How Artwork Renovation Is Undertaken

Art recovery is difficult work. Although clean-up of the work of art is typically essential for the purposes of conservation treatment, it's usually carried out for other reasons and different decisions can be just as legitimate so far as how the painting is restored as long as it can be carried out safely.

Of course, the end results might look different. Like a renowned artwork restoration expert once stated: "every cleaning is an act of significant interpretation". Nonetheless, in many instances it's possible and appealing to proceed through all of the stages of cleaning and reveal unobscured original paint. The cleaned artwork can be in practically perfect condition, or it can appear distinctively alarming with its old damages still showing. Paint may also be original but not have its original appearance. Colors might have changed colour or faded or even the actual transparency of the paint may expose under layers not originally obvious to the human eye.

The art repair expert then has got another decision that he must make. How much restoration should be done? That is, how much of the old damage that should be concealed by brand-new paint restoration and retouching? Clean-up choices definitely determine how a painting might appear, but so too will the approach to repair.

Restoration needs to balance two contradicting options, those of legibility and authenticity. On the one hand, the observer wishes to see a composition undamaged by deterioration and decline. Yet on the other hand, it is essential to know which parts of the original is actually painted and which aren't. Both of these needs are often satisfied by the restoration specialist insisting on a comprehensive image document of the actual work to be cleaned, followed by full painting restoration.

If the full photographic image of the original isn't found or even can't be obtained, it is up to the individual painting restoration specialist to take some inventive liberties in line with the adjoining areas of the painting as a guide. This is actually the creative portion of artwork repair and one that can't be calculated with charts and graphs. A qualified professional is the difference between the work of art appearing like the original and it appearing like a painting that's obviously been retouched and repaired.

It generally requires several years of training and continual polishing of techniques to make a painting that looks like the original. If a piece of art is a few hundred years old, this is often much more of a challenge because the painting recovery professional may need to make their own paint to make it just like the texture and color of the original. This is where the imaginative part of the equation is needed. Like I said previously, the majority of painting repair is more art than science.

Painting repair specialists use these careful solutions to clean and refurbish priceless works of art along with humdrum works of art which might be seen at the neighborhood library. The caliber of their artistry can most likely be measured by the experienced eye, in most cases it is the novice that may observe the actual results of restoration that are more obvious. Nevertheless, art repair is an important and essential job completed by trained specialists to create historical works of art preserved for our children and grandchildren to savor and appreciate for a long time to come.

To get the best information on painting restoration, check out our website all about oil painting restoration here!

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Aviation Art - An Appraisal

Aviation Art is sometimes frowned upon as not being a true art form, merely illustration by people interested in the subject and aimed at aviation enthusiasts who wish to buy an aeroplane print only

This is a little unfortunate as it is the only art form that can show a true vista of air, land and sea with an aircraft or balloon painting being able to take in landscape, aerial or marine painting as well as recording the aircraft.

Aviation paintings also serve as an important historical document of 20th Century History as much of the world we know now was formed by the aerial warfare of WWI and WWII. While paintings of WWI battles were seen during the war it was not until WWII that the role of the war aviation artist came about with Frank Wooton and Terence Cuneo being the two most prolific. Indeed, both names became stalwarts after the war too.

It is, of course, not just warfare that aviation art has played a part in recording, the trailblazing of events and people such as the first crossing of the Atlantic by Alcock & Brown in 1919 and of Charles Lindberg in 1927 being examples of important events that have benefited from the art form.

Posters depicting aviation were also of the utmost importance as with the birth of civil aviation a new genre of aviation art was born, in conjunction with the style pervading in those days of Art Deco. These works are much renowned and collected in their original forms creating a lasting legacy of the beginnings of commercial air travel.

The genre can be split into various categories, with the main differences lying in whether the artist wishes to record the historical event and aircraft in great detail as no such picture exists or in looser styles to show the speed, grace and power of aircraft in general. There are those artists who can achieve both and it is these artists, I would suggest, that push Aviation art as far as it can go. Artists such as Robert Taylor, Nicholas Trudgian, Roger Murray and Ronald Wong sit very much in the first group, while in those that push boundaries are those such as Wooton and Cuneo, Roger Middlebrook, Anthony Cowland and Michael Turner

The mediums that can be used in aviation art include Oil, Acrylic, Watercolour and Pencil. Sculpture is sometimes seen but is rather limited by the size and complexity of the subject.

In review aviation art does have an important social role to play and while interest in it may have diminished from its heyday of forty years ago there is little to detract from its usefulness at recording social change in the years since 1903 and the Wright's first flight.

Lee Lacey is an Associate member of the Guild of Aviation Artists in the U.K and has had a lifelong love of aviation and aviation art. To view his work and the art of others mentioned in this article visit http://www.hansenfineart.co.uk/

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How to Use Color to Create Atmosphere in a Painting

Atmosphere is usually hazier near the horizon on a normal weather day. Color would be less noticeable near the horizon and cooler than anywhere else in the painting. The color would depend on what your scene has in it. We will look at some examples later.

Color is painted a little differently with every medium you use. An example of this would be an oil painting vs watercolor painting. When you paint an oil or acrylic painting and it dries your able to paint a lighter coat of paint over it to change the color. By using white paint mixed with a cool color your able to tone down the color already on the canvas. In watercolor you must plan for the white or light areas of the painting. Your always able to paint darker shades over the paint but to lighten it is almost always impossible without ruining the concept. It must be planned before-hand as to how your going to handle the values which recede from the horizon line.

Let's now assume we are going to paint in watercolor and we must plan out a landscape with mountains in the far distance, pine trees and water in the middle ground and water and rocks in the foreground. You would now plan your scene with pencil sketches. Thinking distance you would arrange size, value and color pertaining to what your plans are. Atmosphere, as I said before on a normal day, is always hazier and cooler on the horizon. So since blue is a cool color, it would be bluer and lighter at the horizon. Anything in the distance would also be smaller in size. As we precede forward things become gradually larger, brighter and sharper until we reach the foreground where the color should be the most distinct and richest in color saturation and objects the sharpest. In other wards the most emphasized. When painting the mountains in the background each level of mountains would be a different value. Then the pine trees would have levels of size and color. An example would be the green of the trees, which should be grayed to different levels with blue or violet. Green is a cool color but blue is always the cooler of the two. The water also would have changes, bluer in the background and greener with reflection colors as you come closer to the foreground.

Atmosphere can also be referred to as the mood of the day. It can be heightened by Mist or Fog. It changes when a day is "Gloomy" which would be dark-dismal and could be void of light altogether. On a "Rainy day" where atmosphere perspective not only effects the horizon but the whole painting. Its evident on the short distances or could have light effects on foreground roads, puddles and sidewalks with reflections from patches of sunlight. Even a "Snowy day" which could be dark and dismal or sunny. Atmosphere affects everything.

Painting on a dismal day would have very little change in value or color, no shadows would be present, as in a sunny or bright day.

Atmosphere plays a large part of our painting. If not approached correctly from the beginning of the painting it will have a flat two dimensional feeling. Surreal or unrealistic.

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