Before attempting to repair your oil painting review this article carefully and strongly consider seeking the advice of a conservator. A faild repair attempt can do much more damage than you might imagine.

Care of oil paintings. Sound advice!

These notes apply to routine home care of paintings in good condition.

Paintings usually deteriorate slowly. It is normal for a painting to become brittle and crack with age, but home remedies such as "feeding" with oil are futile and often injurious. If there is any doubt about the condition of a painting, or if it has been damaged accidentally, it should be left untouched until it can be examined by a professional conservator. Neglect is less dangerous than inexpert treatment.

Paintings are adversely affected by extremes of humidity. A uniform relative humidity of 50% is recommended. Paintings should be hung away from windows, radiators, and fireplaces. When stored, paintings should have access to some light and air; the use of light dust covers is also advisable.

Caution must always be taken before dusting a painting. Before touching the paint surface, examine it for lifting and insecure paint. If the paint is not firmly attached to the canvas, the mechanical action of dusting may further damage the paint.

Loose dust and dirt can be removed from oil paintings with a soft ox or sable hair brush; a soft lint-free cloth may also be used. Avoid rubbing or placing pressure on the painting when dusting.

No other treatment should be tried at home. Paintings should not be treated, on either the front or back, with any kind of oil, solvents (such as alcohol), soap, water, bread crumbs, raw potatoes or household cleaners. Some of these products may improve the painting's appearance temporarily but can be harmful in inexperienced hands.

Here are some commonly asked questions, and the answeres from a conservator.

Are you painting the picture?
This is a question often heard from casual viewers who happen upon a conservation project. When people view a paintings conservator treating a mural or picture, they often mistaken the activity for creating or painting the work of art.

The process of conserving a work of art is very different since it always starts with a previously completed work of art. The only painting which takes place during the conservation process is called inpainting and is done only to restore areas of the painting which have been damaged or deteriorated.

What is inpainting?
The type of painting which is done in the conservation process is called inpainting. During the inpainting process, losses in the paint and ground layer are filled, leveled, and textured to match surrounding, original layers. Inpaint is applied on the losses, areas of abrasion, and to diminish stains and old restorations (if they are not removed). Inpainting is done only after the original painting has been varnished. This varnish is used to saturate the paint layer and to provide an even gloss surface quality as well as to physically separate the original painting from the inpainting. When done properly, the varnish and the inpainting can be removed during future conservation processes with little or no effect to the remaining original paint layers.

Are there some things you cannot fix or will not fix?
At times, we encounter works of art that are terribly damaged and cannot be conserved. The hardest news to give a client is that little can be done to bring a painting closer to its original condition and appearance.

How do you decide what paint to remove and what to leave?
When conserving a painting, it is very important to know the difference between an original paint layer and overpaint later added to repair or disguise damage. Very often, paintings were previously restored and overpaint using an oil-based paint. The newer oil paint may have matched the original paint layers for a period of time, but later darkens slightly with age, and soon, the restored areas can easily detected. If a painting is restored using stable, non-discoloring synthetic resin paint (like acrylics), the overpainting will not darken. In addition, synthetic paints can be safely removed from an original paint layer with solvents that will not harm the painting.

An experienced paintings conservator has tools at their disposal to detect restoration. Both oil and synthetic resin overpaint or inpainting can be visually detected using a ultraviolet light source. Infrared light sources can also helpful in identifying areas which have been inpainted. Most essential is the experienced eye of the paintings conservator.