St Mary-on-the-Quay Altar Restoration
19 March 2010
St Mary-on-the-Quay is a landmark on Bristol’s Centre. The oldest Catholic church in the city draws a congregation from diverse backgrounds coming together in faith. The three altars in the church have recently been restored by Vanessa Webb. cliftondiocese.com met her in St Mary-on-the-Quay to bring you a podcast where she paints picture in our minds of the wonderful altars.
Vanessa designed and stencil-painted the back drop to the main altar back in the late 1980s. Now she’s restored 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 1860s.
Vanessa 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 restored the paintwork and highlighted the gold, as well as cleaned the statue itself. She has gilded the gold panels at the base of the altar originally done by Kevin Boyle, and restored the blue edging. Finally, she re-gilded and painted the Sacred Heart altar and cleaned the statue.
Vanessa added: “St Mary’s is my favourite Bristol church and has been since I worked here in the 1980s. 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.”
You can listen to Vanessa’s podcast in the multimedia panel on the right. There are pictures of the altars in the image gallery on the right. And there’s much more about Vanessa from her website.
Marion Morgan
St Mary-on-the-Quay is a landmark on Bristol’s Centre. The oldest Catholic church in the city draws a congregation from diverse backgrounds coming together in faith. The three altars in the church have recently been restored by Vanessa Webb. cliftondiocese.com met her in St Mary-on-the-Quay to bring you a podcast where she paints picture in our minds of the wonderful altars.
Vanessa designed and stencil-painted the back drop to the main altar back in the late 1980s. Now she’s restored 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 1860s.
Vanessa 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 restored the paintwork and highlighted the gold, as well as cleaned the statue itself. She has gilded the gold panels at the base of the altar originally done by Kevin Boyle, and restored the blue edging. Finally, she re-gilded and painted the Sacred Heart altar and cleaned the statue.
Vanessa added: “St Mary’s is my favourite Bristol church and has been since I worked here in the 1980s. 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.”
You can listen to Vanessa’s podcast in the multimedia panel on the right. There are pictures of the altars in the image gallery on the right. And there’s much more about Vanessa from her website.
Marion Morgan
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