In life and in art, we treasure and often pay for what we deem most precious.
Whether it be a Michelangelo or a Modigliani, your daughter’s fourth grade creation, or that porcelain vase your Sicilian grandmother bestowed on you on your wedding day, we want our artistic belongings to last and be passed down to our children and our children’s children.
But time tends to age not only us but our art, and as the years pass, colors once bright begin to fade, dust accumulates, and that tiny chip once unnoticeable turns into a hardened crack. It is then that we turn to someone who can preserve or repair what is broken, faded or chipped. While such skilled doctors of art were once a rarity in California, right here in Newport Beach, Ardenia Capannelli has been restoring and preserving art for most of her adult life.
Though the streets outside Ardenia’s studio are paved with concrete and not cobblestone, and though a good cup of coffee comes from a place called Alta’s Coffee, and not made by an Italian barista, all that seems to fade the moment you walk inside. There, amidst the bottles of solvent, jars and brushes along with the paintings and sculptures she is currently working on, a definite feel of art and of Italy permeates in the air, perhaps made more apparent by its owner who dresses with that Italian flair and talks with passion both in English and Italian about the work she so loves.
Art has always been a part of Ardenia’s life. Though she was born in Windsor, Canada, she moved back as a young girl with her parents to their hometown in Ascoli Piceno. The move back to Italy turned out to be perfect for Ardenia. Surrounded by art, and raised in a country that gave birth to some of the greatest artistic geniuses the world has ever known, she was able to develop her artist gifts. “Growing up in Italy and being surrounded by art made me appreciate the quality that Italy can give you,” she said in a recent interview.
Her affinity for art may even be in her DNA, as far back as her great grandfather, Ardenia comes a from a long line of artists, builders and architects. Her father was especially noted for his work in restoring both modern and antique buildings and homes. “I had a little bit in my blood, and I was surrounded by art, you just absorb it.” But instead of homes, she turned to art. The timing could not have been more perfect.
“Italy is full of old work, and since Ascoli Piceno didn’t have enough restorers, the city contacted the Opificio which is the oldest laboratory in the world and asked to have their teachers train and teach twelve students. I was one of the twelve.”
Just as Julliard is the place for performing arts, and Harvard for law, the Opificio in Florence, Italy, is the oldest and most prestigious art restoration school in the world. In an intense program, Ardenia learned about preservation and restoration along with skills she needed in order to excel at her profession. “You need to be sensitive about colors, artistic, have a good eye for details, a light hand and be very sensitive…. You need to make decisions on what a sculpture or a painting needs,” she explained while sitting in her art studio. “Little as possible of your own work should be shown in the work you are restoring.”
Ardenia later found a job restoring art at the Museum of Ascoli Piceno. But it was when a friend invited her to visit Newport Beach that her life drastically changed. Once in the states, she fell in love not only with the Pacific Ocean and America’s entrepreneurial spirit, but also with the friend with whom she later married. “I called my mom and said, ‘I’m sorry. I’m not coming back… Everything is possible here in America. I loved the energy.”
After working as a secretary, she thought she had left behind the world of art restoration when due to unusual circumstances, her life’s purpose came calling again. In 1994, the Northridge earthquake caused widespread property damage and consequently, museums, buildings and those with art collections needed art restorers. Not many were as well trained as Ardenia and she soon became so busy, she was able to quit her job as a secretary. She herself was amazed at the demand as she soon realized that “Americans love old because America is so new,” Ardenia stated. “They love antiques.”
In 1996, she opened up her own business in Newport’s Cannery Village and has steadily built a loyal clientele ever since, while one of her most celebrated piece was when she restored the iconic redwood and balsa surf board that once belonged to legendary surfer and Olympic champion swimmer Duke Kahanamoku.
In business for almost twenty years, Ardenia continues to work while keeping up the latest in scientific discoveries in art restoration. She is excited about the new types of synthetic colors that have been developed recently. “Paintings will last longer because of new products and techniques such as using the proper adhesive to line a ripped canvas or applying the right plaster to patch a hole,” she explains.
“Science, being much more advanced, has helped make the restoration process reversible.” This reversibility is critical. “A restorer must think of his work in terms of whether or not a restorationist in the future will be able to one day undo what was done previously.”
Though the road to Newport Beach seemed an unlikely one, somehow seeing Ardenia with her sculptures and art work just a few blocks from the Pacific Ocean, the end result is well…picture perfect. No matter whether Ardenia is working on a painting worth millions or a ceramic hand print a customer’s daughter created, Ardenia treats every piece that comes through her door with the same care. “I use the same time,” she says as she picks up a white cloth and begins to work. “I put in the same effort.”
For more on Ardenia, go to www.facebook.com/Ardenia.Capannelli
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