The subject of this master’s thesis was the conservation-restoration of an oil painting Izlake 96 from the Izlake–Zagorje Art Colony collection, created by Darja Srebnik. The central focus was the repair of two tears measuring 8 and 10 cm. The main problem lay in their location. The two tears were positioned along the left edge of the stretcher and only 1 cm apart. The section located closer to the stretcher’s edge was more difficult to access during the treatment. Their close proximity required protecting one tear while working on the other. An additional challenge in thread adhesion was the painting’s thin picture layer. In the theoretical part, two methods are described – tear mending with reinforcement and the Heiber method. We tested both on prepared mock-ups and subjected them to artificial ageing – in collaboration with the UL FKKT. In this way, both the effectiveness of the methods and the adhesive strength of the used glues were evaluated. This was followed by work on the painting itself, which comprised a series of conservation-restoration procedures: deformation removal, local consolidation, detachment from the decorative frame, realignment of the tear edges, thread-by-thread mending, filling, retouching, and local varnishing. We concluded the thesis with an interview with the artist, who is herself also a conservator-restorer.
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