Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Jill Pratzon. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Jill, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Has Covid resulted in any major changes to your business model?

FROM LOSS TO RESTORATION TO CREATION

Pivot, pivot… That word may be overused, but we continue to pivot, nonetheless. New York City became a ghost town in 2020, and every entrepreneur I know wondered, “What’s next?” My painting restoration business, Pratzon Art Restoration, always has a backlog of dirty and damaged paintings waiting to be rescued, but when the pandemic hit, many of my clients moved out of the metropolitan area, promising to pick up their art… eventually. Nearly three years later, some have moved back and some have not, and we ship more paintings via trusted art movers than we used to. I often visit clients’ homes to discuss their needs and test their paintings onsite so I – and they – can see what a difference a cleaning might make. (I think we’re all grateful for the in-person interaction!)

Business did slow down a bit, but I didn’t mind; I’d been burning the midnight oil for years, and I needed a chance to catch my breath. I thought the business would benefit from a little show-and-tell, so we created a YouTube channel called Action Pratzon, to share some projects with the public and invite them to look over my shoulder. During another quiet moment, a client called to offer me a creative opportunity that required my illustration skills, so – you guessed it – I pivoted.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I created Pratzon Art Restoration in 1996 to treat damaged and dirty oil paintings on canvas and board. My company works closely with galleries, museums, auction houses and fine art collectors throughout the country, cleaning, lining, repairing tears and in-painting lost pigment.

I first studied fine arts and illustration, apprenticing with Lubomir Kralicek Painting Restoration. For many years, I specialized in the treatment of original illustration art – everything from Norman Rockwell Saturday Evening Post covers to contemporary New Yorker magazine art. PAR has restored thousands of paintings; family portraits, altarpieces, countless landscapes- even a nine-foot Art Deco mural that hung in a restaurant in Times Square in the 1920’s.

A client once brought me a small, particularly dirty landscape sketch, and asked me to clean it. “It’s not important,” he said, but as I removed the grime, I began to doubt his assessment. When I uncovered a tiny signature in the corner – dark red on a brown background – I discovered that the sketch was actually a lost work by Hudson River School artist Jasper F. Cropsey. My client’s $40 tag sale purchase is now valued at $40,000.

Does your business have multiple or supplementary revenue streams (like a ATM machine at a barbershop, etc)?

Over the years, I have restored several paintings by the illustrator Vernon Grant, best known as the creator of Rice Krispies’ “Snap®, Crackle® and Pop®”. When members of Grant’s estate asked me to create a mural design for an exterior library wall in Rock Hill, SC, I began sketching. Interpreting another artist’s style isn’t new to me; it’s a skill I rely on when I recreate areas of lost paint, but the Vernon Grant Committee hired me to create new characters of my own. They wanted me to tell a story – a 30 by 100-foot multi-panel story.

The town exhibited my five-foot tall original gouache paintings and prepratory sketches at the Center for the Arts in Rock Hill, and they’re currently negotiating the sale of those originals. The mural was unveiled in Rock Hill in December, and another mural offer followed; I’m looking forward to seeing where this new revenue stream will lead. We also opened an online store on Redbubble to sell merchandise related to the mural, but we’ll be branching out with more of my designs through our YouTube channel Action Pratzon. I feel fortunate to be able to alternate between restoring paintings and creating my own images.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

Running a business in New York City is never without challenges, but staying afloat after September 11th (when people were afraid to return to NYC) and just after Hurricane Sandy (when my neighborhood lost electricity for days) and most recently when Covid settled in… well, I just keep working! Restoration can be physically demanding, but I know how fortunate I am to be entrusted with my clients’ art. Whether I’m treating damaged family heirlooms, a ship painting from a thrift shop, or the three New Yorker magazine cover illustrations I’m looking at right now, I remind myself that my customers cared enough to bring these paintings to me, so I have to care, too. Other projects include three heavily overpainted canvases from the early twentieth century, each painted by well-known illustrators. These likely represent someone’s financial investment, and if I do my job right, the paintings will sell for a higher price because I removed the overpaint, revealing the original paint strokes. I’m incorporating more technology, sometimes filming a treatment so that if a client can’t visit, s/he can learn a little about restoration remotely. I’m using the (still somewhat) quieter Manhattan as an opportunity to branch out, rather than withdraw, and I’m connecting with clients in a whole new way.

Contact Info:

• Website: jillpratzon.com
• Instagram: jill_pratzon
• Linkedin: Jill Pratzon
• Youtube: ActionPratzon
• Yelp: Pratzon Art Restoration
• Other: https://www.redbubble.com/people/actionpratzon/shop?asc=u