The Art of  Restoration

Where do I begin?  Of the hundreds (I approximate over 800 original works)  of pieces of art that I have made over the past 10 years, only a lucky handful of it was actually untouched by floodwaters.  What was thought to be  the right move for over a year  by putting the art in the  shop,  it actually turned out to be the worst move  ever; however noboby  expected this kind of storm in a million years.  These photographs , taken in May 2006, show the artworks in the loft of the shop- not doing a whole lot until cleaned up and posted here for sale.

The paintings will slowly come down from the loft, maybe a dozen at the most at a time,  cleaned  and sanitized again, sized and photographed. As you can see, there are so many it is going to be a long process.    Not  everything you see is paintings or drawings. Anything that is in rolls in boxes unless otherwise noted are blueprint plans of the sheetmetasl company. To the right, on top of the duct,  these are paintings and laying flat under the painting is a pile of posters, mostly of local happenings such as Mardi Gras and Seafood Festivals.

At left  is a pile of sketchbooks, watercolor pads, and rolled  up paintings that thankfully  did not get damaged as they were right where they were during the storm, although te shelf has been removed out of the office room.  They were about a foot above the water.   If you note to the right of the photo and  to the top,  the stairs lead up to the loft, where the art  has been stored. This is also where we believe Pearl  went during the storm.  To see a photo of Pearl, click here.

Most of the works are oil on canvas or hardboard, which are relatively easy to clean and did not sustain much serious damage.  Works on paper got stained pretty bad, and anything that was linen on hardboard  got a worse deal than anything else, especially if the background was of a lighter color. Stains from mold really  left marks that are  very hard to remove. Some  that are very stubborn may not be able to be removed.   Most of the paintings that went under, though, with a little TLC and cleaning  should be just fine.

Paintings cover almost every surface in the loft. They are piled on the ductwork, against boxes(again, these are blueprints) still in frames.    Here they sit waiting for the major rennovation that is fixing to take place.     Looking back on it, there was a time when I painted all day, every day except maybe on  the weekends, and sometimes even then, too.  Since the storm I haven't done much of anything artwise because there is so much cleaning up and arranging to do, plus losing my original studio.  I  do  have a new, portable studio, a  travel trailer.

On larger paintings like the one at right, the bracings have come away (or completely off) paintings that were  literally soaked in dirty, briney water. They  were dried off as quickly as possible,  but molds and other nasties moved in pretty quickly.    The greenish blue tint on the back of this painting is some kind of mold  that will have to be killed  and a special inhibiting spray  applied to keep it from coming back.  The hot, still August humidity did not help matters after the storm, either. The  air was so hot and muggy  you could cut it  with a knife.  This was just detrimental  for artwork.

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