West Lake Conservators is pleased to welcome Raphael back to the staff as a conservator of paintings. Raphael is joining West Lake Conservators again, shortly after completing his Master of Art Conservation (MAC 2019) degree from Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, with a specialization in Paintings. Before graduate school, Raphael spent two years pre-program working at West Lake Conservators with focused training in both paper and paintings conservation. While at Queen’s, Raphael studied under Assistant Professor and current Program Director Patricia Smithen (Queen’s MAC 1993), formally the Head of Conservation at Tate Modern in London, England. As part of his studies, Raphael interned at the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa in 2018, and in 2019, he completed concurrent internships at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and at the Gianfranco Pocobene Studio, both in Boston. Post-graduation, Raphael worked for Hartmann Fine Arts Conservations Services, in Carlisle, PA, a private conservation lab specializing in paintings of all types, from easel paintings, to murals, to painted artifacts.
Raphael brings a varied and unique skill set to West Lake, informed through a prior career in toy design, book illustration, and hand-crafted carpentry. Part of what excites Raphael about the conservation field is meeting the complex problem solving challenges so many treatments demand, with no two quite alike. Raphael enjoys combining the insights, hand skills, and the strategic planning gained through his conservation training with his prior professions to more carefully conserve historic and contemporary paintings, thus safely preserving these painted artifacts and better allowing original artist’s intent to be more fully showcased.
