Grace Victoria Osbourne – Issy & Grace's Conservation Journey

Some photos from our last day!

Grace Victoria Osbourne / November 9, 2013 / General

DSCN4769 — Teodora’s birthday party/ Our leaving party

DSCN4772 — Issy and I with our love, Jolison!

DSCN4773 — The diversity of the Pinacoteca- a Mexican eating home made English scones in Brazil!

DSCN4776 — So many lovely presents! From left: Jolison’s heart, pyjamas from our Pinacoteca mum, Teodoraa, a signed card with everyone’s photos on it and the conservation bundle that I’ll put in the next photo.

DSCN4777 — Issy and I each received a box full of samples of conservation materials, assembled by our wonderful restauro family! (Only conservators could understand the excitement we felt of being given a box filled with assortments of rectangles!) They also gave us a little conservation bundle with ear plugs, a safety mask and two pairs of gloves.

DSCN4771 — We put this photo up before but I love it so its going up again as our final Pinacoteca reference! The team- minus Val and Tony!

Final Stages of the Treatment of “Terra de Parangua”

Grace Victoria Osbourne / November 9, 2013November 9, 2013 / The Pinacoteca

When I last wrote about the painting, “Terra de Parangua”, I just completed retouching the majority of the fills and applying a separation layer of Paraloid B72 in Xylene (1:5). Manuel told me that now the larger fills had been retouched, the smaller areas of dirt and cracks stood out more and I should focus on retouching them in the following week.

DSCN4578[1] — “Terra de Parangua” when I last wrote about it on 14th October.

The first thing that I decided I should remove was the pencil mark at the top of the painting. I was originally reluctant to remove this as I was unsure if it was original or not so I applied varnish to it instead. As I mentioned in an earlier post, our course teaches us to be cautious about removing original material as it is part of the object’s history but as the treatment of the painting progressed, the removal of the pencil mark seemed more necessary. One reason for this was because it did not match the other pencil mark on the painting and it appeared to have been drawn in relation to the frame. Another reason that it should be removed was that its presence on the painting was distracting and it was likely that Manuel would tell me to remove it or retouch it.

DSCN4689 — Pencil mark along the top edge of the painting.

I used MEC applied with cotton swabs to remove the separation layer and then the pencil mark. I then applied a new separation layer.

DSCN4692 — Me removing the pencil mark from the top edge of the painting.

I then had to clean and fill the smaller holes in the painting. There were several of these smaller flaws to restore so I will just give you an example of how I treated them.

DSCN4661 — One of the smaller holes highlighted in the red circle.

DSCN4660 — Close up of hole in painting (x40 mag).

DSCN4662 — Hole filled with Modostuc (x40 mag).

DSCN4672 — Hole after filling and retouching.

Once I had filled and retouched the smaller holes and cracks, Manuel asked me why I hadn’t retouched/ removed three areas:

1. the pencil mark next to the second hill on the left.

2. the red dot highlighted in the circle on the left.

3. the blue dot highlighted in the circle on the right.

I explained that I had not retouched the pencil mark as I believed it to have been used by the artist and it was an important insight into how he had created the painting. I also told him that the red and blue dots looked like they could be original and that I was reluctant to paint over them for the same reason.

Manuel agreed that the pencil mark should be left as I had found it but argued that the red and blue dots should be retouched as they detracted from the painting and that after working with Valeria for many years, he believed that she would question why these areas had been left unretouched/removed. In order to compromise with the Pinacoteca’s preference for paintings with less flaws and the guidance that I have received from the University of Lincoln to not remove original material, I decided to retouch over them, rather than remove them.

colour dots — The red and blue dots highlighted in red circles.

DSCN4747 — Close up of red and blue dots.

DSCN4736 — Red dot under microscope (x40 mag). It appears to be paint, possibly original.

DSCN4737 — Blue dot under micrscope (x40 mag). It also appears to be paint, possibly original.

DSCN4748 — Close up of the area where the blue and red dots have been retouched.

