GIVING NEW LIFE TO OLD ART

To say there is a lot of art to observe at the A.R. Mitchell Museum is an understatement. Not only was his career bountiful, but he also seemingly kept everything he ever created, down to the doodles. A vast majority of his paintings are on display throughout the 44,000-square-foot space, but perhaps the piece that made the biggest impact on us, was one the public wasn’t yet privy to.

Because we were already in agreement that we’d like to collaborate on this collection, the museum’s Executive Director, Allyson Sheumaker, was a remarkably gracious host and granted us a more ‘all access’ tour than the average museumgoer might experience. That’s when we discovered our hidden gem.

“... And whenever I went through, there was this one very nocturnal scene where, here we had the romance and the rustler. It's a rustler kissing a cowgirl. And whenever I saw it, I fell in love with it. I said, ‘This has to be restored.’”
— Cheryl

“Whenever I visited the A.R. Mitchell Museum back in January of 2024,” Cheryl explained. “They took me downstairs to the basement and I could see all of Mitchell's work, his finished paintings there. And then there was a drawer that they showed me that had a bunch of pieces that needed restoration. And whenever I went through, there was this one very nocturnal scene where, here we had the romance and the rustler. It's a rustler kissing a cowgirl. And whenever I saw it, I fell in love with it. I said, ‘This has to be restored.’”

And she meant it. It was an unintended aspect of our collaboration with the museum, but we decided then and there that Double D Ranch would underwrite the restoration of that particular piece.

“So the Good Night Kiss,” explained Allyson. “That's just what I named it, who knows what the actual name is. But it's, it's a nocturne, so it's a nighttime painting, and the couple are kissing in the painting. Cheryl and I opened up a drawer in the basement that has about six or seven paintings that need to be restored, and this one was kind of on top. It’s one of my favorites, but it's never been displayed in the museum. It was in really bad condition. Double D was gracious enough to pay for that restoration, and now we have what is not a brand new painting, but a painting that has never been seen before that we'll be able to use in exhibits.”

But, as you might imagine, restoring an original artwork is a painstaking process that requires the unique skillset of a very niche group of experts.

“I immediately reached out to the Western Center for the Conservation of Fine Art in Denver, Colorado,” Allyson said. “There are not many conservators around, there just aren't, and we're lucky to have one in Denver. I them just some snapshots of what it looked like.I brought it up to them and within two months we had a restored painting. There was paint flaked off of it, the canvas was wrinkled; I know that they stretched it and steamed it to make it flat again and fixed all the places where the paint was chipped off. I’m sure I'm not using the right conservation words here, but I could not recommend them enough. They did such a fantastic job on that restoration.”

We agree.

“I love how the restoration turned out,” Cheryl said. “The deep blues, the nocturnal scene is great. I'm excited about it. Perhaps we’ll even turn it into a scarf someday.”