Technique
Ground, underpainting, layers of paint, varnish. What happens inside an oil painting and why the technique lasts for centuries.
How to shoot an oil painting without reflections or distortion: light, angle, the reverse. A practical guide for the owner.
Tears in the canvas, cracking, darkened varnish, water damage. What a conservator can fix completely, what only partly, and when it is better to do nothing.
What a painting is made of besides paint: canvas, ground, pigments, solvents. Which of these determines longevity and what you are paying for.
Why a fresh work is not varnished at once, what varnish does to colour, when it is renewed, and why a painting without varnish is a normal state.
How a gallery wrap differs from a frame, when a frame is needed and when it harms, what it costs, and how to avoid getting the choice wrong.