After the week-end to make sure that they really want to learn about conservation and restoration, the students have their first full day of class. They start with an hour or so of theory and notes, so that they get a good understanding of some of the basics and begin to get a good grounding in what it means to be a conservator and the core principles. The next stage is to make a start on some of the paintings, and as you can see they have got stuck in to doing some simple surface cleaning. In the meantime our two students from the UK have taken on one painting each and are making good progress. Anna has taken the painting out of the frame and off the stretcher, and is starting to flatten and consolidate the canvas. Joanna is making good progress cleaning one of the more difficult paintings, and they are both sharing knowledge and experience with the local students. The studio is working well - it is a light and airy room with good lighting and good ventilation, and we have plenty of tables and coffee and tea for the breaks! The students are gelling as a group and it's great to see them getting on together. It is quite a difficult situation because the materials are difficult to source. We have brought most of the materials with us except the solvents and basic equipment such as a ring to warm up Rabbit Skin Glue, gesso and other necessary components, an iron and many more items which were too heavy or we thought we could purchase on location.