Stretching Belief Part 1

This video is brought to you by Surfshark. Secure your digital life and gain private access to the open internet. Well, I'm really glad that you could join me here today, Brad, because there's some things about this painting that are really interesting. You know, at first glance, it looked pretty straightforward. The issues that you had mentioned to me were patently obvious, but as I spent more time with it trying to figure out what I wanted to do and how to achieve that goal, it started getting more convoluted and it started getting trickier. My uncle had the painting and I think we've owned it for about... since he passed away. So I brought this in because this is an extremely bad patch. Did a conservator do this? Or is this something that maybe... I mean, how did this theoretically happen? I don't know how the damage happened. You might... your uncle or your family may know that, but I can tell you that this is not the work of any conservator. This is... this is pretty amateurish. The fact that you can even see it tells you that a professional didn't do this work. No professional would let something like this out of their studio. You can see some of the fill-in has actually lifted off and is pulling away from the canvas. That would be because the expansion and contraction of the canvas has caused that fill-in to pop off. If you look closely, you can see that the texture here doesn't match the rest of the texture. This is... somebody took canvas and pressed it into the fill-in material. And so it is a canvas texture, but it is a negative. Whereas the real canvas is a positive. So is this maybe original here? And then this... these strips are what was put in? Yeah, absolutely. And you know what? Let's go and take a look at this painting under blacklight because it may be a little bit more informative. So this is what the painting looks like under blacklight or ultraviolet light. Organic pigments and materials fluoresce when exposed to ultraviolet light wavelength. And that can tell us what's on the surface of a painting. It can reveal the varnish. It can also reveal the retouching that's been added. And that's what I wanted to show you. Generally, retouching fluoresces darker purple or black when it is exposed to UV light. And in some places on this painting, we can see the fluorescence. If we look closely in the red of the coat right here and right up here on the collar, we can see lots of little dots of darker, almost purple indigo pigment. And that is the retouching. But we can't see it here. And so when I see something like that, it throws up a lot of red flags because it is out of the ordinary. It's not what we expect. If you look down along the ridge of the mountains, right along here, you can see little areas where there's really kind of bright white. Yeah, almost white. Yeah, like a canvas, bare canvas or something. Almost. Okay. After making some tests, I came to the realization that instead of doing retouching, the person who worked on this in the past simply repainted the entire sky. And they traced along the mountain range and didn't quite cover all of the original paint. My guess is that during the process of trying to retouch this, they couldn't. They couldn't match the color right. They couldn't quite get it. And out of desperation, they just repainted the whole sky. The fluorescent comes up with retouching. So the sky has not just been retouched. It's been completely painted over. What is the color? I mean, I love the color of the sky, strangely enough. But is there... It's not fluorescent at all, even though it all was... I guess it's not because it's been retouched. It's been completely painted over. Is that why it is not fluorescent at all? Fluorescing at all? Yeah, it's a great question. So if you want to see something fluoresce, you have to see something not fluoresce, if that makes sense. And so by covering the entire sky, it is fluorescing. And we can only see that it's fluorescing when we look right along the ridge and we see where it isn't retouched and fluorescing. And we don't see that below where the desert is. Well, actually, we do. Oh, no. It's not the end of the world. But yeah, if we come down here, we can see the same kind of painting tracing along the edge of the figure. Some places less careful than others. Right here, you can really see it where they just kind of missed some spots. Is the name real? Or is that a new signature? No, the signature is real. And they actually painted around the signature. That's nice. No, they were really sensitive there. That was good. Good job. But if we go back out to the table, I can show you with some tests, some solvent tests, precisely what I mean. Because this may be a little bit abstract. Even looking at it now, it's kind of difficult to see. And we saw it under UV, under blacklight. But I want to show you precisely what their overpainting looks like. So if you do this, the overpaint comes off and it's just the original. Why doesn't the original come off too? I'm just curious. The original is older. So it's had more time to cross-link, polymerize, and oxidize. And also the solvent is a gel, which prevents it from penetrating too quickly to the original paint. That's not the same color as that. No, it's lighter. Right, it's much lighter. And there's some subtle nuance in color that's just kind of flattened here. Now, if we go look at the sky, I suspect we're going to see the same thing. Yeah, now that is a big difference. It's not even in the same family. No, it's not. Huh, interesting. I don't know if I like that color as much as I like these. You tell me now. I'm just saying. I mean, this is a rich color, but that's a lighter color. Yeah, I mean, it is kind of a shock, obviously. As we live with paintings, we kind of grow to accept them as they are, even though