A customer of ours brought in this painting with a great big rip right in the middle of the coastline. Here we will show how we accomplished a painting repair when it seams as thought it’s a lost cause. Something had fallen against the artwork and there was a tear in the artwork, along with leaving a brown scratch (probably what fell against it) alongside the tear. The customer loved the painting becasue it brought back many memories to the owner. They did not care if the painting was valuable or as it had sentimental value to them, and wanted it repaired.
Here is a close up of the hole in the painting. It was a 4″ tear with a brownish scratch running alongside the rip.
So we tried to use clear water to clean off the scratch, which didn’t work. We added a little dish soap to the cloth and it was removed.
We turned the painting over on flat surface and glued a piece of raw canvas to the back, making sure to press the canvas down along the rip to give it stability.
We flipped it back over and supported the underside with a buildup and to make it level. Then we placed a piece of plexi over the tear and and let it sit overnight to dry with weights to make sure the rip dries flat.
The rip is now very flat and the sides are joined back together without any puckering. This is necessary to make the repair less noticable after the painting repair.
This is the final result of the repair. Now the focus is on the subject matter of a couple walking on the beach while the sun is setting, or it could be when the sun is rising, depending on your interpretation. The customers were very happy with the results and quickly forgot about the damage the painting once had, and it wasn’t a major expense for them to get it repaired.
