A New Brunswick Art Adventure
where a painting can take you
Back in April, I bought a painting from an online auction. It’s by a New Brunswick artist named Marjory Donaldson. It’s not signed, although it was reportedly found in her studio. I like the composition of the artist painting the artist (perhaps a self portrait?). I also like her penny loafers, yellow socks, and crimped hair.
There isn’t a lot of information available about Donaldson. The best bio I found is here. She appears to have had a successful career working on multiple fronts, which seems to be part of being a working artist in NB.
Framing is expensive and so, when possible, I take the cheapest route of not framing at all. When that’s not an option, I go to Michael’s. But I wanted to do right by this painting, so I took it to Amy’s Custom Framing. Amy Skerry has been working as a framer in Saint John since 1989. Her shop is located off the beaten path, on the lower west side. I don’t know what it takes to survive in a city like Saint John as a custom framer, but she has. Some argue framing is not just utilitarian but another form of artistry. And I buy it. Amy is an experienced and knowledgable artist, and she’s good at what she does.
At our appointment, I asked Amy about some spots on the painting, and if she thought they could be mold. She wasn’t sure but recommended getting it cleaned first. She immediately knew who could do it. She called up her friend Peggy Smith who said, “send her over!”
Peggy Smith is a Saint John artist. She’s in her upper 80s and lives in a a converted cottage overlooking the Bay of Fundy. The walls of her home are filled with her artwork. It’s not quite like visiting Maud Lewis’s house, but I can pretend. And Peggy is a character.
Peggy immediately ushered me into her studio space, and set to work. Once I realized she was going to clean the painting then and there, I fetched my waiting daughter from the car so she could be part of the process too. Peggy is a self-taught art cleaner. She credits her art cleaning/restoration to loving both art and chemistry.
Peggy remembered Marjory. (“Still alive, I think, but living in a nursing home.”).They had both attended Mt Allison when it was the only Fine Arts program in Canada. Peggy showed me her own paint box from her Mt A days exactly like the one in the painting. She speculated that Marjory’s painting was a student work, based on the board it is on and the subject matter.
She started by rubbing the painting with dry bread, but it didn’t do anything. (Not mold, apparently). After the bread, she started wiping it with cotton balls dipped in varsol, which removed an orangey dirt. Peggy speculated it was old varnish. Eventually Peggy, my daughter, and I were all cleaning it with cotton balls. Before long a new painting emerged, fresh and bright. Peggy varnished it and sent us on our way. As we left, she was heading to her hammock.
Afterward, I learned Peggy was the art teacher at the middle school where my mother had taught. (This is how NB works.) One of her symphony paintings hangs in my parents’ bedroom, purchased long after their teaching days. Mum now regrets not buying a painting from Peggy when they taught together, when it would have helped her make ends meet. (A good reminder to buy from young artists.)
I took the painting back to Amy. She suggested a simple wooden frame like it would had had originally, to give it a midcentury modern feel. I am so pleased with the results.
From the buying to the cleaning to the framing, this painting has been an adventure and given me a little introduction to the history of women artists in 20th-century New Brunswick. Since hanging it up, I’ve noticed the paintbrush is missing from the artist’s hand. There’s something appropriate about that, like it’s a subtle testament to the tenacity of being a woman artist in New Brunswick.