When Joanna and Dean Chapman closed their popular Carmel art gallery in December 2017, it marked the end of 28 years downtown. But the Chapmans barely skipped a beat. The couple promptly built a new home studio and rebooted their core art restoration business from there.

“It’s been a change, but we’re good self-starters,’’ Dean says. He adds that many clients—art galleries, experienced and beginning art collectors—have followed them to their home, a spacious, ranch-style house in mid-Carmel Valley. Chapman customers also drop-off and pick-up oil paintings, water colors and prints in need of TLC at Tony’s Frame Shop, downtown.

The Chapmans photograph dirty or damaged artworks, study them under revealing black light, then go to work. Their artful techniques include using an air-tight cabinet to kill living spores and careful cleaning to remove amateur “improvements” of lipstick or crayon. Recently, they employed delicate brushwork to refresh a signed Picasso poster with matching red paint. Of course, some projects are tougher than others. “An oil portrait of a lady came in with a hole right between her eyes,’’ Dean recalls. “That’s where the client’s dog put a paw through it in the car.’’