the details in a painting that really make the painting. Here are a few beautiful details for you to enjoy.

16.01.2022 This one's for all the dog lovers. I'm not sure what kind of dog this is, I thought maybe a labrador mix - anyone know? It has been beautifully painted, and the background is more simply done, setting the dog as the focal point of the painting. The main problem with this artwork was the very yellowed varnish coating, which was probably an oil layer rather than an actual resin varnish, and difficult to remove. I was able to thin it significantly. Then I re-varnished it and retouched any paint abrasions and damages. Painted by my client's great grandmother, early to mid 1900s. For more examples of my restoration work visit the website: www.ksartrestoration.com.au

15.01.2022 What are you doing for your next holiday? Here's something you might want to consider - a trip to a very special museum. Make sure to pack your scuba and/or snorkelling gear! This is a really genius combination of science and art, that both highlights the damage to the great barrier reef and creates a new area for the reef to grow. The sculptures are made out of concrete, one of the few materials I imagine that can withstand the salty seawater and not be deteriorated by it. I'm keen to visit - something to look forward to post-Covid. https://robbreport.com//museum-of-underwater-art-12345707/

15.01.2022 A bit of fun. This image shows a recent restoration project as a composite image - the left half before treatment, the right half after treatment. This was such a fabulous transformation. The painting represents Edinburgh Castle in Scotland and is potentially from the 17th century, painted on a wood panel. #oilpaintings #panelpaitings #woodpanelpaintings #artrestoration #paintingrestoratiion #varnishremoval

14.01.2022 If youre back at work today and need to get back into the swing of it after the weekend, this will cheer you up. Ive been working on a lovely flower still life by Violet McInnes and discovered her amazing oeuvre of flower paintings. I have quite a soft spot for flower still lives. Here are some favourites.

13.01.2022 This almost life-size painting of Saint Lucia came to me a few years ago. It had been heavily overpainted to cover smaller damages in the paint. Treatment involved cleaning, overpaint removal, varnishing and retouching. So satisfying to be able to make such a difference to the painting.

13.01.2022 Merry Christmas everyone! And thank so much, from the bottom of my heart, to all the RFS staff and volunteers who have risked their health and lives to keep us all safe over the last few weeks and months.

13.01.2022 Good article about an artist with a really interesting art/sketching project. Vale Jason Polan. https://www.nytimes.com/2020//27/arts/jason-polan-dead.html

13.01.2022 Last year I got to work on some special portrait paintings; I'll tell you a bit more about those in upcoming posts. Here are a couple of them: paintings of my client's mother and father in the year that they were wed, just after the second world war. There was not so much wrong with the mother's portrait, just a few small paint damages and the surface was very matt. The father's portrait seemed to be coated with a waxy layer and it had paint abrasion in the hair at the top. I...t also looked very matt and had lost all contrast in the paint colours, making it look very dark and hard to see. I cleaned, retouched and varnished both the paintings. I spent quite a bit of time getting the varnish layers just right to bring out the colours and the contrast in the portraits to maximum effect. I also cleaned and retouched the frames. When the paintings hang side by side, the couple are looking into each other's eyes - very beautiful I think. Painted in Italy by Josif Maizner before their departure to Australia. See more

12.01.2022 I started experimenting with watercolour painting a while back, to stretch myself. Ive just come back to these paintings today and finished them off. Both were done from a photograph. For the second one I was so lucky to capture this slightly surreal moment when the light was hitting the edge of the escarpment. Ive built up the paint in thin layers of varying colour, which Ive always done in my acrylic paintings too, but the effect is very different using dilute watercolou...r. I love the complexity it gives to the colours. People often think that art restoration is creative work, but in fact its not. My creativity certainly helps me to work out the artists technique and their intention. But I cant inject my own creativity into someone elses painting: you need to respect their work and enable it to shine. Im really good at it because I love analysing other artists technique. Back to restoration work tomorrow, today I just needed some dreamy creative time. See more

