Restoration of Yvonne Rust painting.

Valley of lilies: by Yvonne Rust. Acrylic on linen and oil tempered hardboard, 93 x 88 cm.
Before restoration by Harmen Hielkema

This painting by New Zealand artist Yvonne Rust is one of her earlier works from her Northland, Opua period and is one of a series of lily paintings.
The scene is of a valley surrounded by trees, white arran lilies feature in the fore and middle grounds. The canvas is of raw unprimed linen glued onto oil tempered hardboard. In the painting of this work Yvonne chose acrylic as her medium. She layered it on straight from the tube in an energetic and impressionistic style.

I believe that the finished painting spent some time folded up before it was glued to the board. Evidence of this lies in the obvious fold damage visible as two vertical lines bisecting the painting vertically where the paint has cracked and flaked off the linen substrate.

This painting features regular areas of bare or exposed linen where her brush has either missed or been dragged dry over the surface. In other areas the paint has been loaded on to the extent that as it dried over time it has become brittle showing long cracks.

I have consolidated the loose paint with PVA resin and cleaned the entire surface with a combination of methyl alcohol and water with a small dilution of potassium and sodium hydroxide.

Surface contaminants appeared to consist of mold, dust and insect spots which were removed with minimal disruption to the painted surface.

It was then considered appropriate to varnish the surface to further consolidate the paint and to protect it from further dirt infiltration.

In discussion with the owner it was decided that a mat varnish would best suit the piece to retain it's original overall appearance. Two coats of varnish were applied.

The finished result is not a startling transformation, however its long term survival is now assured. To further protect the piece I have recommended that it be re framed behind glass.

Valley of lilies: by Yvonne Rust. Acrylic on linen and oil tempered hardboard, 93 x 88 cm.
After restoration by Harmen Hielkema. 18th August 2008