Dear Mrs. Biddington,
I own some modern paintings that have a good coating of dust and dirt over them. Some of the paintings have fairly thick paint. Any ideas for sprucing them up?
Yours,
Giselle
Dear Giselle,
An artist friend Lynne Frehm dropped by as I was reading your letter. She suggests bread for cleaning surface dirt from oil paintings--even ones with heavy impasto. (Of course, avoid any areas where paint may be flaking.)
The procedure is as follows:
1. Buy a loaf (two or three loaves if the painting is large) of a good doughy bread--a large sourdough works nicely.
2. On a pretty day, take the painting outdoors--or work inside on a large drop cloth--since this is a messy procedure.
3. Using dough pulled from the inside of the loaf, scrub the painting using gentle pressure. You will see the soil collect on the dough. Get a new hunk of dough as the older piece gets dirty or disintegrates. Continue this process over the entire surface of the work.
4. Using a soft bristle brush--such as a good quality house painting brush--brush the remaining dough crumbs off the painting. Go methodically over the entire surface because the dough likes to stick and any remaining crumbs would be an enticement to insects.
Good luck with your spring cleaning!
Yours,
Dear Mrs. Biddington,
This may be a silly question, but I recently bought an oil painting on artists' board, and it definitely needs some cleaning up. How do I do this? It's not a valuable piece, and if it were one of my paintings I'd just take some soap and water to it. What shall I do?
Thank you,
Tommy
Dear Tommy,
Without truly expert knowledge and tools, it is difficult to assess what mix of materials were used to make the painting and what subsequent layers were applied to it for a finish or other form of protection. So, applying any solvent--even water-- to the surface is to court trouble.
For a superficial cleaning, dust the piece--ever so gently--with a very soft brush. (Imagine you are cleaning a soiled rose bloom from the garden.)
If the paint layers appear to be very firmly attached to the board support, you might try the bread technique given above; otherwise take the painting to a professional restorer or leave it as is. The likelihood of your destroying the piece in an attempted cleaning is quite high.
Words to live by: the reason some people choose watch repair as a hobby is they lack the patience to do art restoration.
Good luck.
Yours,
