Upcoming Events
Save the date!
March 20th 2026
The Traditional Paint Forum’s Annual Conference
‘The Bigger Picture’
ISH Venue 229 Great Portland Street
This year we are again based in central London at ISH Venues located at 229 Great Portland Street with good access from Regents Park and Great Portland Street tube stations and Euston, Kings Cross and St Pancras mainline train stations.
International Students House (ISH) is a charity dedicated to British and International Students in London. “We empower young people to strive for the betterment of society through global friendships, the exchange of knowledge and educational scholarships. Our scholarships are awarded to students engaged in study at some of the most prestigious colleges and universities in London, including L.S.E, London Business School, King’s College and S.O.A.S. ”
Ticket sales will open on 1st February and are available through Eventbrite
As ever, the TPF conference is a chance to connect with fellow paint enthusiasts, for those who do not need to rush off after the conference there will be a chance to carry on the paint related (or wider) conversations in the Thirsty Scholar at the end of the day.
Don’t forget – our conference also counts towards your CPD – just ask us for a certificate on the day !
Due to request from the venue to allow for catering preparation we urge all tickets to be purchased before 10th March – thank you!
We look forward to seeing you.
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Also stay tuned for information on our 2026 Rose of Jericho visit, as well as tours of the Tower of London and Bristol University Theatre Collection.
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Please consider joining the Traditional Paint Forum – information on Membership is available on our website.
The annual conference of the Traditional Paint Forum is a great way of staying in touch with fellow professionals and keeping up to date with the latest research in the field.
Please follow us on LinkedIn (Traditional Paint Forum ) or Instagram ( traditional.paint.forum ) for forthcoming events.
Past Events
This in-person event took place on Friday 14th of March, 2025.
Location: ISH Venues – 229 Great Portland St, London W1W 5PN
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BRINGING BACK THE COLOUR!
Announcement of the winners of our very first TPF Student and Apprentice Awards by Dr Ian Bristow, will take place on the day with a presentation by the 1st prize winner. CPD Certificates will be available on request.
9.30am–8.30pm Friday 18 November 2022
St Patrick’s RC Church, Soho Square, London W1D 4NR
Tickets: £40–£125 (Lunch and drinks included)
Non-member tickets include Membership fee for 2023
The day conference will be followed by our AGM and an informal evening gathering until 8.30pm
Presentations from our speakers include:
• Repair and redecoration of Buckingham Palace Grand Staircase, Louis Randall, Head of Property Operations, Royal Household Property Section
• Restoration of Elizabeth Tower, Katherine Carey, Project Manager, Sir Robert McAlpine, and Alexandra Miller, Senior Project Manager, Cliveden Conservation
• Colour and Pattern: The Restoration of the Saloon at the Royal Pavilion, Brighton, David Beevers, the Keeper of the Royal Pavilion and Annabel Westman FSA, Textile historian and Consultant and Director Emeritus, The Attingham Trust
• Redecoration of St Patrick’s Soho, project background, Sinclair Johnston, Consultant, Byrne Looby
• Redecoration of St Patricks, Paul Humphreys, Director, Hare & Humphreys
• Repairs and redecoration of Sibsey Windmill, Nicola Duncan-Finn, Senior Estates Manager, English Heritage
• A consideration of some of the External Redecoration Challenges for the National Trust, and how PRA paint trials have informed decision making, Alan Gardener, Senior Buildings Conservation Manager, The National Trust
Date: Thursday 6th May 2021 starting from 7pm
Speaker: Polly Westlake and Ana Logreira (Cliveden Conservation)
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All Saints Church, Fleet, is a Grade II listed building by the renowned Victorian architect William Burgess. It was built in 1861-2. In 2015 the church was badly damaged by a vast fire.
One effect of the fire was to partially uncover the original painted scheme in the Chancel, that had been white washed over in the early 20th century.