After my final retouches I consulted Manuel and we agreed it was time for the big step of applying the final coat of varnish. We placed the painting on a makeshift stand in the fume cupboard, readjusting it so that the spray can was always level with the painting, therefore creating an even finish.

DSCN4779 — Reversible varnish by Windsor and Newton.

DSCN4764 — Me about to varnish before we had adjusted the stand.

DSCN4765 — Me varnishing after we had adjusted the stand.

After spraying the varnish, I waited roughly ten minutes and then made sure the varnish was even using a large house painting brush. Once I had done this, I considered the treatment of the painting finished!

Everyone loves a before and after so here you are:

DSCN4058 — “Terra de Parangua” by Jose Perrisinotto before treatment.

DSCN4059 — “Terra de Parangua” by Jose Perrisinotto before treatment.

final front 1 — “Terra de Parangua” by Jose Perrisinotto after treatment.

final back 1 — “Terra de Parangua” by Jose Perrisinotto after treatment.

Thank you very much to all of the staff in the conservation department for all of their help and guidance, and for letting me restore part of their collection using their materials! Also thank you for the lovely leaving gifts and goodbye meals! I have had such a fantastic time and I still cannot believe I was lucky enough to work in such a good lab and museum with such great people in Brazil! Thank you to the rest of the staff at the Pinacoteca who have made Issy and I feel so welcome! We already miss all of you but I suppose that means that we will just have to come back to SP someday…

Technical Visit: Part Two!

Grace Victoria Osbourne / November 5, 2013 / The Pinacoteca

Hello!

It has been a while since I have written a post in my name. I did write bits and pieces in some of the last few posts in Issy’s name, but it feels like a long time since I’ve sat down and had a full writing session. I apologise for the delay in updates. It has been a chaotic last few weeks of packing, travelling to Buenos Aires and Rio, returning to Sao Paulo, coming home and then having to get a new laptop (my poor Toshiba only made it to week 4 of Brazil- RIP old timer). Its taken until today for me to be able to sit down on my own in the quiet and write up my last few accounts of our trip!

On Thursday 17th October we went on two more technical visits: the first to the stores of the Museu de Arte Sacra (Museum of Sacred Arts) and the second to “Atelier Raul Carvalho Restauração de Obras de Artes” (Raul Carvalho’s Workshop for the Restoration of Artworks).

We continued with our project work on Thursday morning and then left for lunch with Tatiana as she would escort us on the two trips. Tatiana treated us to a delicious dinner at a vegetarian Korean kilo restaurant. The food was lovely and we would have returned if we had had more time in Sao Paulo!

Museu de Arte Sacra (Museum of Sacred Art)

Tatiana was excited for us to see the stores at the Museu de Arte Sacra as they have recently been relocated into a new building. She felt it was important for us to see another type of collection and how it was organised. We also found it interesting to see how another museum survives on limited resources.

We were shown around by Carmen, the museum’s conservator who cared for the collection of 18000 objects with a small team of two other paid assistants and a few volunteers. Carmen was a really friendly guide and answered all of our questions with enthusiasm but as she could not speak English, Tatiana helpfully translated our conversations.

The museum is owned by the government and its collection consists mainly of Brazilian religious objects. Some are small figures, including nativity sets and others are larger objects related to the church such as furniture and paintings. One of the reasons why the museum’s total number of objects is so high is that all of the nativity figures and some of the frames are classed as individual objects.

DSCN4706 — Tatiana, Issy and Carmen in the stores of the Museu de Arte Sacra

DSCN4693 — Issy, Tatiana and the a typical example of how most of the collection of figures are stored.

The Museu de Arte Sacra use maps to show the location of the objects, meaning that they must be kept in the same position until they are displayed and then they must be returned to that position afterwards.

DSCN4699 — The position of the objects on the shelves corresponds to maps of their locations kept by the museum.

IMGP1160 — There was a diverserange of nativity sets including this fantastic disco ball!

