earth pigments and acrylic on canvas

Artist-mixed ochre paint and acrylic paint on cotton duck canvas from the East Kimberley, Australia. This ochre painting had suffered impact damage during transit, which caused a vertical tear in the canvas. To repair and stabilise the canvas, we undertook the following treatment steps:

• flattening around site of tear

• edges of tear brought closer together by using tension device

• using a microscope, each broken thread was repaired and re-adhered thread-by-thread and reinstated back into the existing weave pattern

• bridging sutures and protective patch were applied to further support the repaired tear

• losses to paint layer were retouched using reversible media