Index Magazine

In the Lab: Creating New Fills for George Washington

February 21, 2013
Charles Willson Peale’s portrait of George Washington with fills, before inpainting. Photo: Kate Smith.

Last time we checked in with conservator Kate Smith, she was carefully cleaning Charles Willson Peale’s portrait of George Washington. Since then, Kate has removed discolored varnish, grime, and poorly matched fills from earlier restorations used to cover up holes and abrasions.

A fill or filling is a material such as gesso or spackle used to replace lost paint. The surface of the fill is leveled, textured, and painted to blend with surrounding paint layers.

In this series of photos, Kate walks us through the process of creating fills and “inpainting” them to match the original composition:

The puncture damages needed to be newly filled and made to resemble the paint surface around them.
A silicone putty was rolled out onto an intact area of the surface paint to take a cast of the paint texture.
The shapes of the losses were traced onto Mylar and transferred to paper tissue and to the silicone cast, both of which were cut out into the shape of the fills.
The shapes of the losses were traced onto Mylar and transferred to paper tissue and to the silicone cast, both of which were cut out into the shape of the fills.
The shapes of the losses were traced onto Mylar and transferred to paper tissue and to the silicone cast, both of which were cut out into the shape of the fills.
The shapes of the losses were traced onto Mylar and transferred to paper tissue and to the silicone cast, both of which were cut out into the shape of the fills.
The shapes of the losses were traced onto Mylar and transferred to paper tissue and to the silicone cast, both of which were cut out into the shape of the fills.
The fill material was Flugger acrylic spackle tinted with ivory black and yellow ochre dry pigments to match the original ground color.
The fill material was Flugger acrylic spackle tinted with ivory black and yellow ochre dry pigments to match the original ground color.
A skim coat of tinted spackle was applied to the shaped silicone mold with a palette knife.
The tissue was laid into the wet fill material, then a second skim coat applied over it, sandwiching the paper within the spackle to reinforce the brittle fill material.
The tissue was laid into the wet fill material, then a second skim coat applied over it, sandwiching the paper within the spackle to reinforce the brittle fill material.
Once dry, the reinforced fill was removed from the silicone mold, trimmed, and glued into place.
Once dry, the reinforced fill was removed from the silicone mold, trimmed, and glued into place.
Once dry, the reinforced fill was removed from the silicone mold, trimmed, and glued into place.
Once dry, the reinforced fill was removed from the silicone mold, trimmed, and glued into place.
The fills were inpainted with reversible, synthetic conservation paints to imitate the surrounding paint and to camouflage the losses.
The fills were inpainted with reversible, synthetic conservation paints to imitate the surrounding paint and to camouflage the losses.

Do you have any questions for our conservators? Post them here.

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