On the left is a detail of the shepherd's clothing taken after cleaning and before inpainting. The photograph on the right illustrates area during the inpainting process. The major losses in the paint layer are blocked-in with some details of the shirt completed.
Joan is working on the badly abraded landscape between the figures of Erminia and the shepherd. Areas of old, dark and discolored overpaint could not be safely removed from the painting's surface and must be toned to better match the surrounding original layers.
The photograph on the left was taken approximately three weeks ago, before the process of inpainting the losses began.
On the right, the photo illustrates the careful and exacting inpainting executed by David Marquis. With his inpainting, confined to the areas of loss alone, the sheep can once again be visually read.
A close view of Joan's inpainting palette: the stable, non-discoloring synthetic medium and solvent are kept in small glass botttles perched on the palette.
Tiny dots of dry pigment are placed on the palette to which a small amount of medium is added. Surface gloss, transparency, opacity, and color can be controlled by brush-grinding the paint.
A small No. 1 or No. 2 watercolor brush is used for mixing and applying the inpaint. All colors are matched by eye.
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Sep 3
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Sep 9, 2004