cleaning canvases

[PEAVY]

Customer brought me a canvas with coca cola stains and two canvases rich with dust.

They are oil paintings

What would you do to clean these, if at all?

Thanks grumblers!

 

[preservator]

The critical issues with such canvases are their
age and value. As oil paint ages, it develops
cracks which allow fluids to go through the paint
layer and into the ground. If there is a layer
of animal glue beneath the paint, this can hydrate
if moisture gets into it and this may lead to
paint flaking. Getting the Coke off will require
moisture on a swab, while the grime may brush off.
If these paintings are old or valable, they should go to a painting conservator. Remember,
this type of work is only labor (your least profitable work) and it has the highest risk,
so sending it to a conservator almost always makes
the most sense.

Hugh

 

[HannaFate]

If they are recent paintings, with no bare canvas showing, I would just wipe with a damp(not wet) cotton cloth. Use q-tips to get dust out of the texture.

Suggest to your customer that they may want to glass their paintings to keep them from collecting more coke stains.

I recently went to the Albuquerque museum to see the "Millet to Matisse" exhibit. The paintings all had AR glass on them (with spacers) so you could get up really close and look at the brushwork without an alarm going off because you were breathing on the paint. It was quite effective, and I noticed that many of the visitors were not even aware of the glass.

 

[PEAVY]

Hanna Fate,

That is INTERESTING!!!

Hugh,

I dont think my customer will ever take these piece to a conservator. She is not the type to care to deeply about that.

I do, however.

These are not cracked but they do look "old enough." I just wanted to make sure that if I apply water to the oil painting that some adverse affect will not occur that I, not being a conservator, wouldnt know about.

THanks for the responses....youve got me thinking!

PV