At Church Farm in Kington Langley is Kate Armor whose specialism is the fascinating conservation of all works of art on paper – paintings, drawings, prints and ephemera.
From simple mould and discolouration to extreme damage, items from the 16th – 21st century are returned to excellent condition. The techniques used are to the highest museum standards and comply with the code of practice set out by the Institute of Conservation. All conservation is reversible and applied with minimum intervention.
As a private studio they have the benefit of working on a wide range of items and never know what is going to arrive next. Possibly a child’s first drawing loved by a grandparent and now chewed by the pet dog – or an important work from a Historic House suffering from old framing and acidic paper.
The studio is open 9am – 4pm five days a week and other times by appointment. A large amount of our time is taken up by careful documentation before washing, swabbing, lining, filling missing areas, killing mould, supporting and replacing fragments … no two items are the same. Ultimately revealing a picture’s full beauty.
Kate works out of a converted farm building which was originally a row of potting sheds and hunt kennels.