This article is one in a series of interviews with expats in Stavanger. Its purpose is to share with everyone what your fellow expats are doing and also to help advertise the businesses/services/events that these expats are involved in. If you would like to or know of a business/enterprise to be interviewed, feel free to contact us!
Alexia runs Atelier Rohmer, her own business which specialises in art copy and painting restoration. She is currently launching her first exhibition at the French Institute.
Alexia, tell us a bit about yourself. Where are you from?
I am French, but I travelled quite a bit during childhood, following my parents as my dad needed to move from country to country quite often. I got to live in Indonesia, Scotland, and France obviously. This is where I studied art restoration, in Paris. Les Ecoles de Condé gave me a 5-year training, proudly resulting in a Masters degree in Art Restoration and Conservation.
I started my professional career in the South of France. There, I worked on several monuments’ restoration sites: the stones of a triumph arch from the first century in Provence needed cleaning and strengthening; a nineteenth century museum in Nice had to be refurbished to open new exhibition rooms; and a villa, designed by Eileen Gray and decorated by Le Corbusier in the 1920s on the Riviera, had fallen into decay. I contributed to restore this major work, which is planned to become a public museum mid 2012.
As I then moved to the Parisian area, I was asked to work on the Château de Versailles, where I conducted finishing works on sculptures on top of the main façade.
How did you end up in Stavanger?
I met my husband in Stavanger, as I came for holidays in 2009. By this time, I had in mind to set up my own restoration studio, and to establish as a proper company. After some very interesting interviews with two Norwegian restorers, it came clear to me that Stavanger was a very good place to start doing business in my field of activity: as I moved here permanently in February 2010, I founded Atelier Rohmer, dedicated to Restoration and Copy of Artworks.
What do you think of the lifestyle and culture here?
Norway is amazingly different from France, that’s the least one can say! So quiet and peaceful, that the culture shock, although not obvious at first, is really present. Lifestyle is really laidback here, and it feels great!
On a more professional point of view, my work is a permanent induction to the stunning cultural heritage of Norway: every painting brought to me by my customers is a new opportunity to discover more of Norwegian culture, as depicted by the talented artists, especially from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Edvard Munch is an obvious example, but a number of romantic painters also enrich the cultural side of Norway. Beyond the beautiful fjords and stave churches, this country has so much more to offer!
In addition to the investigations I carry on from my studio, I became a member of the Nordic Association of Conservators (NKF-N) as soon as I came to Norway. This enabled me to get introduced to my peers here, and it is a constant stimulation in my work and everyday life, through formal meetings, informal gatherings and regular technical exchanges.
Was it difficult for you to set up Atelier Rohmer? What are the challenges of running your own business here?
Language has obviously been a challenge! Not speaking Norwegian fluently made all the administrative steps a little more difficult, in addition to the actual work, which is in itself complicated already! Fortunately enough, my husband, who speaks Norwegian, helped me with all the paperwork. I also found a Norwegian accountant, who speaks French; he is really precious and helpful in the everyday life of Atelier Rohmer. But, as I take Norwegian lessons – and I’m working hard at it! – I hope I will be able to speak the local language soon, and be more independent.
More generally speaking, I reckon running one’s own business requires a lot of organization: you have to constantly switch from the preferred technical work to the tedious administrative tasks. This is of course not so different here than anywhere else. The main challenge, for a company like mine, is to build my whole network from scratch.
Is there much of a market for your services here in Stavanger?
I started my activity restoring paintings for friends and close relationships. Word of mouth is the key in a business like mine: a satisfied customer is the best advertiser I can hope for.
The presence of a customer pool became clear quite rapidly: the day I got my business card, I started spreading it in art places in Stavanger. Galleries, museums, frame manufacturers, art products shops: I paid a visit to all of them! I introduced myself as a newly established craftswoman, and I left a stack of business cards at their counters, available for their visitors/customers. This had an immediate effect on my activity, and it still pays! In addition, the region of Rogaland has only few restorers who work for private art collections: the preferred choice amongst Norwegian restorers is to get a position in the institutional sector: in museums, universities or state-owned laboratories. This is a general trend in Norway: even Oslo counts a small number of private restorers.
What does your work entail?
An other word for restorer is curator: I work with paintings as physicians do with their patients, from basic check-ups to heavy surgery. Damages done to a painting can result from ageing or accidents. In both cases, it is my role to make the picture readable and stable again.
With time, light and environmental changes, the constitutive elements of a painting deteriorate: paint layer can lose elasticity and fall off the support in flakes; dust, smoke, grease or pollution in the air deposit on the painting and change its appearance; canvas can become weaker and tear apart; varnish can turn yellow and darken the whole picture… All of these damages trouble the visual unity of a painting, and put it in a real danger. Partial or total removal of the alterations brings back the coherence and the durability of an artwork.
Most often, customers come to me with a painting to clean. Gaps in the paint layer are also quite frequent, and need to be filled with putty, and retouched with pigments. Lately I also had a more serious case: there were more than 20 tears in the cotton canvas! The common rule to each of these different treatments is to try to be as minimalist as possible, and to make decisions case by case: each painting is unique, and must be considered independently from all the others.
Each painting also has its proper history that should always be respected. My philosophy is not to turn an old painting into a brand new one, but rather to bring its harmony back, considering its authenticity.
You’re currently opening your first exhibition. Tell us more!
In addition to painting restoration, I do art reproduction: if there is a painting you like very much, but which you cannot afford – it’s probably because it is at the Louvre Museum! – you can ask me to paint it for you. I received extensive education in painting copy at my restoration school: both activities are complementary to each other. Copying the masters’ work is a good way to learn how to reproduce shapes and colours, which is really helpful when you have to execute the retouching of a damaged painting.
The French Institute (Løkkeveien 52, 4008 Stavanger) is giving me the opportunity to expose some of my works, from the 1st to the 17th of June. There will be 10 copies, from different periods and styles: Monet, De la Tour, Goya, Chardin…
The opening is Wednesday 1st June at 6 p.m, I am really excited about it! Anyone can come along to see the exhibition so I hope to see some of you there over the time it is open.
How can people get in touch with you if they have a question about a painting?
The simpler the better! You will find everything you need on my website www.atelier-rohmer.com. You can either email me, or call me: 954 71 275.
If you feel that one of your paintings need my help, please get in touch, and we will make an appointment for you to bring your picture to my studio. After examination, I will be able to make an estimate of the cost and time needed to bring your painting back to the standard it deserves!
Thanks Alexia for your time and the fascinating insight into your work! We wish you all the best with your business and with your exhibition in June…looking forward to coming along and seeing some of your paintings!
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About Sadie Ramm
Sadie is English and moved to Stavanger in May 2010 with her boyfriend who works in the oil industry. After leaving her career in marketing to relocate to Norway, she's currently freelancing as a marketing consultant, specialising in helping small businesses with strategy and planning, website design and copywriting. She is making the most of the great outdoors that Norway has to offer, and has taken up cycling since moving here. She loves making stuff - knitting, sewing and cooking in particular. She's most often found out walking with her Manchester Terrier puppy, Nero.
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