The Framers Forum

I have been asked to remove nicotine stains from an oil painting that is seriously yellowed. Any advice welcome. Thank you

unless you want to get into art restoration, I would turn that work down and point them towards a conservator/art restorer.

IFGL wrote: Thu 24 Jul, 2025 7:57 pm unless you want to get into art restoration, I would turn that work down and point them towards a conservator/art restorer.

I second that.

I third that, except that I suggest getting acquainted with various restorers of paper, canvas, frames etc and offering it as a service. It builds confidence, trust, expands your offerings and ensures that the work comes back to you for framing. You are perfectly entitled to add on a handling fee.

Thanks everyone. I need to train my mouth to say what my brain thinks! When my brain says no, my mouth shouldn't say yes!!

I learned the hard way to "Leave well alone".

Someone once brought me a Wendy Reeves original oil.36x24". It was very brown so I thought I would give it a clean.
I did. I got lots of brown gunk off but it actually looked worse. All streaky. It turned out that some kind soul had
given it a coat of water-based varnish and it had discoloured big -time. All attempts to take it off with
solvents failed. It was bullet proof. Even a restorer I knew at the time was stumped. The upshot was that I spent
the next SIX YEARS scraping the varnish off with a scalpel. Eventually I got it done and the job was a goodun.

The moral is: What works on one painting will not work on another. They are not all the same.


* The customer was pleased with it and I accepted a nice garden bench as payment.
I still have the bench. It needs a few coats of varnish....