The artist's repair shop

The artist's repair shop

In Lee Saunders' tiny, cramped studio in Palmer are some of the finest examples of artwork to be found in Alaska. Aside from a few landscape paintings hanging on the wall, however, the works aren't his - they're just passing through.

Saunders is an art restorer, certified by the International Society of Appraisers, and with a permanent entry in Who's Who for his art conservation expertise. From paintings, lithographs and limited-edition prints to historical documents, old sheet music, soapstone carvings and bronze plaques, there's scarcely an objet d'arte that Saunders can't fix.

"We deal with all types of media, watercolors and pastels and drawings, and we do a lot of restoration of very valuable, prestigious statuary," Saunders said. "There's a lot of really fine art in Alaska, very valuable art."

Just laying around Saunders' studio one recent day were a number of sad cases awaiting the hands of the master - a lovely Russian oil painting that had been deliberately stabbed by a customs agent to reduce its value as the owner brought it out of the country; a heavily soiled turn-of-the-century portrait of a local resident's grandmother as a young girl; and a 2-foot-tall Eskimo doll with a fur parka, which will require ceramic sculpturing to replace its shattered head.

Although without high-tech restoration equipment - a lack he hopes to rectify soon -Saunders manages to do amazing things just using his "trusty airbrush." Another of his specialties is mending canvases, a painstaking process of realigning and reweaving tiny threads.

A longtime Alaska resident, Saunders recently moved back to Palmer after 14 years in the Lower 48.

"My wife died in 1984 and I had a hard time staying here," he explained. "I wanted to explore my career and get more experience, and there's more opportunity there." He later remarried, to a fellow artist named Joyce, and until recently they lived in Southern California.

"The smog was literally killing me, and it's good to be back near family," he said.

"We were so involved in California that he was really pushing himself too hard," Joyce chimed in. Saunders was missed so much that a former client recently tracked him down by contacting the moving company. The pair's blended family has 12 children - four in Palmer and Anchorage - and 54 grandchildren at last count. Other members of the family live in Utah, Idaho and Montana.

After buying a home on the Old Glenn Highway - another restoration project they pursue as time permits - the Saunders are re-establishing their art conservation work. Objects come to them not only from local residents but from across the country. Joyce, a longtime interior decorator and artist in her own right, sews fine curtains, does ceramic, metal and wood sculpture, recarves antique moldings, and restores gold leaf.

"Each piece of art we do has its own values and its own problems and its own joy," she said.

Lee started painting at the age of 14 in Ogden, Utah, and became an accomplished landscape artist - a fact evident from his own paintings on the walls. He also studied at Brigham Young University and the Chicago Institute of Art and Design, and apprenticed with Fritz Bond of Germany, "a true master conservator."

Three years ago, the Saunders went to Italy for several months with a college group from El Camino, Calif. Lee was invited along because of his expertise, and was able to work with some of the best restoration artists in Rome and Florence.

"It was one of his dreams," Joyce said. "He just wants to preserve good artwork. It's a passion."

One memorable project was helping fix a tear in an original Raphael oil painting worth $100 million. While in Italy, Lee also struck up a friendship with Renaldo Bellini, whose family of artists traces its history back to Giovanni Bellini in the 15th century. The two stay in touch today by telephone and fax.

"He's exchanged ideas with me that will be invaluable," he said. "My work abroad with the Italian conservators has been immensely helpful."

With his reputation already spreading again in Alaska, he figures business probably will be slow but steady.

"We're going to be just busy enough to suit us," he said.