Public Art Private Studio

 In January 2011 I started my internship in the private conservation studio in Chelsea. The owners previously worked under Marco Grassi, a conservator of master paintings ,and started their own company together upon his retirement. I was very excited to have the opportunity for hands on experience in painting under such impressive conservators.
On my first day I walked in and after instruction immediately began working on the fill of a WPA painting. Much of the work in the studio is 20th century painting from galleries and art dealers, but they also receive large contracts for mural projects. The first of which was a WPA mural consisting of several canvas panels that had to be removed from the soon to be demolished public school's walls. The work  from the 1930's depicts the evolution of western civilization and has taken the studio over a year to complete.With the various panels I would later come to work on all steps of the conservation treatment.
Waxed paper was removed from the facing and loose pain chips secured first with beeswax. The surfaces later cleaned with xeline, then saturated with BEVA, and lined with a new canvas. We filled the loss with Flugger or Motostuc later sanding and cleaning to be perfectly level for the in-painting. There are several interns and we have created a bit of an army each tackling a panel and making it their own conservation project under the head conservators careful instruction.
Another contract the firm received is for murals from City Hall. The pieces of canvas were removed from the wall and testing showed the presence of lead paint merged with the plaster on the back. A special enclosing structure was built in the studio to contain the lead and attired in body suits, gloved and masked we carefully chipped and scraped away the layers of lead paint. The murals are now being cleaned lined, filled and in painted by the assistant conservators for installation early this summer.

Me dressing in protective gear in preparation to entering the Lead Chamber seen in the background.

Private Conservation is much different than Museum conservators. There is a balance between the clients budget, time constraint and insuring the financial success of the company. There is also little time for historical research and there is a focus on making treatment time most effective. In all of my internships I have a respect for a sense of confidentiality, which I feel is even more stressed in private practice.