DSCN4708 — Some of the frames were registered as objects in their own right.

DSCN4709 — The temporary storage facility in the store.

DSCN4715 — Custom made wooden stand for staffs.

IMGP1185 — Custom made storage box with handles to remove hat.

Atelier Raul Carvalho Restauração de Obras de Artes (Raul Carvalho’s Workshop for the Restoration of Artwork)

After our visit to the Museu de Arte Sacra, Issy, Tatiana and I headed over to the studio of Raul Carvalho, a private conservator who used to work at the Pinacoteca. Tatiana thought it might be interesting for us to see a private studio as it is another example of how a conservator can work. She thought that Raul’s studio would be especially worthwhile visiting as it is well established and he has had many years of experience as a conservator.

Unfortunately Raul was away and could not show us around so his technician guided us instead. While Raul’s studio was very quirky and homely, it was also clear that he had spent many years developing his own organisation systems and learning to make use of the small converted house in which he worked.

DSCN4733 — Raul’s studio from the outside is the building with the green door.

DSCN4728 — Solvents have been numbered so that cleaning tests can be recorded more easily.

Foz do Iguaçu: Waterfalls, Lanc´s Lads and Stranded in Argentina

Grace Victoria Osbourne / October 10, 2013 / Travel

We woke up in very comfortable beds that were over a metre apart (for the first time in a month- a pretty big novelty!)

Our hostel owners, Joe and Giselli made us a typical Brazilian/Argentinian breakfast of big light bread rolls with cheese and ham, a selection of Dolce Leite (to Issy´s delight!) and bananas, all served with coffee or matte.

Joe offered to drive Issy, our new friends and myself to Foz do Iguaçu in Argentina to save us the hassle of getting three buses and crossing the border armed with a handful of pesos, next-to-no Portuguese and my half forgotten Spanish.

We arrived at the border in the hot sun. Issy, our Peruvian friend Daniel and myself all got our passports stamped with no problems but the Mexicans had forgotten their Visa documents so had to enter and return through Argentina stampless! Hopefully this won´t be a problem for them- Joe assured us that the border officers won´t make an issue of it as long as you have enough R$.

The first noticable difference when we got into Argentina were the swarms of big yellow butterflies that met us on our way to the park. They were everywhere and so beautiful. I am sorry that I did not take a photo! Once we were in the park they crowded around the puddles by the road to have a drink.

Foz do Iguaçu was like a large theme park complete with little trains to transport the tourists, toilets, bins, gift shops and cafes on every corner. It was difficult to imagine how the land had appeared to the native people who used to live in the region, let alone the Europeans who stumbled across it in their colonizing endeavours.

Our first stop in the park was La Garganta Del Diablo or “The Devil´s Throat”- a dramatic title!

The journey to La Garganta Del Diablo built up its mystery and intrigue: the trains through the forest, followed by several walkways over the river that took us through palm trees and bushes.

DSCN4464[1] — Watching the water disappear

inglesas — At the falls with some of our new friends! From left: Me, Issy, Bráulio, Hector and Sarah

The next thing to happen was almost as unbelievable to us as standing on top of one of the seven wonders of the world: Issy spotted a man wearing a Preston North End t-shirt on top of La Garganta Del Diablo! We went over and I told him that I was from Preston and gradually out of nowhere appeared nearly ten men jabbering away in pure Lancashire. “eh tha´s a northern accen´ if ever ah ´eard one” was one greeting. It turns out that they are helping to set up a factory in Brazil and were having a day out in Argentina too. We chatted in the world´s finest accent about Tetleys, beans on toast and our terrible Portguese before one man revealed that he lived in Eccleston, shopped at Sweatshop in Chorley (where I have worked for the last two summers!) and knew Chris who I used to work with!

DSCN4469[1] — Issy and the northerners on top of La Garganta del Diablo!

We appreciated a bit of North/South banter when they almost wouldn´t let “the southerner” in the photo.

