Question for artists, painters in particular. (Heidi, hon?)

An elderly lady who I care for very much painted some landscape scenes and still life studies back in 1968 when she was taking art classes while living in Rome. She is very near the end of her life now and she gave me two of them that I had admired.

They were in storage and something was leaning against one of the canvasses and made an indentation in the middle of one, stretching the canvas out of shape in the center a little but very noticeably. I have very carefully removed it from the frame and removed the tacks holding the canvas to one side of the stretcher. I tried pulling it tighter but no go, even tore a little bit of the empty part that was stretched over the side of the frame. It's so dry and stretched as far as it will go.

Right now I have it sitting face down on a flat surface with two enormously heavy books on it to try to flatten that area. Do you think this will work? Short of taking it to a professional framer, is there anything else I can do myself?

It's been a long time since I painted myself, but it does appear to be done in acrylics.

Thanx! :hi:

stretch it as tight as you can. Then spray the back with water and put it in the sun. Sometimes a steam iron will help, too.

This is only if the dent isn't too bad.

I was wondering about using a little heat and keeping it very gentle lest the paint be effected. :hi:

Heat alone won't help.

I left out the fact I was planning on using just a warm iron with a damp linen towel. But I really am going to wait for Heidi's input, too.

Thanx! :hi:

I gave her the link and she'll chime in tomorrow. Acrylics might be a problem, so I suggest do nothing with it yet, otherwise it might crackle. :hi:

I will await her expert opinion. :hug: