Odd Job

Odd Job

Posted on August 7, 2019
By cabinart

An acquaintance asked a friend to ask me if I would repair a torn painting for him. The customer doesn’t want his painter friend to know that the painting was damaged (and dirty too – where did he have this thing??) So, I will only show you the section that I worked on.

I’ve done this once or twice before, but it has been awhile, so I consulted with The Duck (DuckDuckGo is my search engine of choice because it doesn’t track me or feed me ads it chooses.)

Yikes.

The painting might be oil, but it also might be acrylic. The surface of the canvas is very smooth, and the repair is making that spot a bit lumpy.

That is one ragged tear. If this was Big Deal Art, it would get done under a magnifying glass, arranging every little thread. But I don’t know what they’d do about the missing threads. . . did this get eaten??

It’s pretty inconvenient to have it so close to the stretcher bar.

piece of canvas on the back, attached with Gesso

This is the front side where I used Gesso again to fill in the gaping hole in several layers.

I put waxed paper against the Gessoed canvas and weighted it down overnight with an odd assortment of items at hand.

I sanded it, applied more Gesso, let it dry again, and sanded it some more. Finally I accepted the fact that it wasn’t going to look as good as new. (But it looked better than here, because I didn’t photograph every step. Boring process to watch, but challenging to do.)

Not quite right. Is it the color or the new surface of Gesso beneath?

I think the different surface is collecting light differently on the repair than on the original canvas.

If I could show you the entire painting, you would see that it blends.

If I could show you the painting, you might say, “Why bother?”

My dad taught me de gustibus non es dibutandem which means it is useless to argue over matters of taste.

He also taught me, “You kiss their fanny and take their money”.

To quote an anonymous source (not my dad), “This ain’t no pianie yer building!” But, I did my best to make it sturdy, smooth, and matched.

painting repair

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