Mural Restoration

Courthouse Mural

Our team was hired to restore the WPA Mural at the 1930s Courthouse in Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana. The mural had suffered water damage during Hurricane Ida. The mural itself was beautiful - it was tempera paint on top of a canvas applied over a gypsum plaster. The water damage had caused paint to alligator and disconnect from the substrate.

In-Painting

Using tempera (egg-based) paints, which create no or very little sheen, we custom matched each color and in-painted only where paint was missing. This is a slow and careful process, as even a small color differentiation can detract from the beauty of the historic mural.

reattach and varnish

Using an egg-based tempera binder, we were able to save and reconnect a lot of the historic paint back to its substrate. The mural had an existing varnish, so we applied a new varnish to freshly-touched areas.