Alice Sherwood

Junior CONSERVATOR

My lifelong fascination for paintings, their materials and facture led me to want to become a paintings conservator from a young age. I graduated with a BA in the History of Art from The University of Cambridge in 2019 and in 2022 completed my training in the Conservation of Easel Paintings at The Courtauld Institute of Art. During my final year at The Courtauld, I carried out the first conservation-based research project into the materials and techniques of the important twentieth-century British artist Winifred Knights. Alongside this work, I was also part of a research group looking into the use of in-situ Fourier Transform hyperspectral imaging in the infrared to characterise artist’s materials, and I presented this research at the 5th International Conference on Innovation in Art Research and Technology in 2022.

Working at Simon Gillespie is a pleasure as I am constantly surprised and delighted by the beautiful, varied paintings that arrive in the studio. Turning the corner to find a new treasure on the easel never fails to thrill me, and the time that I am able to spend poring over the work of artists, Old Master and contemporary, is truly a privilege.

Outside of work, I am still unable to tear myself away from the subject of artist’s materials, and at home I enjoy the craft of preparing traditional gesso panels and painting in egg tempera.

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