After this excitement we went to take a boat ride to the falls with Daniel. The ride was so much fun and we got completely drenched but it did make the watefalls seem more like an amusement park. It is hard to describe how beautiful they are-we could barely believe that we were there- so I will just put some more photos on.

We rushed to the shop for postcards and treats before falling into our next drama.

Joe and Giselli had told us that they would pick us up outside of the entrance to the park at 6pm. 6.15, 6.30, 6.45 they still were not there. The other tourists had left, the park was closed but for one guard and some builders and the sun had nearly set.

Where were they? We had already paid them so maybe they had just taken our Money and left us?

We tried to phone the hostel using the guard´s phone as none of our none-Argentinian phones worked but there was no answer. We decided to take the last bus to the Argentinian bus terminal and then get a taxi through the border to the hostel. We had no more Argentinian pesos, only Brazilian reals but managed the bus anyway. It was a good job everybody else spoke fluente Spanish or we really would have been stuck!

We got off the bus in a touristy part of Argentina and found some taxis to take us to the border. When Issy and I got out to have our passports stamped again the woman started frantically questioning Issy about our hostel in Portuguese and then thrust a phone at us. Giselli´s panicked voice yelled out of the other end telling us to stay where we were and that she and Joe were coming to get us.

Our whole group were pretty miffed with them but when they showed up fifteen minutes later looking distraught and apologising profusely, we figured that they hadn´t just abandoned us. Apparently they had been stuck in the queue for four hours and couldn´t contact us. We drove back to hostel with them where they gave us our Money back and Giselli made us a great desculpe-dinner of tomato salad, Brazilian beans, rice, mandioca and beef for everyone who ate it. We were all so hungry and tired that we really appreciated it.

Joe and Giselli went to bed straight after and left us all to talk. We learned about how Brazil´s universities work for students of other South American countries, the diferences between Brazilian, Mexican and Peruvian dishes (Mexicans really do like enchiladas, just like Old El Paso taught us, while Peruvians like fish cut with lemon!) and what their impressions of England are (the Spice Girls and tea!)

After dinner we listened to diferente types of South American music and discovered that all South American people are great dancers- even the ones who say that they aren´t can “1,2,3,4 and twist” better than most!

We crashed at about one for more adventures on Sunday.

A DAM good day

Grace Victoria Osbourne / October 9, 2013October 10, 2013 / Travel

We are going to double blog for the next few days to try and catch up with the days we have missed, I am starting with Friday 4^Th October and Grace will publish Saturday 5^th October. Valeria (head of the department) told us we will have Friday off at the museum so we could go and see the waterfalls, we did not have much choice about not coming in, they told us to go. But this also meant we did not have to polish the hammock!

After 17 LONG hours on a so called “sleeper executive” night bus that smelt of port-a-loo (My friends and family will know how this was 17 hours of “character building”) from Sao Paulo the evening before, we were very pleased to have arrived in Foz do Iguacu. Foz do Iguacu is a Brazilian town that is on the boarder of Argentina and Paraguay and hosts one half of one of the natural wonders of the world – The Iguacu Falls.

The bus arrived 3 hours later than expected into Foz do Iguacu around 1:30pm, so we got a taxi to the hostel we were staying in, a wise option following our track record for getting lost. While driving to the hostel we realised we were very far away from the cosmopolitan life of Sao Paulo and we had reached a real Brazilian town. Foz do Iguacu is a large town around the size of Ipswich for the Southerners or Chorley for the Northerners. Our hostel the highest rated on Hostelworld but was not near the town centre or the waterfalls but along an average street, it looked like a Swiss chalet but painted a forest green colour, no sign signifying it was a hostel, only a hammock hung outside and a large Brazilian flag was hung between the front windows. We were welcomed by two dogs a bulldog called Thor and a Terrier type dog called Einstein, who were both very friendly shall we say. We got to our room an 8 bed mixed dorm, showered, changed and headed towards the bus stop to go to Ipaitu Dam recommended by Giselle our hostel owner. This was our first time using a normal bus in Brazil and it was quite exciting, for a bus journey that is, each bus has a driver and ticket attendant who sits at the front next to a turnstile, you give him your money R$2.85 or £0.78p and he lets you through; quite unusual in our English world of ridiculously priced tickets and no ticket attendants because of Oyster and travel cards.

