
		artist@heirloomartstudio.com
2616 Wears Valley Road, Sevierville, Tennessee 37862-8300	Phone/Fax 865-428-4900	artist@heirloomartstudio.com

FINE ART RESTORATION PORTFOLIO

Kathryn Rutherford, owner of the Heirloom Art Studio, is a highly trained, award-winning fine artist
who excels in the creation of original oil, watercolour and digital paintings and portraits.

Kathryn is also a fine art conservator and restoration artisan qualified to restore
paintings on canvas, paintings on glass, paintings on wood panels, picture frames
and any wooden, plaster, composition or other such object of fine art.

Limited work can be completed on drawings and paintings on paper, but, restoration work does
not extend to paper repair and conservation or restoration of metal, glass or china objects.

Dirt, oil residue from furnaces, cigarette and fireplace smoke and general pollutants tend to accumulate
on the surface of a painting and hide the beautiful details and colours of the original work.

Older varnishes tend to darken with age whether they turn yellow, orange, red or gray. These varnishes
and any surface dirt needs to be carefully cleaned and stripped. Once a painting is cleaned,
varnish is stripped and restoration work is completed, the painting surface should be coated
with a conservationally approved synthetic varnish .

In the paintings above and below, the resin varnish is stripped. Various molds and surface damage
is cleaned and an earlier repair to the torn canvases (upper right corners) are properly repaired.

This canvas is "torqueing" or bulging in the upper corners. This results when the tension on the
stretcher bars becomes uneven, often because the wooden tension pegs in the back have
become dislodged or, in this case, are missing entirely. Controlling the tension of the canvas
is as important as the humidity and temperature in which the painting is stored or displayed.

ONE OF THE MORE UNIQUE RESTORATION PROJECTS...

As the Patron Saint of the customer's home town, this 110 year old St. Joseph statue was shipped from Italy to Canada. The statue, which stood almost three feet tall, had suffered various forms of damage both from handling over the years and as a result of shipping.

Damage was extensive and complicated. The Christ figure was broken completely away from the rock,
his left hand was broken at the wrist and three fingers were either missing or broken off. Both of St.
Joseph's feet were separating from the ground on which he stood. Present halos were made of coat
hanger wire wrapped with tin foil. The crook (or staff) was missing the top rounded section and silk
lilies were wired around the top of the remaining section. St. Joseph had no thumb on his right hand
and no baby finger on his left. Various cracks, chips and broken sections were found throughout the
statue and, due to changes in humidity and shipping between the two countries, the wooden base
materials had begun to shift, swell and crack. The customer suggested using a hammer to knock the
woods back into place, but, was convinced that this is never a recommended restoration procedure.
The entire piece was covered in a layer of oily grime and dirt from years of neglect.

It was decided that the statue should be encased in glass so as to protect it for future
generations. The customer requested that the base of the statue's misalignment be hidden
instead of attempting to return the altered wood to it's original position. In this manner, the
statue could not only be permanently secured, so as to prevent it from ever being knocked
over, but, the base could be widened to extend beyond the width of the shoulders.

Choosing an Italian, imported picture frame moulding, an ornate base and lid were created while the task
of creating the brass-wrapped, beveled glass walls was subcontracted to a local glass manufacturer.

Upon completion of the work (which took nearly one year), the statue and it's case were delivered to the owner's newly built custom home. A specially designed and lit niche had been worked into the construction where the statue was permanently installed for all to admire, enjoy and worship.