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How To Remove Varnish From an Oil Painting
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Posted
You have an oil painting on your house wall....? Are you referring to a mural....? How big is it?
Anyway - standard procedure is a) first dust off the painting, ensuring there's no loose dirt. b) Try cleaning the painting with a slightly dampened ball of cotton wool - it might remove sufficient surface dirt to make removing the varnish unnecessary: if it did, you could apply a little oil painting medium, or even very thin fresh varnish (dry off any moisture first, but the cotton wool shouldn't be wet enough to have left any); c) if you do have to remove old varnish, use thinners on cotton buds, or if the surface is just too big and the painting not too valuable (if it is, don't try to do it yourself anyway: take it to a professional), on a lint-free, non-abrasive cloth, working in small patches at a time and taking particular care both with highlights and areas of thin paint. I've found low-odour thinners effective on old varnish - don't scrub at it, take your time; the painting may have many layers of varnish, of different composition. Once you've cleaned off the old and discoloured varnish, you can either oil the painting out - applying a very thin coat of oil painting medium - or re-varnish, or indeed do both.
If you find you're removing paint as well as varnish, STOP. Never try to conduct repairs and cleaning at the same time, take the picture to someone who knows what they're doing because if you persist you will almost certainly ruin it. I grant this is a bit difficult if it IS a mural: in that case, you'll just have to get a little man or woman in.
Finally, don't apply too much pressure anyway, but especially not if the painting is on canvas - some canvases are more robust than others, but they're not used to being poked or pressured and won't thank you for it if you do. Whatever you do, do it gently, and with the mildest solvent you can get away with.
Posted
Hi..
Robert has given you very good advice above, removing varnish from any type of painting is not to be undertaken lightly. That said it does depend on how valuable in money or sentiment the painting is to you, are you bothered if you destroy it? If you are and are determined to have a go yourself then perhaps practice first on a cheap painting obtained from a charity shop or boot sale, remember though different varnishes have different characteristics, also is the painting in Oil, Acrylic, Tempera? That is also a need to know.
If you want to see the difficulties and procedures involved for just a small oil painting watch the Tom Keating video on the link below, very entertaining as usual.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0mYV_pMc0Q
Rob Ward (in deference to Marjorie's post)
Posted
Well done, Rob - I remember that demonstration: Keating is going to more trouble than I've suggested, because the painting was at least 100 years old and he was using it to demonstrate how he'd clean a more valuable picture (having said which, I'd have been quite happy to have painted it....). The sheer amount of filth in that frame was amazing .... it was in a pub, of course; and they smoked in those days, and had for the century or more the painting had been on display. He also adds ammonia, if only a small quantity, to a mix of turps and meths: if I felt a painting needed that much work, I would, unless there were really no other alternative, leave it to a professional picture restorer. I don't really want to go playing with solvents of that strength - and if I did, I'd wear a mask in a very well ventilated room. It's very probable that a painting which has simply been on display in your front room for 20 to 30 years, and wasn't varnished with copal, as this one was (filthy stuff - some still sell it, but I'd never use it) wouldn't get anything like so dirty as this painting was. So gentler measures would probably suffice.
Fascinating video though - imagine cleaning one of those huge paintings at Marlborough House... Thanks are expressed at the end of the film to L Cornelissen & Sons (spelling probably wrong) who are very much in business still, selling all sorts of weird and wonderful artists' materials (to weird and wonderful artists..).
Posted
I agree Robert if the work is of any value then professional restoration every time, there are so many variables with any panting especially if its old. I read Keatings Autobiography some years ago and found it fascinating, referring to Marlborough house work in the book he states that the solvent he used, and this is somewhat unbelievable, was "Nitromores" paint remover! Which he said he ordered in very large drums and his stated method was to apply a strip of Nitromores on to the work, strip of the varnish immediately with a razor blade then immediately neutralize with white spirit on a cotton wool swab. It sounded as bizarre to me then as it does today, but then that was typical of that lovable old rogue, if it was in fact true it undoubtedly contributed to his untimely demise.
Rob Ward
Posted
To safely remove varnish from an oil painting, use a small amount of conservation-grade solvent like mineral spirits and test on a hidden area first. Work gently with a soft cloth or cotton swab. If you're unsure or the painting is valuable, it's best to contact a professional conservator. It's always better to be safe than risk damage.
Posted
May describes the standard approach, which usually works. One caveat though - many older paintings are varnished with damar or mastic. The latter is usually removable with mineral spirits, but damar is a lot harder - and yields only to stronger solvents, the usual choice being turpentine. The thought of a non-conservator trying to work on a large old painting on canvas varnished with damar is actually somewhat horrific.... and you won't know, before you start, if it's damar or not: you'll only discover that when you can't shift it with mineral spirits: at which point, I would really stop trying, and get it to a conservator/restorer. I'd never try removing the varnish on a painting on canvas which was 100 years old or more. As she says: "it's always better to be safe than risk damage". Never apply any force to a stretched canvas.
Why remove varnish at all? Because old varnishes get dirty, but more importantly they yellow. Most of us will never have to worry about this - we won't be asked to clean an old painting, and few of us have ancestral collections to worry about. Still, better safe than sorry.