I have a lot of artwork in my home from both my grandmothers.

My mom’s mom taught herself to paint in watercolors and acrylics, and over the years she would noodle out little studies of bluebirds and still lifes. I’m like her in that respect—I’ve mostly taught myself to paint with oils and watercolors and have just picked up a brush from time to time when the fancy struck me. One of her paintings, a folk art-style piece, ended up on the wall of a local restaurant.

My dad’s mom was a step closer to a professional artist. She took classes at IU East, a little satellite campus of Indiana University nearby. She entered juried art shows around the state, and sometimes won. Her paintings have hung in the local hospital and government offices.

As the family historian and just someone who loves ancestral lore and heirlooms, I’ve collected a good number of paintings from both my grandmothers over the years. So when one of my relatives passed away last fall, I raised my hand to take any of my dad’s mom’s art that had been in his house.

Normally, I’d have to duke it out with other family members for these pieces—but the family member who passed was a heavy smoker… and he smoked indoors.

The paintings were all covered in a thick layer of oily, yellow nicotine. I ended up with several, including a pastel behind glass and an oil. But I also got a framed and matted watercolor that was not behind glass.

Oof.

If you’re not too familiar with paint types, all you really need to know is that watercolors, as the name implies, are water soluble. You can’t clean a watercolor painting with any kind of liquid that I know of, because the paint will just wash away.

Here’s the painting, still with its original mat, which you can also see is very yellow. I’m sure it was more of an ivory color originally. I’ll be purchasing a new mat soon, but first, I wanted to see if I could even save this picture.

After some internet deep dives, I came across a Reddit thread, which I can’t find now, that recommended trying an artist gum eraser. So I bought a couple.

When the erasers arrived in the mail, I laid them out.

I stared at the painting.

I was terrified.

Here was this beautiful painting my grandmother had put so much love and effort into, and I was about to take an eraser to it.

But truthfully, the painting was already ruined. It’s not as noticeable in photographs, but the layer of grime and smoke made the whole thing a sickly yellow, and it stank.

So I started erasing.

And lo and behold, it sort of worked.

It’s not perfect. It’s still more yellow than I’m sure my grandma intended it to be, because I have other snowscapes of hers, and they all tend toward bluish undertones with little to no yellow. But it is an improvement. And, most importantly, I’m a little more confident I can get rid of *most* of the smoke smell, so it’s tolerable to keep in my house.

Anyway, if you have any neat tricks for cleaning watercolor paintings, send them my way!