In 1992 I got a call from The Oaks heath resort in Ojai, California about a wonderful  7′ x 26′ mural by Jessie Arms Botke, painted in 1953. Botke has become very well known in the art history of early California and is collected by all the major collections of this type of art. Her prolific number of paintings of birds, fish and wonderful plants are usually all of high quality and can be expensive my most people’s standards.

The Oaks was about to go through a remodel which was going to involve the demolition of the wall on which this mural was painted. Actually, the mural was painted, in oil, on canvas then was glued to the wall. We were hired to carefully remove the canvas (that was adhered with wall paper paste) in a way that did not set into motion the mass flaking of the paint layers.

It was nice to be housed at the health resort/spa for a week… although we were not, of course, on a retreat! But all was accomplished as planned within the week set aside. Then we took the two sections of painting to our lab in Santa Barbara (for a quick video tour go to http://www.fineartconservationlab.com) for further work.

At the lab, we processed the painting stabilizing the paint to make sure that flaking would not be an issue far into the future. The murals were cleaned. Then we lined or backed the murals and mounted them to stretcher bars. The work was completed with layers of new varnish. Very little touch up (or inpainting) was needed as the murals were in great shape.

It was very gratifying to work with Irvine Museum Director Jean Stern on this project and to facilitate the donation process to the museum. What a wonderful place for these murals. Here is the explanation of the exhibit that is now at The Irvne Museum:

Inner Visions: Women Artists of California features works by women working in California in three major periods: the Tonalist style of the late 1800s; the Impressionist period of the early 1900s, and the Regionalist style of the 1930s and 1940s. The central attraction in Inner Visions is the 7 feet by 26 feet mural by Jessie Arms Botke, a gift to The Irvine Museum from The Oaks at Ojai, for which the mural was painted in 1953.

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, California had more women artists than other regions of the country. In the East, the entrenched art establishment had existed for more than a century and it consisted solely of men artists. It was deemed inappropriate to have women earning a living and pursuing a career in the arts. By contrast, there was no entrenched art establishment in Los Angeles as both men and women artists began arriving at the same time. Artists who lived in Southern California in the early 1900s were part of a close circle of friends and included men and women.

Artists featured in Inner Visions include Jessie Arms Botke, Meta Cressey, Anna Hills, Donna N. Schuster, Marion Kavanagh Wachtel, among others.

The main attraction for Inner Visions is a mural from the venerable Oaks Hotel in Ojai, a generous gift to The Irvine Museum in 1992 from the Oaks at Ojai. The mural was painted in 1953 by Jessie Arms Botke, with assistance from her husband Cornelis Botke. It is a large work, measuring nearly 7 feet high by 26 feet long and it represents a scene in the Everglades, with a large variety of bird life and flora set on a gold-leaf background.

The mural graced the ballroom wall of the old Oaks Hotel for nearly forty years when, in the course of renovating the hotel, the decision was made to tear down the wall in order to enlarge the room. Mindful that this was an important work of California art, the hotel offered the mural as a gift to The Irvine Museum with the condition that the museum assume the costs of removal and restoration of the work. Fortunately, the mural was painted on two large pieces of canvas, and not directly on the wall. The mural was carefully removed and restored to its full glory.

At the time The Irvine Museum received the mural, the museum was in a large suite on the 12th floor of its current building. As such, it was impossible to bring the mural into the museum because it would not fit into the elevators. So, for more than eighteen years the mural was displayed at Joan Irvine Smith Hall, at the University of California, Irvine. A few years ago, the museum relocated to the ground floor of its current building, thus making the elevator restrictions moot.

The museum is finally able to display this majestic and magical mural. Since the museum does not have a single wall that measures 26 feet, the mural will be displayed in its two parts for Inner Visions, one measuring 14 feet long and other 12 feet long. They will be shown on opposite walls so the viewer will, in effect, be in the middle of the scene.

The right section of the mural

The left side of the mural

JESSIE ARMS BOTKE (1883-1971) was a Chicago artist who specialized in painting works that featured exotic birds surrounded by wondrous plants and blossoms. Little interested in landscape, Botke worked in the brilliant and colorful style of Art Deco. She worked in oil and often added gold and silver leaf in the background.

