A one-day conference is to be held at the National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh, on Friday 12th October 2018. Deadline for the receipt of abstracts is 31st March 2018.
There are many ways in which water and humidity can physically alter paintings, sometimes with disastrous effect; such as staining canvases, flaking and blanching paint, warping of wooden panels and cockling canvas supports. However, water is also a useful material for conservators that can be employed in the treatment of painted surfaces, such as: in the form of aqueous cleaning solutions, for moisture treatments to reduce deformations, and as a carrier for adhesives.

This conference will look at the ways in which water and paintings can interact, and their implications for the conservator. We welcome papers that address new research or report case studies of treatments. Papers could address topics such as:

• water damage and its treatment
• relative humidity and its effect on paintings
• water sensitivity of paint
• aqueous cleaning systems
• water soluble restoration materials

Those wishing to put forward a paper should write their proposal using the abstract template, which can be downloaded from the ICON website or can be requested via the email address below.

Deadline for the receipt of abstracts is 31st March 2018 and they should be returned by email to icon.paintingsgroup@googlemail.com.

*It should be noted that it is our intention to publish the papers as part of our successful series of postprints.

Guide for Abstracts/Presenters:

The proposals should be a maximum of 500 words. If the committee selects your paper for presentation, we will then request a copy of the full paper for peer-review.

Talks should be 20 minutes. For the smooth running of the programme, we would like all presenters to submit a PowerPoint presentation in advance of the conference. We will also require an abstract in word format (approximately 200 words) with a biography of the author(s) for the conference handouts.