Mansfield Church-Christ

The West Wall/gable wall depicts the 'Second Coming of Christ' and was executed by Phoebe Anna Traquair in 1900-1901. My work focused on the upper portion of Christ with a rainbow aura surrounded by angels & musicians located below a wheel window & cill.


West Wall/ The Second Coming of Christ with Pentecostal Frieze below

The raised work/pastiglio on the angels' halos & musical instruments has been oil gilded. The paint is an oil-medium on a lime-plaster ground & it has been varnished. There is a large vertical settlement crack running diagonally through this area.


Showing damage to angels' faces below cill

Water ingress from the wheel window & cill has caused delamination of stonework, failure of plaster & flaking paint-with substantial loss & friability. Facings of eltoline tissue applied in 1993 have temporarily secured the weak & flaking areas of paint, and at the same time some consolidation & reattachment of raised elements was carried out using a PVA.


Carefully removing facing tissue where possible to allow proper condition assessment

Between 2000-2002 the 2year project to stabilize & restore the fabric of the building included repairs to the guttering, windows, stonework, and securing & monitoring the crack.
The large structural crack is now believed to be stable however it is felt to be visually disturbing. There is evidence of overpaint on the edges of the crack suggesting earlier treatment.


Reconstruction of pastiglio

Lascaux Heat-Seal consolidant 375 (70%in white spirit) was injected behind areas of loose/flaking paint & laid down with a tacking iron. Friable areas of plaster were removed and edge-pointed with 1:2 lime/sand course mix.


In-filling of structural crack

The large structural crack was cleared of old loose plaster and deep-filled with the 1:2 lime/sand mix to a level 5mm below surface. Losses in the ground layer were in-filled level with fine filler (1:2.5 lime/marble dust). Losses to angel's halos were remodeled using a traditional gesso putty recipe.


During cleaning to remove surface dirt

Cleaning was carried out using aqueous chelator to remove surface dirt which then allowed an even removal of discolored varnish using using ethanol. This also softened over-paint so it could be removed mechanically.


In-painting losses

Losses to the paint layer were in-painted sympathetically to the original finish in watercolors to bring up to tone then pure pigments bound in varnish medium (Dammar gloss).


Loss compensation of gilded using transfer gold leaf

A new plane was created over the gap between the two crack edges using the fine filler which was in-painted & in-gilded to achieve a unifying & continuous appearance.


Finished treatment-after final coat of varnish!