We were very unsure as to what to expect as we did not even realise there was a dam there! When we got off the bus we decided the best plan was to follow other people, so we did and that lead us to a control point with lots of police men who pointed out this was the route across the border to Paraguay and that the dam museum was on the other side of the road, quite confusing as there was no obvious signs. At the dam museum a kind man spoke to us in English about the Queen and explained what there was to do, we only had time to complete The Panoramic Tour, an open top bus tour of the dam. We paid and headed for the restaurant to eat, on the bus we only had crisps and bread so we were desperate for normal food, but there was only a sandwich selection -more bread!

After our food we headed for the complimentary movie about the dam, this was spoken in Portuguese and had Spanish subtitles it was very hilarious and cheesy (side note – cheesy does not translate very well into other languages, we have tried many many times to explain but it does not make sense), lots of slow motion shots of exceptionally happy people. Facts we did not know about the Dam, they have a university, research centre, educational centre and a very big dam that produces energy for Brazil and Paraguay.

On the panoramic bus tour the guide spoke fluently in three languages Portuguese, Spanish and then English just for us – very impressive, unfortunately we had to sit next to two large Brazilian tourists who thought it was necessary to take photographs of everything in sight and take up two sets of seats so they could get the window seats, tourists are the same where ever you go in the world! The bus stopped for two photo opportunities and at one stop we saw a massive lizard happily walking around the perfectly manicured and landscaped land. The management of the dam plant a tree for every member of staff who retires in their memory; there are currently around 1500 trees.

The dam its self is very interesting for a dam made from concrete, my Dad would have been in absolute heaven!

A few facts about the Dam:

It produces energy for Brazil and Paraguay, but only 9% goes to Paraguay the rest is sent to Sao Paulo and Rio.
The Parana River is the natural boarder Brazil and Paraguay.
The iron and steel used to make the dam is enough to build 380 Eiffel towers.
The earth and rock excavated at Ipaitu was 8.5 times greater than that of the Eurotunnel
The volume of concrete used is 15 times more than the Eurotunnel (Dad fact)
If Brazil was to obtain the same amount of energy from oil fuelled thermo electric plants they would have to burn 536,000 barrels of oil a day.
The highest point of the dam is the equivalent of a 65 storey building.
The Ipaitu spillway is 40 times greater than the average flow of the Iguacu falls!

Overall we were both surprised at how interesting a dam that we did not even realise existed could be. Ipaitu dam certainly created a tourist attraction, mostly for bus tours.

On our return to the hostel we took a bus, but it didn’t stop where we asked and wanted it to so we got off in the town and went to a restaurant, what we did not realise when we went in was that it was a Churrsoco or BBQ restaurant, great for a vegan and someone who does not eat red meat! The kitchen staff stared at us because we were English, couldn’t speak Portuguese and then didn’t eat meat! We were certainly a novelty for them.

We tried to get a bus to return to the hostel, but after 20 minutes of not being able to find a bus stop we decided to take a taxi, then waited 20 minutes for one to arrive at the taxi stop on a main busy road! But taxi driver did not know where Hostel Manga Rosa on Rua Florianopolis was, so after he asked for directions we did make it back, it was very amusing and at least he now knows where Hostel is. Once we arrived at the hostel we met the other people staying that night, 4 Mexican’s and 1 Peruvian, who all went to Cutiphia University and decided to also travel to see the waterfalls that weekend. They invited us to go with them to the Argentinian side of the waterfalls and we accepted their kind offer seeing as we did not have a clue how to get there otherwise.

We slept very well in a lovely horizontal bed readying ourselves for the excitement of the waterfalls.