12.01.2022 The ever increasing oeuvre of Vincent Van Gogh - 2 more artworks have been identified as genuine Van Goghs. His output is so impressive. https://www.nytimes.com///design/van-gogh-new-drawing.html https://www.independent.co.uk//van-gogh-self-portrait-psyc

12.01.2022 During a recent stint of teaching art I discovered this Colombian drawing artist and his very evocative work. Check it out. https://www.behance.net/hernanmarin/projects

11.01.2022 This is a painting I restored last year, and as you can see there wasnt a huge transformation, as with some of my restorations. The reason I uploaded these images is because I just love, love, loved the painting so much and wanted to share it with you. Its a Blue Mountains scene by Arthur Murch (1940s), and though I was first convinced that it was a spot near Gordon Falls in Leura, I now think its the view from Govetts Leap lookout in Blackheath. The painting underwent just a light cleaning treatment, removing a yellow-brown dirt layer and some surface spots.

11.01.2022 This was one of my first conservation and restoration projects when I started up my business. Such a lovely painting of the Madonna and Child with a gorgeous representation of the chubby baby Jesus. #oilpaintings #panelpaintings #woodpanelpaintings #varnishremoval #cleaningpainting #artrestoration #maryandjesus

10.01.2022 This painting came to me recently for restoration and was a bit of a mystery. It came from South America and was painted on a really fine canvas, which was later stuck down onto thicker canvas. My feeling is that it isnt a standard painting. Maybe it was originally a church mural, separated from the wall, or a banner used in religious parades. The many damages to the painting would seem to back that up. The yellowed varnish was removed, it was re-varnished and the painting was very carefully retouched to revive the image. If you want to see more examples of my work, you can visit www.ksartrestoration.com.au

10.01.2022 Do you know whats meant by the term, "artists intention"? This recent project is a good illustration of respecting and restoring the artists intention. It had been quite crudely restored in the past with a big patch of grey-blue overpaint in the hair (fringe area), covering some paint damage. There was more overpainting and paint damage all along the bottom edge of the painting. Firstly, the painting was treated for paint flaking and lifting, which was secured. Then the ov...erpaint was largely removed. The old damages were retouched to restore and reconstruct the way the painting would have looked initially . . . as the artist intended it to look. Some more interesting info about the painting: Its a self portrait of the artist and art teacher, Dora Chapman (1911-1995). Its painted with very thin and fluid oil paint on a board prepared with a very textured plaster layer, a very unusual painting technique. Check out the super stern expression on Doras face. Can you imagine sitting opposite her for several hours as you restore the painting? I can tell you, at times it felt like a staring competition. But I imagine she would have approved.

10.01.2022 This beautiful panel painting of St John the Baptist, potentially from the 17th century, had been previously cleaned by another restorer when it came to the studio. It was largely a restoration and retouching project. The edges had paint damage from a previous frame. What I enjoyed most was reconstructing missing sections of the flowers in the bottom-right quadrant. #oilpaintings #panelpainting #woodpanelpainting #artrepair #paintingrepair #paintingrestoration

10.01.2022 This gorgeous little flower painting came to me recently for restoration. Its tiny, just 25 x 20 cm, smaller than an A4 sheet of paper. The delicacy of the artists painting technique was hidden by a thick layer of darkened varnish and by crude overpainting on top. The varnish and overpaint were removed, old damages were retouched and it was re-varnished. The client really likes the cracks in the paint, so they were not retouched.

