LEROYPENNYSAVER&NEWS -JANUARY 3, 2016
Strawberry, Lemon,Orange andRaspberry
byLynneBelluscio
Incaseyouareever inaTrival
Pursuit game and need to know
the first flavors of Jell-O - - this
is theanswer: strawberry, lemon,
orange and raspberry.
Up until recently, the Jell-O
Gallery had three paintings - -
lemon, orange and raspberry,
butweweremissing strawberry.
Then, about a year agowewere
contacted by the son of a man
who worked for Jell-O. His
father worked in the office until
it closed in 1964, and likemany
other managers, he was told he
could take any of the paintings
onhisofficewall. Afterhis father
died, he didn’t knowwhat to do
with the paintings and put them
into an auction and that’s when
wewere aware that they existed.
Tomake a long story short, the
Jell-OGallery bought the straw-
berrypainting, although itwasn’t
inverygoodcondition. It needed
professional restoration.Thatcan
cost acoupleof thousanddollars,
so I applied for a grant through
the Lower Hudson Conference
of Historical Agencies andMu-
seum, which has funds available
through the New York State
Council of theArts.Wehavehad
successful applications through
LHCHA before.
LastspringI took thestrawberry
painting toWestlakeConservators
inSkaneateles so they coulddo a
condition report.Thenwesubmit-
ted thegrant proposal andduring
the summerwewerenotified that
our request for $2,749.50 was
approved. It took awhile for the
check to arrive, but the day that
we had the check deposited, I
calledWestlakeConservatorsand
told them to startwork.
It took several weeks to com-
plete the restoration and I re-
ceivedacall twoweeksago tosay
that it was finished and I could
come to pick it up. I couldn’t
wait tosee it, soonFriday Idrove
over toSkaneateles topick it up.
Everyone there, really liked the
Jell-Opainting, and the next day
I put it above the other three in
the Jell-OGallery.
My favorite is still the lem-
on Jell-O but the strawberry is
wonderful. All four imageswere
used as illustrations on the small
leaflets that were in packages of
Jell-O in the 1920s. These paint-
ings are unsigned, but attributed
toAngusMacDonall (1875-1927).
He was an illustrator for
Scrib-
ner’s, Harper’s, Ladies Home
Journal
and
Life Magazine
. The
Gallery has several of his signed
paintings. And the Woodward
Library has his painting of “Jack
and theBeanstalk.” Hewasborn
inSt. Louis,Missouri butmoved
to Westport, Connecticut where
heworkedwithagroupofartists.
The work on this painting
included removing the painting
from the frame, consolidating
the paint to prevent further loss.
The tearswere vapor treated and
the surface dirt and grime was
removed with aqueous solu-
tions. The oxidized varnish was
removed as well as small places
where the painting had been “re-
paired”withmodernpaint. After
theoldstretcherwas repaired,and
the canvas was lined, the canvas
was reattached.
Then an isolating layer of
varnish was applied and small
losseswerefilledwithModostuc.
Where there was paint loss, the
conservator inpainted, making
sure the colors matched exactly.
Anothercoatofprotectivevarnish
wasapplied, andaprotectivedust
board was attached to the back.
Asyoucan see, this typeofwork
is only for the professionals.
Sonow,when folkscome to the
Jell-OGallery,wecan tell them to
lookat these fourbeautiful Jell-O
still-lifes - - and they can answer
the question, “What are the first
four flavors of Jell-O?”
