Research opportunities sought

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I am a student in the MA in conservation and restoration of painting
at the Ecole Superieur des Arts Saint Luc in Liege, Belgium and I
would like finish my last year in England to complete my Master
thesis and to improve my English. I am searching for an institution
who would be interested by my subject and offer a student a trainee
position (not paid) for some months during the second trimester.

My thesis for the final year will be about retouching unvarnished
and gloss acrylic emulsion paints, mainly satin finish and gloss
acrylic emulsion paints. I know this has already been studied by
another student, Shelley Sims, and two conservators: Maurren Cross
(from Courtauld Museum) and Patricia Smithen (from Tate Museum). I
have read their publication in "Mixing and Matching". At the end of
this article, the writers proposed two solutions, but said that it
would require more studies. I would like continue this research and
perhaps to propose others tracks. Acrylics paints can have different
physical aspects: matte, satin or gloss, depending on the brand, the
kind of application (neat, added water), etc. Their chemical
constitution is very different to traditional oil paint and they are
more sensitive to organic solvents. Therefore, retouching media used
for retouching oil paints, like Paraloid B72 or Laropal A81, are
often not appropriate.

Retouching a matte acrylic paint is not a problem because it is
possible to obtain the same final appearance with aqueous binders
like watercolors, poster colors, methylcellulose. However,
retouching satin and gloss acrylics paints is a big problem because
you cannot obtain the same level of gloss without binders which need
solvents to be removed. Actually, the retouching is a compromise and
the conservators choose between the perfect final aspect or the
reversibility.

Last year, I collected a lot of information about this subject and I
wrote a theoretical research on this. Following this research, I
have two options for next year: first of all, I would like to
improve the solutions found by Shelley Sims: Aquacryl Lascaux (plus
pigments) or Aquazol (plus pigments) like binders to retouch.
Second, I would like to test the possibility to use an isolation
layer to protect paints. This isolation layer will be water-soluble
like polyvinyl alcohol, but insoluble in others solvents. It will be
put locally on the loss. In this case, it will be possible to
retouch with paraloid B72 which gives a good gloss finish for
retouching acrylics paints and which will be reversible with
solvents without damaging paint, because it will be protected by
isolation layer. This last proposition is only a hypothesis, but I
think it will be interesting to test.

I would like to stay in England for three months or more. I have
chosen England to improve my English, it's very important for me to
learn this language. A lot of publications, conferences, seminaries,
are in English and this language is essential. Presently, I am
learning English. I have passed the Cambridge English Level Test
(EFCELT) last July and my level is Intermediate B1. I will be taking
some lessons during the first trimester to improve further. My
English is not perfect, but I can communicate and have a discussion
with people. I know the conservation vocabulary, so it's not a
problem to discuss that.

If you require more information about me or my theoretical research,
I can send more information by email  (curriculum vitae, the summary
or the bibliography of my theoretical research about this subject).

Alice Sautois


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 24:17
               Distributed: Thursday, September 23, 2010
                       Message Id: cdl-24-17-016
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