The Agnes Jamieson Gallery in Minden has two recently-restored Andre Lepine paintings – thanks to Minden Hills Cultural Centre Foundation funding, and the expertise of Peterborough-based conservator, Basia Baklinski.
Baklinski said the biggest issue with the untitled painting, depicting men and horses, was a hole.
She found the fireside painting to be very dark, as it had likely been varnished many times. She noted both paintings had a black, sooty, substance on them. Her theory is that they were likely stored together in the vicinity of a coal furnace, or perhaps kept in a damp basement room.
“Even before I could take the varnish off, I had to take this black sooty stuff off,” Baklinski said.
She said the fireplace painting had several anomalies once she removed the varnish. It almost looked as though someone had applied watercolour over parts of the painting.
Also, she detected the painting had been done on a surface, such as fabric, and then tacked onto a board.
Baklinski said everything she restores has its own unique challenges and requires different treatments.
She noted Fireside had been worked on before, “and I don’t know if it was a conservator or if it was just somebody in the kitchen. But there were little divots right up at the top, and two of them were barely visible but looked like somebody had applied some black ink to sort of camouflage, but it made them stand out more, actually.”
All up, she said it took about 13 hours to restore both paintings. She said on a scale of one to 10, 10 being huge amounts of paint loss, or paintings so dry they are completely crispy, these were not bad.
“Although, I was absolutely flummoxed when I kept getting the black.” However, she found it a fun and interesting challenge.
She added despite not necessarily knowing the name of a painter when a piece of work comes through the door, she develops an emotional connection with the artist.
“It sounds weird but I do get an emotional connection with the things I work on,” Baklinski said.
She added, “with paintings, I’ll look at brush strokes, for example, and wonder what was he thinking when he was painting this? Why is this face so clear when all the other ones are murky? These paintings elicit emotion out of me, they become almost like family.”
And despite feeling as though the restored works are never ready to return, and she holds her breath for approval, Baklinski said she takes pride in what she does and takes the responsibility seriously.
“Given any occupation, or any profession, on the planet, I would pick this one.”
Shannon Kelly, manager of cultural services at Minden Hills, has worked with Baklinski in the past on conservation projects.
“Her work is always flawless and her attention to detail remarkable. She is also a great person to work with. She drove from Peterborough to pick up the paintings and returned them to the Cultural Centre when the work was completed, so we did not have to pay for shipping.”
Kelly added, “I would also like to extend my thanks to the donation by the Minden Hills Cultural Centre Foundation, which made this work possible. Moving forward, we hope to have one to two paintings from our permanent collection cleaned each year in this manner.”
