what others wrote about Lab O

Rocío Bruquetas Galán, Departamento de Conservación Museu de América Madrid wrote:

“Creo que habría que investigar más (tú lo estás haciendo) sobre la intención de uso de las telas de sarga con dibujos. Habría que investigar sobre la conjunción de características en estas telas, ya preparadas y pintadas, y la diferencia con otros tipos de telas. Es decir, hacer reconstrucciones pictóricas para ver los distintos comportamientos. Podría ser un interesante proyecto.”

Adam Lowe , founder of Factum Foundation wrote:

“I am one of her fans- If there were more people carrying out the informed, in depth practical research into the material of works of art I am sure we would all have deeper understanding and more interesting thoughts as a result. I look at samples Helena has woven and feel that her work is of fundamental importance.”

email announcement by The Getty Foundation:

“Dear Colleague, Thank you for RSVPing to our Conserving Canvas Zoom Presentation series. Our next presentation will be held this Thursday, July 8th at 9:00am PT (Los Angeles time).  This is a very special presentation (outside of the Conserving Canvas grants) and very relevant to the paintings conservation field. Please be sure to join!

Presented by Helena Loermans, the talk is titled “Canvas: The Textile Layer in Paintings.” Helena is the founder of Lab O and a Dutch weaver working in Portugal. She will talk about her research and reconstruction of a-typical canvas patterns. Please note that the presentation will be recorded (not including the Q&A) and that we use the same Zoom link for each presentation. You may use the link below to join: See you soon,

Getty Foundation

Lab O was invited to present the work at the Courtauld:

From the Department of Conservation & Technology ofThe Courtauld Institute of Art came the invitation to share the research and reconstructions of historic canvases.

…thanks to the conservators, art historians and students of the Technical Art History Research group at The Courtauld for the interesting discussion after my presentation last Tuesday…a collector’s box with samples is on its way !

Marion F. Mecklenburg, Senior Research Scientist at the Smithsonian Museum Conservation Institute wrote :

“When I first encountered Helena Loermans’ research on the reconstruction of historic canvases at Lab O I was somewhat taken aback. It was such an obvious method to merge the historic textile industry technology to the canvas supports used on paintings. Yet this connection is rarely discussed in the conservation community.  It encouraged me to reassess my understanding of historical weaving and recognize that artists had access to textiles having rather complex weave geometries. Further her actual recreation of the sophisticated textiles early painters used as painting supports clearly shows what would otherwise be difficult for the average viewer to see.”

Ian McClure, Susan Morse Hilles Chief Conservator at Yale University Art Galley wrote: