Gina Garcia

Gina Garcia
Art restorer
Gina Garcia Conservation, Montréal, Québec

Gina Garcia knows the highs and the lows of Montréal’s built heritage, literally.

One day Garcia might be perched for six hours on mobile scaffolding more than 30 metres above the granite floor of a commercial building in Old Montréal. With hand tools, she pokes gently at the painted surface of the plaster ceiling to diagnose the cause of the peeling paint.

Another day she might be in the subterranean world of the Montréal subway system. She is cleaning and repairing the paintings and sculptures that add beauty to the Vendôme, Côte-des-Neiges and Lionel-Groulx stations.

Garcia is a heritage art restorer. She holds advanced degrees in art history and museum studies, from the universities of Université de Montréal and Laval, respectively. Also, she holds a master’s degree in heritage conservation from the Sorbonne. She is an expert in the restoration of painted woods, masonry and metal.

When she was young, there were hints that a career in the arts lay in store. When Garcia’s family moved to Montréal from Guatemala, she remembers that she enjoyed painting and drawing.

During her studies at the Sorbonne she found opportunities to perfect her skills. In Brussels, she worked on a project restoring trompe l’oeil wooden panels (painted to look like richly coloured green and red marble) in the chapel of Église Notre-Dame de Sablon.

After her studies Garcia returned to Montréal and established her studio. She works full time as an art restorer and heritage consultant for public and private clients. She is also a painter who sells original canvases to Montréal collectors.

When she was young, there were hints that a career in the arts lay in store. When Garcia’s family moved to Montréal from Guatemala, she remembers that she enjoyed painting and drawing.

During her studies at the Sorbonne she found opportunities to perfect her skills. In Brussels, she worked on a project restoring trompe l’oeil wooden panels (painted to look like richly coloured green and red marble) in the chapel of Église Notre-Dame de Sablon.

After her studies Garcia returned to Montréal and established her studio. She works full time as an art restorer and heritage consultant for public and private clients. She is also a painter who sells original canvases to Montréal collectors.

There is no typical day at work for Garcia. A short job in the summer of 2007 was to do a paint analysis of the windows of Notre-Dame Basilica in Old Montréal. The church was preparing to paint the wooden window frames and wanted to know the original colour.

With a scalpel and magnifying glass, Garcia chipped through ten layers of paint until she reached the first layer. It was a charcoal grey, close to the colour of the church’s stone façade. Using historic colour charts, she found a good match. The result is true to the vision of the original builders of the church.

An ongoing job has been restoring the sculptures in Parc Jean Drapeau on Île Ste-Hélène.

One sculpture, originally created for Expo 67, presented special challenges. It is the huge form of a robot, called Phare du Cosmos. The artist is Yves Trudeau.

Forty years of rough weather and grafitti took their toll on the sculpture. The steel had rusted, and the paint finish was discoloured and damaged.

For the repairs, a five-storey scaffolding had to be constructed. Garcia stripped away the old paint, stabilized the metal parts and primed the surface. To get the colour right, she consulted with the artist.

The result is a soaring metal robot, painted the colour of the blue sky. The sculpture is protected with a layer of anti-grafitti varnish to protect it from the rigours of foul weather and crayon.

Working for the heritage department of the City of Montréal, Garcia also surveys the state of buildings in Old Montréal and makes note of conservation work that may be needed.

Garcia advises anyone considering a career like hers to understand that the training is long, the pay modest, and the work uncertain.

But if you are passionate about heritage architecture and art, have patience and determination, there is no greater job satisfaction.

Gina Garcia Conservation
http://www.ginagarciaconservation.com/My_Homepage_Files/Page5.html

Old Montréal
http://www.vieux.montreal.qc.ca/