09.01.2022 The traditional art of bookbinding is something special, and beautiful to watch.

08.01.2022 This carved wooden figure of the Virgin Mary was a recent restoration project that I really enjoyed. It had many paint losses and abrasions and required a full conservation and restoration treatment. The restoration of the face was particularly delicate. Two sections of the halo were also reconstructed to replace broken and missing segments. #artrestoration #paintrestoration #carvedwoodenfigure #VirginMary #paintedobject

07.01.2022 I restored this painting when I first started working in private practise many years ago as someones employee. Its still a really beautiful example of the huge difference a full restoration and conservation treatment can make. This painting was thought to be by the circle of French artist, Nicolas de Largilliere (1656-1746). #oilpaintings #Frenchpaintings #paintingrestoration #artrestoration #varnishremoval #cleaningpaintings

05.01.2022 When I was a little girl living in the Netherlands, I was obsessed with the story of Heidi - the little girl who goes to live with her Grandfather on top of a mountain in the Swiss Alps. I could just imagine Heidis sense of pure freedom as she roamed the Alps with the goatherd Peter and his flock. You can imagine my joy then when this painting came to me for tear repair. The snow covered peak in the background is the Jungfrau mountain in Switzerland. In addition to repairing the tear at the centre, I also did some stabilisation treatment and gave the painting a general freshen up by cleaning and varnish removal. The painting may be by Bavarian/American artist, Joseph Zeller. #oilpaintings #paintingrestoration #paintingrepair #paintingtear #artrepair

04.01.2022 Showing that sometimes a big transformation can be achieved with just a light clean and varnish; this composite image of a small maritime painting shows the left half before treatment and the right half after treatment. #oilpaintings #artrestoration #paintingrestoration #cleaningpainting #cleaningart #paintingvarnish

04.01.2022 Last year was very intense I think for everyone, including me, but I did have a few big wins in my restoration work. This was one of them! This painting was a former Archibald finalist, painted by Robert Finlayson and hung in the Art Gallery of New South Wales exhibition of 1967. It represents his former partner, the poet Vicki Viidikas (1948-1998). The painting looked slightly scary when it first came to me, more like a collection of paint shards in some places, than an actual painting. Laying down the curled thick paint flakes was painstaking but very satisfying, and the owner was so pleased with the result, as was I. There was not much paint missing, so only a bit of filling and retouching was needed at the end.

03.01.2022 Gold leaf is used on many traditional gold frames to create that bright, smooth layer of gold on the surface. Here's a jaw-dropping video showing how the leaves are made by hand, which a gilder can then apply to a frame. I've taken a 9-day course in gilding and believe me, applying the gold leaf is not an easy process. While I can do small repairs to a frame, for a major restoration I would put you in touch with a frame restorer. If you have a frame at home over-painted in gold paint, and you want to know if there's original gold leaf underneath it, I'm happy to have a look for you.

02.01.2022 This composite image shows the recent treatment on a painting of a clients family home in Austria, painted by her brother. The left half shows half of the painting before treatment, the right half is after treatment. The painting had a grey surface coating that was hard to remove, and darkened overpaints covering old paint damages that needed to be colour matched and retouched. #oilpaintings #artrestoration #paintingrestoration #varnishremoval #darkpainting #cleaningpainting

02.01.2022 Just in time for Christmas, I recently restored this beautiful nativity scene painting. The painting is tiny, under 25cm tall, on a copper panel. From the style of the faces I think it might be from Northern Europe rather than Italy, but if anyone has any other information or ideas on this please let me know in the comments.

01.01.2022 Living in the Blue Mountains, I love waterfalls, so I really appreciated this little painting when it came to me for treatment. About the size of an A4 sheet of paper, it's actually an oil painting painted on paper, of a Norwegian landscape. The main thing it needed was a varnish removal treatment. You can really see how the old and yellowed varnish acts like a veil in front of this painting. There were also some small holes in the paper and a corner piece had broken off. Ove...r the years, I've been lucky enough to do a little bit of paper conservation and sculpture conservation, under guidance of experts in those areas. So I was able to use my paper conservation skills to repair the holes and re-attach the loose corner piece, and you can see my repairs on the back of the painting. Finally I re-varnished and retouched the painting. Please excuse the quality of my photos, they're not perfect. The little white specks you see in the surface is light reflecting off the strong texture in the painting surface, because the artist used a very textured paper to paint on. Somehow the white specks almost add a water-spray effect to the painting, very appropriate to the subject. See more