the paintings are getting dirty or aging, and they're not actually how the artist envisioned them. And in this case, somebody else tinkered with it. So it's definitely not what the artist wanted. Right. This isn't even conservation. This is disappointing. But the good news is that we can do something about it. We can remove this overpaint. We take a lining off. Take out the old fill-in. Try to bring those two separated pieces of canvas back together so that we don't have to fill it in. Instead of using a band-aid approach, let's try to get to the root of the problem and correct it. I'm actually curious what the original painting looks like. I mean, there's so much retouching. The thing is, it's kind of sad in a sense, because honestly, I like the painting. I like the colors. I'm a little nervous about what's going to be underneath it. I'm really curious to see what's under here. I mean, the artist was obviously talented and skilled and created a really striking composition. And it's just so flat right now. I have to believe that there is some nuance of color, of brushwork, of tone throughout the foreground, and hopefully even in the sky, that, I mean, anything has got to be better than this, because this is just so flat. If we look at the area that we know is not retouched, really kind of the mountains and the rough foreground in front of the mountains, this is really beautiful. There's a lot of color here. There's really delicate brushwork. There's textural interest. This is, to some degree, the most interesting part of the painting. And so if this is any indication of the artist's skill, then I think we should have high hopes for what is underneath the painting. Maybe there's something underneath here that has the same type of tones or changes or whatever. See, that would be exciting to see that, rather than the whole bland sky. Okay, yeah, that would be great. I'm curious to see what's going to happen. Yeah, me too. While I think I have a handle on this painting and know what to expect, given how it has been treated in the past, I wouldn't be surprised to find something on the painting or in the treatment stretching belief. The old work failed. It had one job, and that was to hide the damage. And that's precisely what we want from conservation work. But it also applies to other aspects of our lives. Like when we're online and exposed and vulnerable, we may want to be hidden. And with Surfshark, you know that you're covered, literally. When you're online and exposed, Surfshark steps in and conceals you, makes sure that wandering eyes of trackers, advertising software, and even nefarious hackers, well, they can't see you. And Surfshark is pretty great because one subscription allows you to install it on an unlimited number of devices. And they have an app for just about everything. PC, Mac, Linux, Android, iOS, smart TVs, Amazon Fire Stick, Apple TV, Chrome, Firefox, Xbox, and PlayStation. So check out surfshark.deals slash restoration and enter the promo code restoration for, get this, 83% off and an extra three, no, no, no, four months for free. Now that deal is stretching belief. To remove all of this excessive overpaint that was meant to hide the damage and maybe something else, who knows? I'm using a gelled solvent. And gelled solvents are simply solvents, liquids turned into a gel state. And the gel state is important because it A, slows down evaporation, B, slows down penetration and allows the solvent to be workable. So applying this gelled solvent to the surface, I can prevent it from evaporating too quickly to be effective, slow it down so it doesn't penetrate through and to the original paint layer and use my bristle brush to agitate or move around the solvent and the paint that's being softened by it. Now, once that solvent has had enough time to work and I'm confident that the top layer of overpaint has been agitated enough, I can come back with another solvent and start lifting off that thick gel. And you can see lots is coming off. All of what is on my swab or cotton ball is overpaint and solvent. That's what the painting is covered with. Somebody simply decided to repaint the majority of this painting. And now I'm removing it. And as it comes off, we can see what the artist actually did. Now, removing overpaint is only possible when the overpaint is young enough or soft enough. Oil paint oxidizes and cross-links over time with exposure to oxygen. And that causes it to get hard and rigid and permanent. Now, if this overpaint were 100 years old, well, it would just be part of the painting. It might not be possible to remove it. But because this overpaint is younger, maybe 30, maybe 40 years, it is still receptive to these solvents. Now, you ask, how come the underlying paint isn't? Well, it can be. And that's why we use a gelled solvent. In addition, we make tons of tests to make sure the correct solvent or correct ratio of solvents and the right duration, the right procedure, technique are discovered so that we don't remove any of the original paint. But the original paint is older than the overpaint. So even if it is vulnerable, it's going to take a little bit more time or a little bit more exposure to become affected than the overpainting. Because remember, the overpainting is younger. And so it will become softened or affected by the solvent mixture before the original. And there's no hard and fast rule or chart for how to do this. It's just a lot of experience and understanding the nuances of paint. And with that right side removed, and now with the entirety removed, we can see that the foreground has much more depth than did before. It's not just a flat tan sand color. So on to the sky. And this is the area in which I have a great deal of interest because I want to see what they're covering up. So just like before, applying the solvent gel