Close-up view of mould, top left.
Sometime ago I found a mouldy streak on one of my old oil paintings left in a closet. :( And that portion happened to be my favourite bit of the 50x60 cm work. That made my heart ache, and it made me sit up.
I’ve been wary of mildew, mould, fungus, call them what you will, ever since that discovery, and especially after I moved from playing on canvass boards to more serious painting pursuits on stretched canvases and good-quality panels.
After that mouldy encounter, I spoke to art shop and gallery owners and workers, art teachers and artists, curators, and I've trawled the Internet. There are all sorts of advice about the best ways to store paintings at home if you live in the Tropics.
It seems there must be good air circulation. But not in the direct path of breezes that's bound to carry dust and spores and moisture. Some say to wrap each painting in tracing paper or brown paper. Others advocate plastic wrap – which means the painting can hardly 'breathe'.
A hermetically sealed space, the sort that sensitive equipment are kept, is best, one would've thought. But one artist strongly disagreed, to my utter surprise. One person offered me detailed instructions on installation of tubing that draws moisture out; but it sounded too complicating. A closet with a moisture-gulping device, a thirsty-hippo or something, was also suggested.
All agreed that air-conditioning in this climate is best for paintings. Still, in the end, it's largely trial-and-error. And however your paintings are stored, they MUST be examined periodically, for horror painting stories abound.
I trawled the web again on the best way to get rid of the whitish invasion. One person said he carefully sprayed the surface down with a water hose before drying it quickly! He gets paid for the job and must know what he's talking about. But I shan’t be trying that out for sure.
In the end, I played safe and used turps to lift off the insult before re-varnishing the area.
Since then I've ensured my works are exposed and aired out, away from windy gusts. And in that and the clear sense, I'm no longer a 'closet painter' :)
