Isolation coat

Hi 495. never heard of anyone doing that or any reason for doing it. Acrylic is tough as an old boot and the acrylic varnish is just another coat to keep the picture cleanand wipeable......Syd

I probably read the same article(s) - did you find them on the Will Kemp art school pages? (Or did you read one of mine .... I think I mentioned it somewhere!) There is a product, made by Golden Acrylics, which Will recommends for use over acrylic paint before you add varnish. I think the suggestion is - though I'd have to read it all again - that if you needed to remove the varnish later, or conservators did, the isolation coat would protect the paint film which might otherwise be damaged (acrylic paint IS tough, but it's also porous: dirt can seep into it over time, and into acrylic varnishes). So the proposal isn't just pointless or whimsical, there is thinking behind it. I admit that I don't do it, because I'm not entirely convinced that it's either necessary or useful. And I keep an old acrylic painting I did some 45 years ago - as a test piece, to see how the Cryla acrylic I was using then bears up as it ages. I've never varnished this painting, which is on a painting board, still less applied an isolation coat. I have actually cleaned it once in 45 years, using a little plain soap and water - just to remove a little surface grime probably caused by my cigars (or, in th'old days, pipe). It hasn't suffered at all in all that time - if there is any discolouring, it's not visible to me and I doubt it would be to anyone else: it contains darker colours, and some very light ones; I say nothing for the quality of the painting, but the paint itself seems not to have deteriorated in any way, which is more than can be said for the unframed board after various moves over the years. So - what to do? I have considerable respect for Will Kemp, and indeed for the Golden Acrylics company; I wouldn't dismiss the product out of hand, and one day I might even use it. But I don't think it's essential and - I'm not even convinced of the necessity of varnish, other than that it does enhance the colours. I think customers would expect varnish - but I have known of painters who prefer that duck-egg sheen that Cryla, in particular, has - unprotected by any intervening layer. It may be worth, finally, asking ourselves why Daler Rowney, who (as George Rowney & Sons) pioneered acrylic painting in Britain and still produce some of the best paint, have never produced an isolation coat medium themselves: if they felt it necessary, surely they would.

Thanks, Phil (whoops, Erebus) = I thought you would, and indeed so do I, but - as I said - I've known those who haven't. Some acrylics are maybe more robust than others .... you've used most of them, I think, over time .... there are certainly some I would always varnish, eg the softer ones (which also provide a wider variety of colours) and yet I have less concern about varnishing Cryla colours: I've been wondering why, and I think it's that they just seem so incredibly robust. This may be all nonsense - I honestly don't know: but while I would also leap to protect some acrylics, having given them a good hard look, I sort of feel that Cryla is more than capable of looking after itself. I'm very fond of this paint, mind - it was the colour I first used in acrylic some 50 years ago and it's never let me down. Well, there we are - I don't really know where the truth lies here, but I hope they never change the composition because I've loved this paint for all of my painting life. Incidentally - I also like Rowney's Artists' oils: I'm not an employee or shareholder, and will prove this by adding that I think they've done themselves no favours in recent years by retreating so readily from the attack on lead whites (which they used to make very well). But there are colours in the Rowney range of artists' colours which you can't get anywhere else - try Rowney Golden Yellow, and Rowney Emerald, and see who else provides anything like them. But the weekend gin and tonic has led me right off the point and even the right category, so I'll pour another drink and shut up.