Final varnish - matte or gloss

[Mike McCarty]

I could never muster the courage to completely strip the painting of the varnish and begin again. Luckily the painting was mine. If you look directly at it you can't detect the offending section, but from the side, with my one good critical eye, it doth stink to high heaven.

[Michele Rushworth]

How long it takes something to "dry", whether it's paint or varnish, depends on so many factors: what type, how thick, type of support used for the painting, ambient temperature, humidity, light, etc.

[Kimberly Dow]

Cindy,

If you left it in the frame there is no way to keep the varnish from reaching right up to the frame. It would end up gluing the frame to the canvas. If ever removed - the frame would take part of the varnish (and paint) with it I bet. See if you can get the framers to take it out for you and put it back in for you - along with that nifty brown paper. Heck - see if the framers want to varnish it also.

[Claudemir Bonfim]

Cindy,

I

[Terri Ficenec]

Hi Cindy--

I recently dealt with all of these same questions myself... For future, you can instruct your clients to have the framer leave off the backing paper (or ask the framer directly if you've got a relationship with them) so that the painting is easy to remove 6 months later. (You may also want to check at the same time that your framer is using rabbet 'frame sealing' tape along the rabbet of the frame to prevent acid migration from the frame to the canvas....) The framer may be willing to just apply the backing for you 6 months later once the painting's varnished... Or you can get acid free frame backing paper from Dick Blick (and double sided tape) and put it on yourself. It's also good to put some vents or a cut-out in the back so that the painting can breathe.

If you're trying the GamVar for the first time, it's pretty straight forward to make... and the mixture with the 2 teaspoons of beeswax that I was so stressed out about earlier in this thread, I did wind up testing and using on a couple of my favorite paintings and they turned out beautifully. I've been offering clients a choice of finish... Glossy (straight GamVar), 'Satin' (the GamVar/2tsp Beeswax mix), and 'Matte' (which is actually the Golden's 'Satin' spray varnish but sure looks matte to me!) I've made up little sample cards of each finish on 5x7" gessobords and let the clients choose from there. So far every client has chosen the GamVar/beeswax mix.

The GamVar seems much more forgiving than other varnishes I've worked with... so I no longer stress out as much about applying the varnish itself, just dust/vacuum real well first and keep the cats out of the room while it's drying to prevent unintended little additions to the finish!.

Good luck!

[Cindy Procious]

Just an update - I have an appointment to take the painting to the framers on monday for them to remove if trom the frame. They'll store the frame for me, so I just have to bring the painting home, varnish it, let it dry for that indeterminate amount of time, then take it back and they'll reframe it. They said "for a nominal fee."

Nominal is such a subjective thing, isn't it? One woman's nominal is another woman's astronomical, I always say.

No, really, I do.