in a small area, working it with the bristle brush, and then allowing enough time for the overpaint to soften, but not so much time that the underlying paint becomes vulnerable, I can remove that top layer. And if the sand in the foreground looked pretty good, well, the sky isn't looking as good as I had hoped. Initially, I can see what looks like dark areas embedded in the paint layer. And I'm not sure what this is just yet, but I'm pretty sure I'll discover. In addition, I'm also seeing that the paint layer was skinned. And skinning happens when the painting is abraded or overcleaned. Perhaps the solvent is too aggressive or the technique is too aggressive. In any event, the top layers, the high points on the canvas, end up getting abraded or removed. Skin. Now, as I'm working on this painting more and seeing a bigger, clearer picture of the work that was done, and it's starting to give me an idea of why it was done, I suspect that this painting was very, very dirty in the past. That's all of that gray stuff that's still embedded in the canvas. Maybe it's soot. Maybe it's cigarette smoke. Who knows at this point? But somebody tried to clean it and they weren't successful. And so they scrubbed and scrubbed. And maybe they used a solvent that was more aggressive or an approach that was more aggressive or a bristle brush that was really stiff or maybe a wire brush or even sandpaper. I do not know. But in the process, what they did in attempting to clean the painting was take off some of the original paint. And seeing what they had done, well, the answer was to just repaint the painting. And as I come to the area where the tear was visible, well, we can see just how bad it looks. All of that grime, those dark spots still on the canvas, the white spots are where the original paint was removed and this brownish area, well, that's fill-in. You can see just how big this tear is. That's a huge gap. It may be three, maybe in some places, four millimeters wide. That is too big. And it's no wonder that the fill-in medium has failed. Even though this painting was lined, there is still movement on the lining canvas, the original canvas, and with the fill-in medium. And all of those micro movements, well, they cause the materials to separate. And in this case, lift, which is why we could see it with the naked eye. Now, one area I have particular interest in is the retouching in the red of the coat. That retouching, if we remember to the black light, was really controlled, really good. So I expect to see some losses, but I'm not. There's nothing here. The paint layer was just sitting on top, which leads me to believe that that retouching was put there as a distraction, a red herring, so to speak. So that if the painting was ever viewed under black light, well, just as we noticed the retouching right away, so too would somebody else. And maybe not notice the entire overpainting of the sky and the foreground. You know, the easiest way to rob a bank is to start a fire across town and draw all the attention there. It's the same principle that magicians use with sleight of hand. Distract me over here while I do something over there. With the painting free of all of that overpaint, I can now turn my attention to this old lining. And I'm going to remove the painting from the stretcher, taking out all of these little tacks. One by one, nothing special here. I am pleased that they are tacks, but that doesn't make up for the entirely unacceptable overpaint on the entire painting. Once the painting has been detached from the stretcher, I can pull the stretcher out. And this lining is really stiff. This canvas is really, really heavy and really stiff, which is kind of odd. Now, I'm going to try to see if I can peel back this canvas dry before adding any moisture to it. Remember, adding moisture causes the adhesive to soften up, but it will also cause the canvases to distort. And that distortion can become problematic. So if I can peel this canvas back dry and then deal with the adhesive as a second step, it will be to my benefit. Well, the painting's benefit. And luckily for me, the canvas is separating from the adhesive layer. Sometimes this happens because the procedure wasn't done well, because the adhesive wasn't done, or just age and time caused the adhesive to break down and separate from the top canvas. Now, it still takes quite a bit of effort, as you can see. And I'm just going centimeters by centimeter. I don't need to pull this all off in one fell swoop. It's not like pulling out a tablecloth from underneath a set dining table. I just need to get it off. And if it takes a while, so be it. The name of the game here isn't speed. It's precision. And this is actually quite a bit harder than I thought. Not indicative of some of the old adhesives that I've used in the past. Generally, when rabbit skin glue fails, it fails pretty easily. Now, that's not always the case. There are outliers. But this canvas is giving me a run for my money. I have been working at this for, oh, probably an hour or so. And I've only got, what is this, like less than a quarter of the canvas removed. So it's going to take quite a while. In some areas, it comes off easy. And then in other areas, it's really stuck on and requires a ton of strength. And as I come to the area where the tear is, well, we can see that there is absolutely no ancillary support. There's no washi kozo. There's not even a sheet of paper attached here. It's just canvas, fill-in medium, glue, and new canvas. It's clear that this was going to fail. There's no reason why it shouldn't. So finally, with sore hands and all of the canvas off, I have a full look at the original painting. I am glad to be done with this part. If we take a look at the area where the repair was, we can pull out all of that fill-in medium. It's just really brittle