Karen Dundas ACR

14 Apr 2025

Karen Dundas ACR (Scottish Wall Paintings Conservators) provides reliable, ethically-based conservation treatments and consultation to heritage organisations, private individuals, churches, and development-funded projects throughout Scotland.

With over 20 years of experience, Karen has extensive expertise in treating structural paintings ranging from the 16^thcentury (with a particular passion for Scottish Renaissance painted decoration), to contemporary murals schemes.

Karen is an independent practitioner who occasionally collaborates with other heritage specialists, depending upon the scale and nature of a project. Trading as Karen Dundas ACR (Scottish Wall Paintings Conservators), she regularly leads a dedicated team of self-employed, fully-qualified conservators, based in Scotland and working towards PACR accreditation.

Karen maintains a strong commitment to professional development, and is currently an Icon Specialist Advisor (wallpaintings) for Accreditation Assessments.

Since 2019, Karen has been an Expert Member of ICOMOS International Wood Committee (IIWC) and a member of the vibrant ICOMOS-UK Wood Committee.

Conservation Investigations and Treatment

Working on-site to the highest professional standards, Karen Dundas ACR (Scottish Wall Paintings Conservators):

Conducts regular, extensive condition surveys of painted decorative schemes and their substrates.
Undertakes remedial conservation/restoration treatments for painted decoration on timber, plaster and stone.
Carries out architectural paint research (APR): opening ‘exposure windows’, and taking and recording samples in preparation for analysis at a conservation science laboratory.

Documentation and Consultation Services

Karen Dundas ACR (Scottish Wall Paintings Conservators) prepares reports for a variety of purposes, including client records, funding applications, and to inform budgets and conservation planning:

Advisory reports for the protection of wallpaintings before, during and after building works;
Comprehensive condition assessment reports, treatment proposals and estimates, and fully-illustrated conservation treatment reports.
Advice on environmental control and appropriate conditions for the care and protection of structural paintings.

Heritage Services

Further heritage services provided by Karen Dundas ACR (Scottish Wall Paintings Conservators):

Writing articles for popular and academic publications.
Presentations for the public, historic trusts, and for other heritage-related professions both locally and at international symposia.
Preparation of conservation guidance notes. In 2022, in support of heritage professionals in Ukraine, Karen volunteered with colleagues to create ‘Emergency Guidance Notes on Fire Protection and Response’.

Continued Professional Development

While Karen generally favours the use of traditional materials, she regularly researches new application methods, materials, and international advancements in the field of conservation.

Karen attends and participates in international symposia and workshops, and consults with conservation scientists to ensure the safe, responsible application of new materials, where considered appropriate for the specific needs of a project.

Phoebe Anna Traquair wallpaintings scheme - north wall prepared for plaster consolidation treatment.

Mortuary Chapel murals scheme (prior Royal Hospital for Sick Children, Edinburgh). Depiction of Motherhood, painted on plaster. 1880s oil-painted murals cut from original location (disused coal bunker) in 1890s. Surviving fragments transferred, under artist’s supervision, to larger purpose-built chapel, then heavily restored and scheme expanded using ‘spirit fresco’ technique.

Phoebe Anna Traquair wallpainting – north wall detail during mortar injection process.

Extensive, consolidation treatment required to stabilise cracked and unstable areas of plaster, brick and stone.

Phoebe Traquair wallpainting – north wall detail during cleaning process.

Gradual removal of surface soiling, some discoloured historic overpaints, and darkened, aged varnish coatings. Surviving 1880s mural fragments had been partially cleaned by Traquair in1890s. Residual varnish and grime remained ingrained in earlier paint layer, beneath later varnish and wax coatings.

Phoebe Traquair wallpainting – north wall structural crack though face of the Virgin.

Once paint surface cleaned and discoloured overpaints removed (where necessary) - in preparation for filling and inpainting of structural crack.

Phoebe Traquair wallpainting – north wall during inpainting of filled structural crack.

Filled cracks, holes and other decorative losses were inpainted to reintegrate the murals scheme.

Phoebe Traquair wallpainting – north wall after conservation treatment.

All four wallpaintings, including the ceiling painting, were stabilised, cleaned and losses filled and inpainted to reintegrate the decorative scheme. Finally, a protective, fully-reversible, natural resin varnish coating was applied.

Dome mural decoration by John Byrne – temporary protective facing pre-treatment.

John Byrne painting ‘All the World’s a Stage’ (King’s Theatre, Edinburgh). 2013 decoration by late Scottish artist and playwright, John Byrne. Mural overlies remains of schemes dating back to 1906. Various factors, including unsuitability of original plaster surface, had contributed to extensive paint detachment/active flaking of paint layers from substrate.

Harlequin figure detail before treatment.

Harlequin figure detail showing detached, curled paint flakes prior to treatment.

Harlequin detail during treatment process.

Injection of adhesive behind paint flakes, using method and materials considered most suitable for the requirements of this specific project.

General view during treatment process.

Paint consolidation treatment.

Conservator heat-sealing reattached paint flakes, using thermostatically-controlled heated spatula through protective Melinex® film.

Harlequin figure detail after conservation treatment.

General dome mural view after conservation treatment.

Conservators thoroughly re-checking entire ceiling surface after paint consolidation treatment.

Biography

Karen Dundas ACR

Karen studied paintings conservation on a post-graduate conservation programme at CEROA (Madrid, Spain). She returned to Scotland as a Structural Paintings Intern with Historic Scotland’s Conservation Centre (now HES) and The National Trust for Scotland. In 2005, Scottish Wall Paintings Conservators was formed. Karen became fully PACR accredited by ICON in 2011, and has continued to work freelance throughout Scotland. Karen is an Expert Member of ICOMOS International Wood Committee (IIWC), and an Icon Specialist Advisor for Accreditation Assessments.

Client testimonials

I commissioned Karen as a wall paintings conservator at several National Trust for Scotland properties during my tenure as Conservator at the Trust and have always been impressed by the standard of her work and her reporting. Karen has been instrumental in the care of a number of Trust buildings with significant sixteenth and seventeenth century painted ceilings over the last 20 years.

Julie Bon ACR
National Trust for Scotland - Collections Manager

In my (previous) capacity as a Trustee of the Mansfield Traquair Centre I oversaw remedial work Karen and her team undertook on a spectacular mural scheme by Phoebe Anna Traquair. The work was delivered in time and on budget with sensitivity and diplomacy and to a high professional standard.

Lesley Stevenson ACR
National Galleries Scotland - Senior Paintings Conservator

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