Mounted Oil Letting Loose. Help?

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Cliff Wilson

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A customer brought in an oil painting that his son purchased on the street in Paris. Typical bright colored tourist painting of a Paris street. Almost an impasto (sp?) effect with the paint. (thick) It was trimmed and mounted to foam core with about 2 inchs of foam left around the image. He knows it's not right, but it is the way it is.

The Problem: In the center bottom, and only the center bottom, the painting is lifting off the adhesive and is "bubbled" somewhat. (lifted 3/8" in one spot) The adhesive appears to be an adhesive sheet. It looks a lot like Colormount or an equivalent to me. He wants me to "squirt something in" to reglue it. It looks more like I should put it in the press and reheat it to try to get the adhesive to "re-stick." I am somewhat afraid of the paint (probably oil, but could be acrylic).

1) will the heat hurt the image?
2) will the vacumm crsuh the paint?
3) should I "squirt something" in? What?
Anyone had experience with one of these messes??

Thanks, Cliff
 
It's been said here many times, we are framers and not miracle workers.

If the paint layer is that thick and has alot of "texture" and clumps of paint that resemble a 3-D map of the Rockies, I would definitely not place it in a vacuum press under vacuum. You will not like the results nor will your customer.

If this is a "street painting" from Paris, it is most likely a souvenir of the customers from the trip to Paris and is meant to remind him/her of the trip. There aren't many options open for this puppy as it obviously wasn't handled properly from the get go.

If the adhesive is something like Colormount or some drymount adhesive it probably won't activate at much less than 160 degrees F. so the only suggestion that I could make is to try placing the painting in the vacuum press at 160 - 170 degrees with the vacuum OFF and heat it for about 5 minutes. You could try light hand pressure on the area that has delaminated and hope that the tissue will hold it down as it cools. That is a rather lame repair but, as I said, miracles are few and far between with thses projects.

Framerguy
 
Hi Cliff-

Too bad but yes, the vacuum will more than likely squash the impasto. Heat without pressure likely won't work, and foamboard doesn't conduct heat well.

It might not be sticking in that one spot because there is something greasy on the reverse of the canvas just in that area.

You could try injecting a small amount of Lascaux HV360 acrylic adhesive in there (available from Talas and other archival/conservation suppliers) and letting it dry under light, padded weight (so the impasto doesn't get flattened). This isn't the normal/proper use of the adhesive, so your repair won't be reversible, but the adhesive has good aging properties.

Or you could just say, "C'est la vie!..."

Rebecca

[ 01-27-2004, 12:27 PM: Message edited by: Rebecca ]
 
"He knows it's not right, but it is the way it is."

"There aren't many options open for this puppy as it obviously wasn't handled properly from the get go."


C'mon guys. This is airport art. These pieces rarely have enough margin to allow for stretching.

Assuming that, as in Cliff's case, the adhesive doesn't fail, what's the big problem with glueing them down? I know it's not c/p or even PC but aesthetically?

I wish there were a 'can of worms' icon. I may have just opened one.

Kit
 
I wouldn't think there'd be anything immoral about using glue on this thing.

But if there's dry mount tissue on the backing, or something really yucky on the back of the canvas, the trick might be to find a glue that will really hold. I don't think Elmer's is going to help.

Contact cement? E6000? Portland cement?
 
I wasn't thinking along the lines of "conservation" on this piece, Kit, it is most likely junk art that was bought off the street from a young starving artist that was looking for enough to buy a hot meal!

My comment was directed towards what may be under the canvas. As Ron said, if it is a mounting sheet like Colormount, it may not stick no matter what you shoot in under the canvas. And I have no problem with squirting stuff under it to hold the canvas down. My concern is what to squirt!

Portland cement is a fine choice but, right now in Cliff's area of the country, it would most likely freeze before it sets up!!

(And who wants to have a slab of sidewalk for a backing, anyway??)

Framerguy
 
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