Restoring works of art, be they cherished paintings or vintage picture frames, is a labor of love for Fogg Art Restoration’s Teresa and Peter Fogg of Wiscasset. They shared examples of their work at the first of Lincoln County Historical Association’s Sunday Winter Lecture Series.

“We really love what we do for a living, so it makes it easy going to work each day,” Teresa began. The Foggs’ workshop is at their home, a restored farmhouse on Two Bridge Road. They began the business in 1987.

As conservators, they might clean a painting that’s soiled with age or perhaps cracked or losing paint, or perform repairs to tears, holes or warping of a canvas. “Restoration is a process of bringing back an artwork as best we can. Our goal is to make it look the way it did in its original state – the day the artist finished painting it,” Peter said.

The Foggs shared slides of before and after examples of their work. One project involved a beautiful oil painting of a schooner that had caught fire from a candle placed too close to it. Peter said, although the painting wasn’t the work of a famous artist, it was still very important to its owners.

“Our team began by removing soot from it. We then had to both match, and replace the canvas that had burned away. Fortunately, we had photographs showing what the picture looked like and so it was a matter of repainting what was missing, matching the colors the artist had used and his brush strokes,” he said.

Teresa specializes in the repair and restoration of picture frames. She said older ones are made of wood, plaster, or different metals including tin. Some are hand-carved or have gilded ornamentation. “Sometimes it’s necessary to replace broken or damaged wood or plaster pieces of molding or figurines,” she said, showing a picture of a 19^th century framed mirror she’d restored for a customer in Waldoboro.

“Everything that comes to us, is different and poses its own very unique challenges,” added Peter. One project that involved the entire team of artists was the restoration of a historic mural at Five Islands Baptist Church, he said.

Bill Danielson, LCHS president, thanked the Foggs for their presentation. Danielson replaced outgoing LCHA President Ed Kavanagh. The LCHA Sunday presentations begin at 1 p.m. and are held in the Communications Building behind the Lincoln County Court House in Wiscasset. On Feb. 11, Castlebay’s Julia Lane and Fred Gosbee, will share commentary and music of local origin or interest, dating from colonial and post-colonial times.