When this next painting came to me my first reaction was
that it could not be done. But then I thought, I know we
can get the paint bonded back on the canvas, so if we can
get all the loose pieces to fit where they belong, all we
have to do is replace what is missing. Chris Nau sat down
with tweezers and spent a few hours moving hundreds of little
paint fragments back where they belonged. Hot wax was dripped
over the entire surface of the painting to hold the fragments
in place until we could transfer the painting to our vacuum
table, where the paint film was securely re-bonded to the
canvas. The completion of this job was a true team effort,
lead by Jackie Trombley and assisted by Grace Lee and Jonny
White. Chris Nau did the inpainting. The artist is E. A.
Page.
Courtesy Swampscott Public Library
