She spends long hours carefully bringing back to life paintings that have suffered the ravages of time.

Rita Butler's customers come from all over the South of England, including well-known London names and a lot of provincial dealers.

She also handles a modest amount of work for local collectors and "people who simply want life breathed back into an old picture".

Years of Experience

Dealers and collectors regularly need pictures cleaned, restored, mounted and framed. After several bad experiences with restorers, Rita Butler began to experiment with her own stock, sure that she could do no worse.

With the help of her very supportive husband, she acquired a vast library of out-of-print books on picture restoration and chemicals. These allied to her training as a graphic artist and years of experience in advertising, gave her the knowledge and confidence she needed to embark on a career of her own making.

So, what is meant by "restoration"?

It is a question that Rita Butler is asked regularly. "Often, where a picture has lost its brightness or some of its original paint, a process of in-filling is undertaken. I stop well short of outright re-painting .... I feel it is important to present the painting as the artist intended, at the same time retaining its appearance of age. I have no sympathy with the immaculately scrubbed look which some dealers and collectors prefer."

 Each picture that she is presented with has to be treated differently - a glance over those waiting for attention reveals problems like 'foxing' or holes caused by hungry insects. Others show the effects of crude Victorian adhesives, the oxidisation of early paints, poor restoration, or years of dirt built up in smoky atmospheres.