Our Team – Kiffy Stainer-Hutchins & Co

KIFFY STAINER-HUTCHINS Dip Cons (Hons) ACR, Director and Chief paintings conservator…Kiffy received a Diploma in Conservation (wood, stone and allied polychrome finishes) at the City & Guilds of London Art School in 1980. After eight years working independently and with Pauline Plummer BA (Hons) FSA FIIC FBAPCR ACR, she undertook an advanced internship in paintings conservation at the Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore. In 1990 she was appointed Senior Paintings Conservator, and then in 1996 Head of Paintings Conservation, for the National Museums and Galleries on Merseyside’s new award winning Conservation Centre in Liverpool. Between 1998 and 2001 she undertook a senior research fellowship in paintings conservation at the National Gallery of Art, Washington DC, studying the techniques of Sir Anthony van Dyck’s Genoese period. She then returned to the private sector working as Senior Paintings Conservator for IFACS Ltd, Bristol. In 2004 she was appointed Head of Conservation/Course Leader for the undergraduate and postgraduate training programmes at the City & Guilds of London Art School (a traditionally part time position). At the same time she set up her own practice (KSH&Co) with studio bases in Norfolk and London. In 2007 she resigned from the City & Guilds of London Art School to concentrate on her growing practice. She has won two awards for conservation and was accredited through Icon (formerly UKIC) in 2004.

Kiffy has acquired a leading national and international reputation in both the private and museum sectors and has published and lectured extensively. She has been an active member of UKIC/Icon since 1978 and has sat on numerous committees, sub-committees and working parties during her career. She has made significant contributions to both the profession as a whole, as well as to UKIC’s early development and to its later ‘convergence’ within the wider Institute of conservation (Icon) in 2005. In 1981 she was a member of the Professional Standards sub-committee for UKIC which was set up to shape and improve professional practice within the conservation profession. In 2002-3 she was invited as part of an assessment committee on professional accreditation (with the BAPCR), and more recently part of an Icon advisory committee giving experienced feedback to accredited conservators and their four-yearly CPD reviews. Kiffy is fluent in French and as Director on KSH&Co her special interests are in 15th, 16th and 17th century English, Flemish, French and Dutch paintings, in particular portraits, as well as English polychrome wooden artefacts of the same era.

Kiffy’s Publications:

Boyce, E.R., Stainer-Hutchins, K., Platt, H., ‘Another fragment-half of a Flemish devotional panel; Mater Dolorosa, c.1520, by an anonymous artist associated with the Master of the Holy Blood’, The Picture Restorer, Number 48, Spring 2016, pp. 18-28

Stainer-Hutchins, K. and Platt, H. 2010. ”Christ Blessing’ with ‘The Virgin in Adoration’ by Quentin Metsys, c. 1491-1505: A Technical Investigation’. The Picture Restorer, number 37, Autumn 2010. 18-20 and 29-33.

Stainer-Hutchins, K. Whatney, S. and Platt, H. 2010. ‘A Rediscovered Prototype by Quinten Metsys: ‘Christ Blessing’ with ‘The Virgin in Adoration”. The Burlington Magazine, Volume 152, number 1283, February 2010. 76-81.

HUGO PLATT MA(Hons) PhDip Cons MA(Dist) ACR, Senior Paintings Conservator, has an MA in art history from Edinburgh University (1994) and an MA in fine art (painting) from the City & Guilds of London Art School (2003). In 1998 he received a postgraduate diploma in the conservation of easel paintings from the Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London. In 1999 he undertook an advanced internship in paintings conservation at the Limburg Conservation Institute (SRAL, Maastricht). In 2000 he was appointed Consultant Paintings Conservator to the National Gallery of Art, Guyana, and since then has worked extensively on a wide variety of practical freelance projects for several leading independent conservators and commercial galleries in the UK and Europe. He has a special interest in the technical study of artists’ methods and materials and related art historical research – including a particular focus on 16th and 17th century paintings and British modern and contemporary art. He joined KSH&Co in February 2005 as Senior Paintings Conservator, and leads the studio in the structural treatment of canvas, panel and other paintings’ supports. Hugo was accredited through Icon (formerly UKIC) in 2012.

Hugo’s Publications:

EMMA REBECCA BOYCE BA (Hons) MA Dip Cons, Paintings Conservator, received a BA in Art History and Theory from the University of Essex (2000) and an MA in Conservation and Restoration of Artistic and Historical Cultural Heritage at Palazzo Spinelli Istituto per L’Arte e il Restauro, Florence (2005) – simultaneously undertaking a vocational Diploma in Conservation and Restoration of Easel Paintings at the same institution. She followed this with work in private conservation studios in Italy and England before undertaking a further Postgraduate Diploma in Conservation of Easel Paintings at the Hamilton Kerr Institute, Queen’s College, Cambridge University (2009). Thereafter she undertook internships at the Mauritshuis in The Hague, and at the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. Since then she worked as a freelance conservator and technical art historian in North Holland and England. Emma has a special interest in the technical study of artists’ materials and techniques with particular reference to ‘process’ and optical effects, with a focus on 17th century Dutch painting and its influence on the techniques of later generations. During her university career Emma developed specialist knowledge of 16th century Italian painting. In addition to her native English she is also fluent in Italian and has a working knowledge of French and Dutch. She joined KSH&Co in 2013 and leads the Studio’s paint analysis unit. Emma has published research and delivered lectures, and since 2016 she has been a Features Editor for The Picture Restorer, journal of the BAPCR.

Emma’s Publications:
Boyce, E.R., Stainer-Hutchins, K., Platt, H., ‘Another fragment-half of a Flemish devotional panel; Mater Dolorosa, c.1520, by an anonymous artist associated with the Master of the Holy Blood’, The Picture Restorer, Number 48, Spring 2016, pp. 18-28

Boyce, E. R., ‘Lombardy, Leonardo and a long-lost Piazza: an alternative attribution for a 16th-century Madonna and Child’, Hamilton Kerr Institute Bulletin Number 4, Archetype Publications, London, 2013, pp.77-94

Massing, J. M., Kempski, M., Boyce, E.R. and Leonard, D., ‘Conservation and technical study of Siciolante’s Deposition of Christ’ Hamilton Kerr Institute Bulletin Number 4, Archetype Publications, London, 2013, pp. 7-20

NICOLA EVANS BA(Hons) MA; Paintings Conservator, undertook an art foundation course at Buckingham New University, followed by an HND in Fine Art at City College Brighton and Hove which concluded in 2007. In 2009 she received a BA in Fine Art at Brighton University and then worked as a Specialist Painter for Damien Hirst at Hirst Science Ltd. In 2015 she received an MA with commendation in Paintings Conservation at the University of Northumbria, including a work placement within the paintings conservation department at the National Maritime Museum, London. Nicola has a particular interest in methods and materials of conservation practice. Nicola joined us in December 2015.

ROB GATES HND; frame conservator and art technician, received an HND in architectural stained glass in 1995 from Swansea Art College, Wales. Prior to that and since he has had a long history of working in the creative arts sector. In addition to his own fine and decorative art (including exhibitions in London and UK wide) he has been variously shop manager, research stylist, arts teaching assistant, freelance gardener, prop maker, and long term house keeper and estate manager for the world famous residential recording studios – SARM, run by Trevor Horn, between 1999-2012. Rob began working with KSH&Co in 2012 and has a particular interest in decorative finishes and gilding, as well as the history of frame making and frame makers. He is well versed in conservation framing (to museum standard), in preventive conservation, and in microclimate control and protective frame housing for paintings.