and it flakes right out. But more interesting is the fact that these edges are really clean. It looks as if they've been cut. There are no loose canvas fibers. And in fact, that's precisely what they did. They cut off all of the canvas fibers, something that just stretches belief. Those fibers are critical to making sure that this tear doesn't open up, precisely what it did do. So on to the adhesive removal. Now, I made some tests and I found that this adhesive is responsive to moisture. So I'm using a gelled water solution and I'm going to paint it onto the back of this canvas and allow the adhesive to swell. The reason I don't use just plain water is that I can't control it. It goes everywhere instead of just being in this small square. It also evaporates and that makes it not very helpful. The gelled water solution will sit on the surface, prevent the water from evaporating, and yet allow the adhesive to soak up that water slowly. So if it takes two minutes, five minutes, 10 minutes, 20 minutes, it will get the job done. And that's precisely what I want, this adhesive to soften up so that I can remove it. Now, something else that I'm seeing that's just odd are these grooves or swirly lines on the back of the canvas. And these correspond with what I believe is a notched trowel, something that would be used when applying thinset or tile adhesive. Not something when you're using rabbit skin glue. Rabbit skin glue doesn't need a notched trowel and it's not commonplace to notch an adhesive when lining a painting. Yes for tiles, no for conservation. I have some sneaking suspicions about this. Now, after about 20 minutes of exposure to the water gel, I can start to remove the adhesive with my scalpel. And I'm noticing a couple of things right off the bat. This adhesive is thick, really thick. I'm talking like almost two millimeters thick, which is way, way more adhesive than you would need for a lining. It's just too much. In addition, it's really stiff. Yes, it's softened to the point where I can remove it, but 20 minutes of exposure to moisture and rabbit skin glue would be like jelly. It would scrape right off. In fact, you've seen me remove it. This still requires quite a bit of force, which just doesn't seem right. In addition, there's something else I'm noticing about this, and that's smell. Now, I know the smell of rabbit skin glue. I will forever know the smell of rabbit skin glue. Until I die, that smell will be ingrained in my senses. And this, my friends, is not rabbit skin glue. But the smell does trigger something in my memory. The house in which I live was built in 1960. And during a renovation of one of the bathrooms, I removed tile from the wall. Now, this tile was adhered with a tan brown adhesive that didn't react to any chemicals, but it did soften a bit with exposure to water. I know, because I had to wash the walls of it. And this is the exact same smell. Just like I know rabbit skin glue, this smell takes me right back to being on my hands and knees popping tiles off of the wall. I think they used tile adhesive with a notched trowel to glue this painting down. I... I mean... What the... I have no words. To say that this is a shock is, well, an understatement. But I guess the title of this video is Stretching Belief, so it's perfectly fitting. Now, I was able to get all of the adhesive off. Initially, when I calculated this project, I figured a couple of hours at max to get all of this adhesive off. Well, nearly 12 hours of scraping later, I got it all off. Well, almost all. There was some that was still embedded deep in the canvas fibers, and there was no amount of scraping or working that is going to get all of that off. So some of it, some of that residue, will inevitably remain. And I don't like that, but there's nothing I can do. Now, I mentioned that using a water gel would help reduce canvas distortion. Well, nearly 12 hours of scraping and exposure to moisture. This canvas, it distorted. But it's a good thing that I have a hot table, because I can do a hot table treatment to reduce and remove all of those distortions. By exposing the painting to moisture, heat, and downward pressure via a vacuum pump, I can soften that canvas, help extract some of the adhesive residues, and then flatten it as it cools and dries. Now, the process here is relatively simple. A dampened cotton blotter paper, a release layer to make sure that nothing gets glued to that dampened cotton blotter paper. That is, when the adhesive activates and softens, I don't want to bond the painting to the paper. Ask me how I know. Well, I'll just tell you. I glued a painting to blotter paper once when I forgot the release layer. And that just involves more scraping. My favorite thing. So once that is all laid down, I will then take a piece of PET film or mylar and create an airtight envelope. I will then use through-bag connectors to extract the air, and a ribbon running around the canvas to facilitate even removal. Then the heat goes on, the vacuum pump goes on, and we can start treating the painting. The vacuum pump is going to suck all of the air out of this envelope and create downward even pressure. And that's one of the great benefits of having a large table like this, is that the entire painting receives exposure to heat, moisture, and pressure at the same time and evenly. So there are no further distortions. Not something you can do locally. So now at this point, I have taken everything I can off of the painting. The overpaint, the grime, the dirt, the lining canvas, and the adhesive. And it's a perfect point to stop and think about how I'm going to put it back together. Because taking it apart, while the fun part, that's actually sometimes the easy part. So join me for the next video, where I finish up and see if there's anything else that will stretch my belief.