Fast Tube by Casper

Art Conservation Questions? Call Scott Haskins 805 564 3438

Art appraisal questions? Call Richard Holgate 805 895 5121

Marilyn McMahon SB News Press Writer of the Lifestyle Section

When she made the appointment to interview me, I emailed her a ton of stuff about my background (to read how I got into the art conservation field – click here). When she arrived, this lady was all business yet, affable. We started out with a tour of the art conservation lab (you can take a tour also on our home page) just to orient her. When someone comes through the lab, especially for the first time, its  a bit bewildering and new but not so much for this experienced reporter. She quickly saw things she would refer to later.

After she got the low down on my background, she wanted to hear stories. One of the stories I told her was this story was about the Priceless Russian Renaissance Icon here in this video:

Fast Tube by Casper

She was bedazzled by what we do etc so I’m hoping that it will turn into a really great write up. The interview was for the feature article of the Sunday Lifestyle Section of the Santa Barbara News Press to come out on Sunday June 3rd.

Would you or your group like a tour and to “talk art?” Give me a call:

Scott M. Haskins 805 564 3438

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The Library of Congress in Washington DC

Preserving our history and sharing knowledge are what our profession does best. You can play an important role in helping your patrons save their own family history and personal treasures.

In celebration of Preservation Week 2012  http://www.ala.org/alcts/confevents/preswk , the Library of Congress is sponsoring public events to share preservation strategies and basic instructions that help people care for their personal materials and thereby pass them on.

The full list of Preservation Week programs and activities plus a description can be found at http://www.digitalpreservation.gov/meetings/presweek2012.html and in the Library’s official press release http://www.loc.gov/today/pr/2012-12-069.html

Here are two events that might interest you more than others cause you can attend them on your computer!:

Wednesday, April 25, 2012 - 3-4 pm EST - Webinar

“Saving Cherished Memorabilia: Preservation Tips for Family Historians” Staff members from the Library’s Preservation Directorate and the Local History and Genealogy Reading will host a free webinar with tips and recommendations for preserving family memorabilia. To participate in this webinar, send an email at least three days prior to the event to Mark Wilson mwilson@loc__gov. Webinar “seats” are limited and will be filled in the order in which the requests are received.

Thursday, April 26 2-3 pm EST - Webinar

“Preserving Your Personal Digital Photographs” The National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program will present information about learning to care for digital photos.  Hosted by the Association for Library Collections and Technical Services. Its Free but registration is required at  https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/666813208

Scott M. Haskins 805 564 3438

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Fred specializes in Post War Expressionist Art, art from the 1st quarter of the 20th century and contemporary art.
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Art conservation questions? Call Scott at 805 564 3438
Art appraisal questions? Call Fred Page at 949 675 4100

Daughter of Utah Pioneers in Salt Lake City

I’ve been received very warmly and hospitably. Its been really wonderful to get to know everyone. I started doing work for this really fantastic museum back in 1980 but when I moved out of Utah in 1984 and the administration of the museum turned over, I lost contact. This is my first project, working again with this organization of which I am so enthusiastic. The museum has an extraordinary collection of early Americana and Pioneer art and artifacts.

Today, I’ll be doing art conservation treatments on the hugely important and historical full sized portrait of Brigham Young, painted about 1843 in Nauvoo, Illinois a couple of years prior to the Mormon exodus West.

Brigham Young about 1843

Actually, this is the second time I’ve worked on this portrait. Back in about 1980 I did the major art conservation work on it. But a few years ago during a renovation, there was a mishap with the contractors and smoke and dust spewed out in the room with this painting and its covered with a layer of black dust and grime. So, today, I will be cleaning a painting and revarnishing.

It looks like the work at the museum will be a long term relationship. I’ll be setting up a blog with great articles and videos so you can stay in touch with the wonderful historical paintings that we will be doing art conservation and restoration on and other very interesting news from this very cool organization. Its a delightful and fun time capsule into the past walking through their exhibitions.

