Final varnish

[Claudemir Bonfim]

Originally Posted by Richard Bingham

I'm glad you haven't been "egged" ! (Maybe vandals in Brazil have better sense?)

Well, it is not common to have your car attacked by vandals here, in fact, it is very rare, but when it happens during some sort of manifestation, things go really bad.

Well Jennifer, I think Richard will answer your question soon, but meanwhile I'd like to tell you that mediums are something very personal. It depends on your way of working. Some mediums accelerate the drying of paints, others slow down. You should watch Daniel Greene's video "Erin", in this video he addresses this subject in detail.

If you don't have access to the video, we can discuss it here on in another thread.

You mentioned Walnut oil, that's wondeful but adds a lot to the drying time. In my Country people don't have the culture of patience to sit for long sessions, so I use my mix of 1 part of stand oil e 4 parts of odorless mineral spirits, this medium accelerates the drying time. I also use Titanium white of flake white, which get dry a lot faster than zinc white.

You will have to find your own recipe to your medium, but I also avoid the ones with bad reputation.

[Julie Deane]

Originally Posted by Richard Bingham

Adding wax to a "final varnish" is questionable on a number of levels. First would be the question whether the varnish chosen and wax are compatible. Damar and pure beeswax is a compatible mixture. The problem is the result is a varnish that is malleable, attracts dirt in its own right, and is much softer than damar alone.

Richard, I found this out the hard way, but not consistently and not with Damar. I've used Gamvar with cold wax as the directions said. One came out beautiful. The other one was fine when I applied it, but later attracted all sorts of dust. It had darker tones, so maybe that was part of the problem - that the dust showed up worse?

I have one painting I will have to varnish in late March or so. It's got a lot of dark tones to it, and I am guilty of having used too much retouch varnish (Winsor-Newton). I'm concerned that Gamvar over retouch may not spread evenly - had this problem once before in a similar situation. Do you have any recommendations?

[Amanda Grosjean]

I never knew the Mona Lisa originally had eyebrow! I had always been told it was the fashion of the times. Interesting! It makes you wonder what other paintings have been damaged by cleaning over time.

I am a big fan of using temporary varnishes pending the final varnish. In between these two (like you said, minimum of 6 months) there is always a slight collection of dust on the surface. I always struggle to remove it since my paintings are full of ridges and raised areas. Wiping it with a cloth seems to just deposit tiny fibers (from the cloth) to the surface. Does anyone have a method that works for them? For example, a certain type of cloth, lint roller, vacuum?

Thanks!

[David Clemons]

The six month guideline is only a general rule for a final varnish. It all depends on how the paint was applied and the sort of medium used, especially if alkyds were involved. A retouch varnish could be safely used in the meantime.

There's a brand of lint-free synthetic rags made by Scott that you can usually find in hardware stores that works well, or any other microfiber rag. I typically start with a dry synthetic bush, followed with a rag with just a tiny amount of spirits rubbed into it.

[Claudemir Bonfim]

Originally Posted by Amanda Grosjean

I never knew the Mona Lisa originally had eyebrow! I had always been told it was the fashion of the times. Interesting! It makes you wonder what other paintings have been damaged by cleaning over time.

I think we might start another thread about damaged paintings, but here's an example about the Mona Lisa.
Her portrait was painted from 1503 to 1506. Raphael loved the portrait, which was much different from the one we can see today, and he did a sketch in order to use the pose. In his sketch the woman has eyebrows.
He borrowed the pose to do Maddalena Doni's portrait.
Both women have eyebrows and you can see eyebrows in Da Vinci's work too. The point is that many of his paintings seem to have been damaged by restorers, not only eyebrows, but clothing details and skin color too.
So, as we can see, it was not a matter of fashion.

[Jennifer Bogartz]

Claudemir, thank you for the information! I had no idea that you could make a varnish out of egg white and salt. I know that eggs are used in egg tempera but I have never personally tried it.

Did the masters of the Renaissance use a final varnish?

[Michael Georges]

Originally Posted by Jennifer Bogartz

Did the masters of the Renaissance use a final varnish?

Yes they did. There is an entire section on varnishing in Cennino d'Andrea Cennini's book "Il Libro dell' Arte" published in the 1400s. Early varnishes were often done from amber or mastic or copal, and sometimes by mixing a solvent with a balsam such as Venice Turpentine. Damar/dammar varnish has come into primary use in the past 100 or so years.

[Claudemir Bonfim]

Michael is right.

Egg varnish was widely used because it was a lot easier to prepare then the other ones. The removal of egg varnish is done with a moistured rice paper applied on the surface of the painting, and then it is removed and the surface is cleaned with cotton swabs.

[Jennifer Bogartz]

Thank you, Michael! Do you think they intended for someone to remove the varnish to clean the painting or is that something that was developed later by conservators?

[Michael Georges]

Jennifer:

in addition to what has been said...I add that yes, it is a good idea to varnish your paintings. It evens out the gloss, relieves any sunken in areas, protects the paint layers from dirt.

In the past, I have varnished paintings that were more than 25 years old. I first used a linen cloth with a good turpentine to wipe the whole painting down and remove any dirt/dust. Let that completely dry, then used a drafting brush to remove any residual dust.

Gamblin makes a very good synthetic final varnish called Gamvar that I have had good results with. Studio Products also makes one that is more traditional. Have not used it, but they make first class stuff so I cannot imagine that it would be bad.

I try to do my varnishing in a draft free room with a space heater going so the room is warm. Put painting and varnish in the room and let everything come to room temp for a few minutes.

I add a bit of wax medium to my varnish as I like more of a satin finish to my paintings.