Backstage Pass

“So-called art restoration is at least as tricky as brain surgery. Most pictures expire under scalpel and sponge.” ~ Alexander Eliot

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I honestly don't know how I'm going to be able to go back to work on Monday.

This Staycation has been so full of cool little adventures that I literally have not had time to process them all, let alone post them.

(Yes, this is a Sir Joshua Reynolds portrait.)

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Behind this secret white door is the paintings conservation lab at the de Young Museum.

You might remember my friend T., who is an art conservator at the museum. Actually he works on paintings for most of the fine arts museums in the city. Last year he was kind enough to take me on a tour of the labs. Now it looks like we might collaborate on a project together, making a book about how paintings are conserved. A book for kids. We're both really excited about it.

So today I came back to the labs and spent half the day there, watching, observing and learning more and taking over 300 photos.


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This is just a fraction of what I took pictures of. I'd add more but I've also been invited to a movie night with the art conservators. We're going to have chicken curry and watch Lust for Life, the Vincent van Gogh biopic starring Kirk Douglas. I think watching this movie with a bunch of art conservators will be pretty interesting and I bet there will be some fun commentary.

I won't be able to add much to the discussion, so I'm bringing the ice cream.

The last post I did about T. and the paintings, with some other great photos, is here.

Peeking Behind the Canvas

For those of you who remember reading From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler and wishing you could run away and live in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, this post will be a little taste of that fantasy.

Today, I got to go on a field trip of sorts (courtesy of The Boy), visiting a friend of ours at work, after hours.

Our friend is an art conservator for the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. He very kindly took us on a tour of his atelier, where he conserves paintings for the deYoung Museum and the Legion of Honor.

Our friend regularly works with centuries-old paintings, gently removing layers of yellowed lacquer, repairing torn canvases, and "in painting" areas where the paint has been completely removed.

These paintings, worth many millions, are restored to glory under the expert and gentle hands of our talented, patient friend.

His atelier is part artist retreat, part laboratory.


As much as I loved hearing the description of the restoration work before me, I couldn't help being fascinated by all of the materials and supplies.



Chemicals, pigments, palettes, all sorts of linens and mylars and solvents and tools, a Leica microscope, a heated vacuum table, an X-ray machine...all fascinating artifacts of this secret world that exists behind the museum's galleries.

I love getting glimpses of these hidden alternate worlds, learning about the different and fascinating things that people do all day.

More photos here.