Cleaning a Painting

[Zuljin]

My wife bought a painting. No info on the artist, when it was painted or what it was painted with. I looked in the internet, and the paint looks to have all the properties of both acrylic and oil. So says, additives can be added to each to make one look like the other.

I took one look at this thing and could see it's filthy. The blue sky portion especially lokks like it hung in a smokey kitchen over a deep fryer.

We've tried a weak solution of Simple Green, a strong solution of Starsan and a strong solution of Nature's Miracle. We also tried spit, because the internet said to. The painting is now a little brighter, but the smokey greasy grime is mostly unphased . Straight rubbing alcohol takes off some colors, but not others. I suspect both acrylic and oil paints were used.

Any ideas? It's not an expensive painting, but she likes it. She said it didn't look so dirty when she bought it.

 

[Billy-Klubb]

if your wife really likes the painting, get it professionally cleaned. or put it in the dishwasher.

 

[Zuljin]

Top or bottom rack? Also, our dishwasher has the heated dry feature, but we don't use it. Does that matter?

 

[Billy-Klubb]

use it if you can. that way it dries faster. and use regular Dawn dish soap instead of dishwasher detergent. 1/2 a bottle should do it.



semi-related note: I one had a roommate that washed our dishes in the dishwasher with Purex laundry detergent because he was too lazy to walk the 1 block to the grocery store. I re-washed them all by hand.

 

[Zuljin]

Ha! You won't catch me up in that trick. I've already seen what happens when dish soap is put in the dishwasher.