Art conservation questions? Call Scott Haskins 805 564 3438

Art Appraisal questions? Call Richard Holgate at 805 895 5121

Like Mormon Art? Go to http://www.mormonartconservation.org

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Taggers put on notice

While sitting in my booth at the LA Art Show I looked up and noticed a man young man in his late 20’s in a fashion challenged suit and tie staring at my wide screen monitor of the many photos of the processes of graffiti removal from the freeway mural Jim Morphesis Monument. He asked me why I thought there was no good quality graffiti art in this art expo. We went back and forth with a few ideas and then I asked him if he was an artist.

He had been a tagger in his younger years but he was way over that now. In fact, he was sorry and knows it was wrong. He’s doing some artwork with graffiti art style. He had never heard the term “aerosol art.” He even dropped MCLA’s name as an organization for whom he was doing art.

Then he mentioned, nodding at the monitor, that he knew all about what’s been happening with this mural on the freeway. He said he knew the taggers in town and that there are a couple of “older guys” that are kind of like the God Fathers of tagging. He said they liked the clean up efforts we’re doing to make the mural visible again. After the second time the mural got tagged (after our cleaning), he said, “these older guys put it out over the Internet, on Facebook and stuff, that if anyone hits this mural again, they will hunt them down and make them pay for the disrespect.”

Wohoa! In fact, its been three weeks now… we’ll see.

FACL's booth at the LA Art Show

Questions? Call Scott Haskins 805 570 4140 mobile anytime

Want to donate to help keep graffiti off the murals? Contact Isabel Rojas-Williams at www.muralconservancy.org

Sierra Lake Scene by Edgar Payne, Before Conservation

I think George’s finding of this treasure was an inside job; his son and art dealer Steve Stern was the person who sniffed out this previously unknown gorgeous painting from about 1920. What a great partnership! I’ve got a good thing going with my oldest daughter, Virginia. She is my right hand woman in the conservation lab.

When the painting came into the lab it was, as you can see, very dirty, never touched. The cleaning or removal of the tops layers of discolored varnish and grime were fairly easy. In fact, on the mountain ridge on the right you can see a cleaning spot where someone tried testing the solvents on the paint. Interestingly, even though that spot looked amazingly different than the rest of the dirty painting, the revealed “cleaned” spot is not really clean. Another, different solvent took the cleaning even further removing a very hard varnish (probably mixed with linseed oil) and really let it “sing soprano”, as Bill Karges says.

The painting was also lined to remove cracking patterns which brought it back to its original look. The original stretcher bars were re-used and we only applied a few tiny specks of inpainting. Wow, did it glow after we got the final varnish on it!!! You can see it in George Stern‘s booth at the LA Art Show this year (this week!)

Sierra Lake Scene by Edgar Payne, After Conservation

A funny detail about this painting; Edgar misspelled his name! Because the signature is mixed into the paint (applied when the paint was still wet) there are no doubts that Payne did this painting. But he spelled his name “EDGR.” We didn’t even notice it until after all the dark “crud” was cleaned off. Maybe the weather was changing and he was in a hurry to pack up? I’ve misspelled my name before too… usually in an email when I’m in a hurry.

If we look back into our archives at Fine Art Conservation Laboratories, we find that we have worked on over 250 paintings by Edgar Payne through the years. Together with the unrestrained enthusiastic testimonials we recieve about the quality of our work, I’d say that qualifies us as THE EXPERTS! Click here for testimonials.

See you at the LA Art Show!

Art conservation questions? Call Scott Haskins 805 570 4140 mobile

Art Appraisal questions? Call Richard at 805 895 5121

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After cleaning

William Wendt’s (1865-1946) paintings were often produced with a predominately green appearance or predominately brown. So, is this the most colorful painting you’ve ever seen by Wendt? Leave a comment below.

George Stern found this painting at the last minute before the beginning of the LA Art Show that will be held at the LA Convention Center next week. It was a hurry up art conservation project that we loved to do. In fact, we delivered the gorgeous “thang” today! Its been with us all this last week and the transformation was wonderful.

