Koolen Fine Arts — Attraction in Stratford

I have three family oil paintings which were painted in the mid 1800s. When I inherited them they all needed work. I had no idea who could do it for me. My goodness was I ever lucky to find Colleen and Robert Koolen at historic.canadian.art @symaptico.ca in Stratford Ontario. All my paintings had stretched, so they needed to be fixed. The stretch made the fabric bubble in some places but in others, one painting actually came apart. Family thought someone had slashed one of the paintings with a knife. During a robbery, someone shot my great grandmother's picture in the forehead and left a BB gun hole in the canvas. Two of the original frames of paintings had been damaged and the third painting had been reframed in a modern style. I took this problem to Colleen and Robert who were able to skillfully repair the original frames and create a similar frame for the third painting. The first painting they repaired for me was the painting with the BB gun hole. When I picked it up there was no sign of the hole. The stretched parts were gone and the whole picture 'came alive'. The same miracle happened with the other two paintings, so I brought more pictures to them. All were wonderful successes!! By the way, while I was there, I discovered they were restoring a huge number of paintings which had been damaged during an estate fire. Robert and Colleen are very helpful and easy to talk to. If you need to figure out a problem they will work with you to find a solution. You will be pleased to have found...

Twelve years ago, I sought out Robert and Collen of Koolen Fine Arts in order to have restoration work done on my mother's small European art collection. The paintings were not valuable, but were very precious to her as well as our family. Colleen did an excellent job of restoring, valuing , and researching the various artists. She has restored oil paintings, lithographs, etchings, and even reframed the original drawing of 1930s Dutch magazine illustrator's markup, which she found out for us, was very valuable. I have been collecting as well, and have purchased some pieces from the gallery. However, I have been able to spot some interesting works on my own, and Colleen was right there with the research and advice before I made an offer. I would never let anyone touch any new acquisition which may need repair other than Colleen. I highly recommend that if you want true honest advice on any restoration or research work, you contact the gallery and...

I found Koolen Fine Arts on the internet when looking for an art restoration place in Hamilton. To make a long story short, I got in touch with Robert. We had a great conversation. Made arrangements to take a piece of my uncle's art which had become brittle & badly torn in a wind gust. Alo of my family members didn't think it could be repaired. Colleen assured me she she could restore it. I went to pick it up yesterday, & was totally shocked at the finished work, to say the least!!! Colleen is an expert in her field!!! We couldn't tell where it had been repaired. The frame & painting had been cleaned as well. I have other paintings of my uncle's that will be going to Colleen for cleanings. Koolen has a new loyal client!!! They're also a great couple to deal with. ...