Restoration of the Altars

We are delighted to have Vanessa Webb back with us to restore the three altars in the church. Vanessa designed and stencil-painted (with a previous colleague) the back drop to the main altar back in the late 80’s at the request of Fr Maher SJ. She will now be restoring it to its former glory following damage by damp, using the same design of celestial blue and gold bunches of grapes.

Vanessa, who is based in Bristol, has extensive experience of restoring antique paintwork and gilding. Among other projects, she has worked on the Manor House, Uphill Manor, at Weston-super-Mare, restoring stencilling from the 1860’s. This work has been done previously by Crace and Son, decorators to royalty for three generations.

She said: “I do not like to paint over antique painting that is good. I like to work with the old decoration, enhancing its beauty and picking out significant features, reinstating only what is damaged.”

She has highlighted all the gold paintwork in our Italianate main back altar, and redefined the edges and the shape where the stonework was chipped. She has been right up to the top of the dome, even restoring the gold within the cupola. The ‘piece de resistance’ is the pelican over the tabernacle, which she rightly regards as the main feature of the altar. This has been completely re-gilded so it reflects the light.
She has also redone the gold at the base of the pillars. Moving on to the Lady Chapel, she will once again restore the paintwork and highlight the gold, as well as clean the statue itself. She has repainted the gold panels at the base of the altar originally done by Kevin Boyle , and restore the blue edging. Finally, she will re-gild and paint the Sacred Heart altar and clean up the statue.


She said: “St Mary’s is my favourite Bristol church and has been since I worked here in the 1980’s. Someone came up to me then and said ‘Thank you for making our church the prettiest in Bristol’ and I really appreciated that remark. It is really my pleasure to work here: I love the church and I love the work.” She hopes to finish in the early part of 2010. For further details of Vanessa Webb’s work, see her website: www.stunningfx.co.uk (Marion Morgan)