The paint layers revealed below layers of limewash and modern emulsion were in an extremely deteriorated condition. Certain pigments had fused with the overlying paint due to extremes of heat. As the modern layers flaked away from the substrate they were peeling the original away, sometimes leaving the composition exposed ‘in the negative’ as only the ground layers survive. In other areas the original scheme was preserved in surprisingly good condition, below layers of powdering modern paint which served to buffer the scheme against the fire and subsequent weathering.
Cliveden Conservation undertook a condition assessment and treatment trials (June 2018) focussing on how to stabilise the extremely fragile painting sufficiently to withstand the application – and possible later removal – of a temporary protective covering layer. In 2019 the conservators returned to carry out the consolidation and protection of the decorated surfaces, a provisional treatment until works are undertaken to restore the rest of the church.
Research was carried out to identify now illegible iconographic elements, such as the roundels located on the arch, through comparisons of other schemes by William Burges. In addition, research was undertaken into particular motifs used by the Architect, in a selection of unrealised plans and drawings in the V&A archive. Digital reconstructions were made from the surviving compositional elements at All Saints. This work serves as an important record of how the church was originally decorated, as well as of the style and schemes of Burges. If future church users decide to recreate the original scheme – the preference currently is to restore the undecorated white finish – this work will be essential to the accurate reconstruction of the scheme.
The question arose of what to do with the painting once the functionality of the religious building has been recovered; Keep the paintings covered? Conserve fully and leave them visible? Leave them partially exposed? Cover for protection and reproduce the decorative design above? The discussion and possibilities of these questions are the central axis of this paper and are related to technical, theoretical, ethical and aesthetical aspects.
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Donations to be made for the Art Foundation
https://www.artfund.org/get-involved/art-happens/join-together-for-museums
PAINTED FURNITURE AT THE V&A: From William Morris To The Omega Workshops
Date: Thursday, February 20th 2020 at 1830
Venue: Donald Insall Associates, 12 Devonshire Street, London WIG 7AB
Drawing on the collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum, Max Donnelly will discuss the role of painted decoration in furniture from the 1850s to the early twentieth century. Beginning with furniture designed by William Burges he will go on to consider furniture painted by William Morris and his circle, ‘Art’ furniture, and finally objects decorated by Arts and Crafts practitioners and by members of the Omega Workshops.
Max Donnelly
Max Donnelly is Curator of Nineteenth-Century Furniture at the Victoria and Albert Museum, where he is a member of the Curatorial Concept Team planning new international nineteenth-century galleries. Recent publications include a chapter on furniture for the monograph, C.F.A. Voysey: Arts and Crafts Designer (V&A Publishing, 2016). He is a trustee of the Emery Walker Trust and the Decorative Arts Society.
Thursday 27th September 2018 @ Donald Insall Associates
This is a discussion for everyone involved in Architectural Paint Research; practitioners, local authorities, heritage bodies, conservation architects, and private clients.
The discipline is now an accepted part of the planning process, but it is beset by problems; a lack of agreed standards, little training for practitioners, misunderstanding of the discipline by planning officers, imprecise briefs. How do we improve matters?’
Thursday 22nd March 2018 @ Donald Insall Associates
We had a fascinating evening lecture by Patrick Baty on 22 March. Patrick explained why several people have referred to him as ‘The Paint Detective’.
Amongst notable examples, Patrick spoke of a house, with discreet Royal connections, where he could prove that a pair of doors had come from a long-demolished building, hundreds of miles away.
He also provided an update on work at Stowe and described the finding of a hidden mural in the Chelsea house owned by the painter James Abbott McNeill Whistler.
Friday 26th May 2017
Traditional Paint Forum provides a discussion and information platform but does not promote or endorse any individual company, product or process.
Thursday 23rd March 2017 @ Donald Insall Associates London office
Thursday 11th August 2016 @ Donald Insall Associates London office
Traditional Paint Forum provides a discussion and information platform but does not promote or endorse any individual company, product or process.