The really discolored layer of old varnish and grime came off quite easily and, of course made quite a difference in the appearance. But, after we got it cleaned, it still seemed gray to us. We hummed and hawed, tested with other solvents than what we had been using but not much changed. There was an overall softness or lack of “pop.” Then after we seemed to have tried everything, Painting Conservator Virginia Panizzon found a customized mixture that broke the code. We were all amazed, actually, at the difference in color with the removal of the gray layer (a VERY hard linseed oil coating).

Hard gray layer coating removal from Wendt

Usually, the removal of a gray linseed oil layer doesn’t make THAT much difference in the dark colors. While it is usually a wonderful difference in the lighter colors and allows the light in the colors to really shine, look at the color difference in the dark greens in this photo! With the removal of the gray layer, we got the original spectacular sparkle we were hoping to find. After it was safely cleaned (no original paint loss or removal) the correct kind of varnish makes sure that the colors show off their best.

In addition to the cleaning, the painting was cracked over the entire surface and a lining brought all the paint layers back into plane and they disappeared in the process. The painting looks perfect.

Don’t you love this painting? I do.

If you are an art collector, there is a lesson to learn here: George consults with me often about what is possible in the art conservation – art restoration process… and George has boucoup experience! So, I invite you to open up a relationship and dialog with me and let FACL, Inc. be your ace in the hole.

A suggestion: Check out the instructional CD for inspecting paintings with a UV light at http://www.fineartconservationlab.com/uv-blacklight/

Scott M. Haskins 805 564 3438

Art appraisals: Richard at 805 895 5121

See George Stern talk about why he works with FACL in the very short video:
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Dining Room at Clark Estate

This was a trip to work with and talk mostly about Post War Expressionism which I always enjoy. Looking at abstract art is kind of like learning to speak another language. There’s a different vibe. I’m in the middle of going through the new biography on Steve Jobs and in it the author talks about Steve’s immersion into the counter culture of the 60′s and 70′s. Post War Expressionism is the intellectual and serious art of that historic international movement. Here is a new/old painting that was just salvaged from distruction. It was thought to be ruined! Not Hardly! Its by Sonya Rapoport and is dated 1954. She was part of the internationally important Berkley School of abstraction.

Sonya Rapoport 1954 Abstract

This painting is approximately 28 x 36, oil on canvas. We will consolidate flaking paint, do minimal inpainting, line it and put it onto new stretcher bars. We will stop the deterioration and stabilize it far into the future. It will look fresh, clean and beautiful for generations to come. Come and see us at the LA Art Expo this next week. I’ll probably have the Rapoport there for you to look at.

It was a gorgeous day in Carmel. What a nice drive… beautiful place, talking art, preserving the past… somebody’s got to do it…

Art conservation questions? Call Scott at 805 564 3438

Art appraisal questions? Call Richard at 805 895 5121

This tagger was caught while tagging someplace else the same weekend

This is one of the “monikers” that we got tagged with last weekend, the day after we finished the removal of the huge tag of the bottom half of the mural. This graffiti covered about a 4′ x  10′ area. Interesting thing is that this vandal got picked up by police the same weekend he tagged us while he was tagging someplace else! So, the Sheriff is “on it.” They know who the other guy is too, I think. And we caught them on video!

We would have gotten to the wall for the removal last Tues. but there were logistic issues from Caltrans. Today was a quickie: we took off both decent sized tags in about an hour. Here are a couple of interesting newsy technical items:

1. Caltran wanted to try an “approved” varnish that remains water soluble. That means we should be able to wash it and the graffiti off in water. I’m doubtful but we put some on the mural today to test it. In this photo we’re rollin’ it on…

We should be able to report back on how it works in a week or so (we’re almost hoping to get tagged again to see how it works).

2. We got the graffiti paint off nice and slick. We’re getting into the groove.

OK, so stay in touch. Consider a nice fat donation to MCLA to help keep graffiti off (maintenance) or sponsor an entire mural – make it yours! Go to www.muralconservancy.org and speak with Isabel Rojas-Williams at 213 291 6900

Mural conservation questions? Ask Scott at 213 620 9125

At appraisal questions? Call Richard at 805 895 5121

Follow us on Facebook at Save Freeway Murals

XOX.. over and out… for now.