How to clean an oil painting

Have you ever thought of how to clean an oil painting without damaging it?

How to clean an oil painting

I just moved to a new house and we are busy decorating the wall with some paintings. One of the oil paintings was covered in dirt and full of dust. First I thing I tried was to dust it with a cloth. With no luck, it didn't made a difference.  Have a look at the photo below and you will see just how dirty it was.

Dirty oil painting

Then I remembered what a art collector told me many moons ago.

And I thought let me give it a try!

First you cut a potato...no, we aren't going to cook, but clean a painting!
Using a potato from mother nature - with no damaging chemicals. 

Take the sliced potato and gently rub the oil painting with the flesh side of the potato in circular movements.

Step 1: Rub with potato

The sliced potato will pick up all the dirt and dust.  I was surprised on how dirty the potato is. 

Step 2: Wipe with baby wipes

I then used baby wipes to wipe the part that I just rubbed with the potato. I will suggest baby wipes without alcohol or  fragrance.

Start in a corner and work on just a small part, repeating the process until you cleaned the whole painting.

Difference between the clean and dirty parts of the painting

Yeah! It worked for me. Hope you can see the difference of the before and after pictures.

Cleaned painting

If you want to go ahead give it a try, but if it is a very valuable and expensive  painting I would first ask a art collector for advice.

If you have any other awesome ideas for how to clean a painting, I would love to hear from you. 

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