Art from the Attic.

A few weeks ago whilst clearing out the attic we found an old battered painting of London and the river Thames.  It was covered in dust and cobwebs, and was a bit bent and scratched in places but it seemed a shame to throw it out so I decided to try and restore it.

This is the painting after I'd already cleaned up the worst of the dust. I think the frame was either brown or cream originally but most of the paint was peeling away so I pulled it off to reveal the wood underneath. I pulled the picture off the frame as it was coming away anyway, then put it back in place when both frame and picture had been spruced up.

I gave the frame a wash with a damp sponge, sanded it down, painted it with white matt emulsion and sanded it again so that it didn't look too new and still matched the painting. The picture took a good few goings over with a damp cloth to get all the dirt off, but it was a nice surprise to see how bright the colours were underneath it all.

Here it is now! Proudly displayed on our bedroom wall after who knows how long stuck up in the dark of the attic. There are still some scratches and stains but I think it gets away with it. Happy new home London painting!

(I'm going to see if I can find out a bit about it on the internet, it would be nice to know who painted it and when.) 

N.B. It turns out this was painted by an artist called Ron Folland, one of the most commercially successful artists of the 60's and 70's. He painted landscapes primarily of the countryside and villages, although also of London and Paris. I couldn't find out much about this particular picture other than it's called 'Tower Bridge'.