Mother and daughter duo keeping iconic Hasting war mural alive

Preventive conservation treatment on the war mural in the Hall of Memories at the Hastings War Memorial Library painted by New Zealand’s official WW2 artist Peter McIntyre. Photo / Warren Buckland

Every two years, world-renowned Italian art restorer and conservator Carolina Izzo makes her way down to Hawke’s Bay from Auckland to work her magic on the Hastings War Memorial Library war mural painted in 1959 by well-known war artist Peter McIntyre.

Now working on the painting for the seventh time, Izzo brought her daughter and fellow restorer and conservator Giulia Scott with her to help out.

This is Scott’s first time working on Peter Mclntyre’s Hastings war mural, which depicts an assault by the joint branches of the armed forces on an unspecified beach.

Professional conservator Giulia Scott works on preventive conservation treatment on the war mural at the Hastings War Memorial Library. Photo / Warren Buckland

However, it is not the biggest restoration piece she has helped her mum with. After the 2011 earthquake in Christchurch Izzo was asked to go down and restore the original 1908 canvas auditorium calling/dome at the Isaac Theatre Royal.

Scott said it was “a huge job,” stating that it was four times the size of the mural she was currently working on in Hastings.

As the daughter of an art restorer and conservator, Scott didn’t grow up wanting to be like her mum. She actually went and studied law for a while before deciding it wasn’t for her and started helping out at Studio Izzo.

“I really enjoyed the work and just loved being surrounded by art,” Scott said.

Professional conservator Carolina Izzo of Auckland works on preventive conservation treatment on the war mural at the Hastings War Memorial Library. Photo / Warren Buckland

However, Izzo told Scott if she wanted to keep working with her she had to go and study to become a qualified restorer and conservator.

Scott headed to Florence for three years and came back to work under her mum who she said, “has so much experience and has worked on so many incredible pieces of art, I feel very lucky to be able to be a part of that.”

Being able to work on the war mural in Hastings is pretty incredible, Scott says, as she explained she has always been a fan of McIntyre’s work and has had a few of his smaller pieces come through the studio to clean up - but nothing on the size of the Hastings War Memorial Library mural.

Each time Izzo comes to work on the war mural she continues her consolidating and checking the stability of the work as a whole.

The work itself had suffered a lot of cracking and paint loss, especially with the big windows directly in front of the painting in the Hall of Memories, letting the light directly hit the art.

Cracking on the war mural in the Hall of Memories at the Hastings War Memorial Library painted by New Zealand’s official World War II artist Peter McIntyre. Photo / Warren Buckland

Scott said, “We have been doing a lot of retouching and filling because there has been a lot of water damage leaving drip marks and as a result, the water was getting between the wall and the paint causing the paint to lift and crack, causing paint loss.”

The aim is to focus on the bigger more noticeable and structural issue areas, however Scott said she keeps getting carried away on the smaller ones as well and Izzo has to keep telling her to move on.

“It’s a lot of work because it is only two of us on such a big piece, it would be nice to have a whole team and a longer time frame but there is also a budget the council has that we have to fit into,” Scott said.

She added, “It is quite good getting to come every two years because we get to see how the work is holding up and to see the stability and consolidation and lighting and heat is affecting the artwork.

No one knows exactly what the future holds but the two art restorers and conservators are trying their best to make sure the work of art is here to stick around.