Blanching

We are about to restore a very large painting from a year 1967 (oil
and distemper on chipboard, size about 3 x 11 m) which has
blanched/bloomed severely on extensive areas. Now we are looking for
information on blanching mechanisms and various reforming
techniques. We have found out that one can reform the blanched areas
on this painting by using heated ethanol vapours. However, we are
not sure about possible adverse effects of alcohol vapours on paint
and media layers.

We would be very grateful for any information about observations on
blanching (the role of certain pigments, media and siccatives on
blanching, migration of some components of media, detected free long
chain fatty acids on blanched areas, etc.) Also any information on
sound and effective reformation/regeneration techniques would be
extremely useful for us.

Ari Tanhuanpaa
Conservator
The Finnish National Gallery,
The Museum of Foreign Art, Sinebrychoff
Bulevardi 40
00120 Helsinki
Finland
Fax: 358-9-1733-476

                                  ***
                  Conservation DistList Instance 13:16
                 Distributed: Tuesday, August 24, 1999
                       Message Id: cdl-13-16-013
                                  ***