Photo Finish Spray Lacquer

[Sharon Knettell]

Originally Posted by William Whitaker

Lara,

It is best to use an easily removable varnish designed for oil paintings. The best seem to be the so-called acrylic resin varishes. These synthetic varnishes do not yellow over time like the traditional natural resin varnishes (mastic and dammar) and are easier to remove too. You can buy some of them in spray cans.

Painting varnishes are traditionally applied with the brush. I prefer to use Gamblin's Gamvar varnish which I brush on. A painting should be allowed to dry for at least three months, better if allowed to dry six months or a year. If a painting is varnished too soon, it will eventually "eat" the varnish (asborb the varnish into the paint film) as it continues to oxidate and parts of the painting will become dull again.

I live in a very dry climate and I varnish this way:
First -- I wet an old washcloth and wring it out as dry as possible. I wipe the surface of the painting with this cloth.

Second -- I examine every square inch of the canvas for lint or cat hair or whatever... I wipe the surface with the dry palm of my hand to pick up anything I see. My hand leaves no lint and I'm not a werewolf, so I noticed no hair on the palm of my hand the last time I looked.

Third -- I lay the painting flat and apply the Gamvar with a soft flat synthetic hair brush. I stroke it out as far as possible. I try and apply an extremely thin coat only. Gamvar and other synthetic varnishes are much easier to apply than traditional dammar and also much easier to remove later.

Fourth -- After only about five minutes, the varnished painting can be placed in the vertical position without fear of the varnish running. I lean it against a wall, the paint side facing in. This prevents dust settling on the varnish as it dries. In my climate, the varnish is dry in twenty minutes or so.

A varnish serves to give the finished painting an even sheen and to protect the paint from the smoke and dirt in the atmosphere.

I have personally used Gamvar and find it to be a lovely clear, leveling varnish. One of the caveats of sucessful varnishing is to do it on a dry day. As this was developed in the rather damp northwest I would say this is a very safe varnish to use.

Golden Paints has just released a new archival spray varnish, that I believe can be used on oils. I find Golden's technical support and products excellent. They do a great deal of product research and are generally on the cutting edge. Mike Townsend has been very helpful and knowledgeable. www.goldenpaints.com

[Lara Cannon]

Originally Posted by Sharon Knettell

I have personally used Gamvar and find it to be a lovely clear, leveling varnish. One of the caveats of sucessful varnishing is to do it on a dry day. As this was developed in the rather damp northwest I would say this is a very safe varnish to use.

Golden Paints has just released a new archival spray varnish, that I believe can be used on oils. I find Golden's technical support and products excellent. They do a great deal of product research and are generally on the cutting edge. Mike Townsend has been very helpful and knowledgeable. www.goldenpaints.com

Thank you Sharon, I happen to live in a rain forest in the Northwest. Finding a truly dry day this time of year is almost impossible. I will take a look at Golden Paints

Thanks again for the great advice. I am so glad I didn't use the lacquer!

[Sharon Knettell]

Originally Posted by Sharon Knettell

I have personally used Gamvar and find it to be a lovely clear, leveling varnish. One of the caveats of sucessful varnishing is to do it on a dry day. As this was developed in the rather damp northwest I would say this is a very safe varnish to use.

Golden Paints has just released a new archival spray varnish, that I believe can be used on oils. I find Golden's technical support and products excellent. They do a great deal of product research and are generally on the cutting edge. Mike Townsend has been very helpful and knowledgeable. www.goldenpaints.com

Golden's new spray is indeed for paintings as well as pastels. This is a painting varnish spray I would be interested in using when I get back to painting. The folks at Golden have been working on this for a long time, doing great deal of testing and research. Somehow varnishing paintings gives me the hebeejeebies! I once brushed on a retouch varnish on a painting that wasn't quite ready and smeared the whole thing. What a mess!

Sincerely,

[Mike McCarty]

Sharon,

Would you spray this varnish on one of your pastels? This would give me the hebeejeebies!

[Sharon Knettell]

Originally Posted by Mike McCarty

Sharon,

Would you spray this varnish on one of your pastels? This would give me the hebeejeebies!

I would try it on a scrap first, but yes I would probably spray it on my pastels. I do not as yet have a can. I ordered but it has taken a long time to come, so I am going to have to reorder it from another source.

I have been in touch with thier technical department about this spray for years. They have been working really hard on this and are aware of the problems inherent in pastel sprays. The most important aspects of pastel sprays are that they be non-darkening, even misting and rapid drying. I believe that they have tried to adress these problems.

Because I work in such an unusual and outsized format, I have been forced to do as much research on the pastel medium as possible. The technical department at Golden has been enormously helpful, vis-a-vis thier acrylic medium for pastels.

I SPRAY FOLKS! Some pastel sprays do darken and splat, but I find the Rowney Perfix to be about the best I have used so far. Sometimes I am hard put to tell the difference in color after I have sprayed with this product. As a matter of fact, Daniel Greene uses pastel spray to darken his pastels, so his lights sparkle. He discusses this in his book "Pastel", now unfortunately out of print. I grabbed the last copy at the Rhode Island School of Design book store 2-3 years ago and feel like I struck gold. It is worth trying to find a used one on the second-hand market.

Sincerely,