Project Spotlight

Amy Cole Ives provides paint research, analysis and documentation for buildings, vehicles, furniture, paintings and objects. For the analysis of finishes, Amy employs cross-section and polarized light microscopy to identify and document plain and decorative paint schemes, paint layer structures and pigments. This information is used for documenting the finish history of the sampled object, for determining appropriate conservation treatments options, and for use in the restoration of historically appropriate finishes.

Since 2013, Amy has had the opportunity to work on exciting and fascinating projects for private, non-profit, institutional and museum clients, including Historic New England, Peabody Essex Museum, Bowdoin College, the University of Virginia, John Canning Company, The Lost Mural Project, Rufus Porter Museum, the Bermuda National Trust and Strawbery Banke Museum. In 2017 Amy was a member of the organizing committee for the 6th International Architectural Paint Research Conference held at Columbia University in New York City and presented a paper at this conference on her work with Susan L. Buck at Historic New England's Eustis Estate in Milton, Massachusetts entitled W.R. Emerson's Eustis House: Interior Decorative Finishes of an Aesthetic Movement Masterpiece.

For more information on paint research, analysis and conditions documentation, contact: amycoleives@sutherlandcc.net