Simon Gillespie's guest appearances

Simon Gillespie

The Monocle Weekly

Kidspiration.tv

Rachel Harris

Margaret Gould Stewart

Mark Blyth

Laird Hamilton

Lynsey Addario

Will Harris

Afua Hirsch

Simon Amstell

Amanda Palmer

David Spiegelhalter

Jane Goodall

Mark Gatiss

Rupert Everett

Carl Craig

Martin Shaw

OwlTail

Bradford Parkinson

Hugo Fruehauf

Pelin Opcin

We meet painting conservator Simon Gillespie in his studio to learn more about the fine art of his profession – and get up close and personal with some truly amazing paintings. Plus: as they receive the Queen Elizabeth prize for engineering, we sit down with Bradford Parkinson and Hugo Fruehauf. It’s hard to imagine a world without the technology they invented: GPS. And we hear about this year’s London Jazz Festival from director Pelin Opcin.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We meet painting conservator Simon Gillespie in his studio to learn more about the fine art of his profession – and get up close and personal with some truly amazing paintings. Plus: as they receive the Queen Elizabeth prize for engineering, we sit down with Bradford Parkinson and Hugo Fruehauf. It’s hard to imagine a world without the technology they invented: GPS. And we hear about this year’s London Jazz Festival from director Pelin Opcin.<p>See <a href="https://omnystudio.com/listener" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">omnystudio.com/listener</a> for privacy information.</p>

Simon Gillespie, Bradford Parkinson and Hugo Fruehauf, Pelin Opcin

Suppose you found a really beautiful old painting, but there were dirty fingerprints all over the canvas, and a rather large tear. You wouldn’t run for the dish soap and a bucket of water to fix it. Instead, you’d need to find an art restorer, someone who knows just how to clean and mend paintings without damaging them further. Simon Gillespie has been fixing old, and new, paintings for over 30 years. He has his own restoration business, Simon Gillespie Studio, on Bond Street in London, where he and six team members work on paintings that may be covered with old varnish, dust, dirt, along with previous attempts to “fix” cracks and chips. Even modern paintings can be damaged or torn and need restoration. Finding the right solvent to take off old varnish can sometimes take up to 40 different tries with various formulas, but once the dirt, gunk, and varnish are gone, restoring a picture to its original condition also means sitting very close to the canvas and working on one very small bit or section of the painting at a time. Bit by bit, the restorer moves across the painting, mending tears and daubing on new paint where the old has chipped off or been cleaned before. His team uses modern pigments to touch up problem areas and fill the holes, devoting “hours of patient work with a tiny, fine pointed brush made from Russian sable to retouching the damage,” as he told Bond Street Magazine. Mr. Gillespie decided to become a restorer when he visited a restoration studio in Mexico City. After two apprenticeships, studying chemistry, and learning as much art history as he could, he was ready to start his business. Today he does restorations for galleries, auction houses, and private collectors. But after working on tiny patches of a painting for hours at a time, what does he do when he has free time? “Outside of work, I enjoy climbing mountains,” he says, “the higher, the better!” in this episode, Hope interviews Simon Gillespie, art restorer.

<p>Suppose you found a really beautiful old painting, but there were dirty fingerprints all over the canvas, and a rather large tear. You wouldn’t run for the dish soap and a bucket of water to fix it. Instead, you’d need to find an art restorer, someone who knows just how to clean and mend paintings without damaging them further. Simon Gillespie has been fixing old, and new, paintings for over 30 years. He has his own restoration business, Simon Gillespie Studio, on Bond Street in London, where he and six team members work on paintings that may be covered with old varnish, dust, dirt, along with previous attempts to “fix” cracks and chips. Even modern paintings can be damaged or torn and need restoration. Finding the right solvent to take off old varnish can sometimes take up to 40 different tries with various formulas, but once the dirt, gunk, and varnish are gone, restoring a picture to its original condition also means sitting very close to the canvas and working on one very small bit or section of the painting at a time. Bit by bit, the restorer moves across the painting, mending tears and daubing on new paint where the old has chipped off or been cleaned before. His team uses modern pigments to touch up problem areas and fill the holes, devoting “hours of patient work with a tiny, fine pointed brush made from Russian sable to retouching the damage,” as he told Bond Street Magazine. Mr. Gillespie decided to become a restorer when he visited a restoration studio in Mexico City. After two apprenticeships, studying chemistry, and learning as much art history as he could, he was ready to start his business. Today he does restorations for galleries, auction houses, and private collectors. But after working on tiny patches of a painting for hours at a time, what does he do when he has free time? “Outside of work, I enjoy climbing mountains,” he says, “the higher, the better!” in this episode, Hope interviews Simon Gillespie, art restorer.</p>

Hope meets Simon Gillespie | Kidspiration.tv