John Canning Studios is a decorative arts studio located in Cheshire, Connecticut. It mainly works in New Classical styles.
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The studio’s services include decorative finishes such as stenciling, gilding, glazing, trompe l’oeil, murals, wood graining, faux marble, and scagliola, along with cleaning and restoration of wood finishes, metals, and stone. Plasterwork is another specialty, including flat plaster surfaces and ornamental plaster casting, fabrication, and carving, and the consolidation and reattachment of historic plaster. Consulting and conservation services include historic paint studies, plaster surveys, art and finishes conservation, restoration planning consultation, and period interiors.
History
After studying at the Scottish Decorative Trade Institute, the Stow College of Building in Glasgow, and the Glasgow School of Art, John Canning served a five-year apprenticeship as a church decorator, developing artistic skills and replicating old-world techniques and materials. After his apprenticeship, he opened a studio in Glasgow as a member of the London City & Guilds. Canning emigrated from Scotland to the United States in the early 1970s and opened a studio in Connecticut, coinciding with the growing historic preservation movement. The company was incorporated in 1977 and has grown from a small workshop to a large restoration studio.
John Canning has been recognized by the American Institute of Architects, which has appointed him as an honorary AIA member. He is also a Professional Associate of the American Institute for Conservation of Historic & Artistic Works (AIC).
Today, the company is managed by John Canning, David Riccio, and Dorothea Canning-Hennessey. Recent projects include the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe, a new church in La Crosse, Wisconsin, designed by Duncan Stroik; Hulihe‘e Palace on the Big Island of Hawaii, involving restoration of lime plaster; and reinstating decorative finishes at the Basilica of St. John the Evangelist in Stamford, Connecticut.