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Varnish on acrylic painting
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Posted
The Jack Wong post was a cut and paste from the Acrylicus website - I don't see any point in doing this sort of thing, and have removed the post but not the user. If Jack Wong is a real person, please do not cut and paste from other websites, or include links in your posts. If you want to alert us to a website, please use the whole URL.
Posted
This thread wandered a bit, and it looks as if some replies have been removed by those who posted them, since questions are being answered but the questions themselves have gone. Very weird it looks, too.
Well, the first thing to say now it's been re-opened is welcome back Ruth Dolan! The second thing is - acrylics don't have to be varnished if you'd rather not do it. I do varnish most of mine, though not all of them. I'd still recommend anyone to take a look at Will Kemp's work and website, as he's very helpful with information and answers. The Golden Paint/Williamsburg website is also full of information.
On the whole - if an acrylic has been thinly painted, and water has been used to dilute it, varnishing is usually a good idea. If the paint is thick, and no water, or perhaps an acrylic medium, has been used, (e.g. Ruth's abstract on the Gallery; or my knife painting) it may be unnecessary to add varnish; yes, if you want an even sheen, no if you don't mind duller and shinier patches.
I'm not keen on matte varnish - it can produce a very dull result; if you want to use it, I would recommend a gloss varnish first, then a matte on top.
Posted
Just a quick addition in view of Maureen's reply - varnish always needs to be applied very thinly. You can always add further coats when one has dried, but many problems are caused by a too-thick varnish (or one that's been shaken, unless you're after a bubbly effect). I suppose a very fine spray could achieve that, but spray nozzles get clogged, and then horrible globules of the stuff can suddenly land on your painting... It may be a bit of a fag, but I believe the best approach, whatever varnish you're using on whatever surface, is to pour it into a container, leave it to settle in a warm room, and then to apply it in thin layers to the painting. A problem I get now and then is streaking, which suggests the varnish was too cold and gelid. I don't actually use the Will Kemp method - involving the application of an isolation coat of medium, available from Golden Acrylics, but it might solve a few problems if we did.Very useful information Robert. I've had streaking problems in the past, just thought I'd applied it badly (probably had) but didn't know about not using it too cold. It's very helpful when some of these older threads come back to the top again. And so happy to have discovered Ruth's beautiful paintings.
Posted
I've been painting with acrylics for five years since I took up art again and have always used spray varnish. I've never had any issues with it, I have to say, and I'm surprised to read about paint lifting off the canvas. I'm not sure if acrylics even need to be varnished though. I have an old acrylic painting I did when I dabbled in my youth (40-odd years ago) and although it's unvarnished it's in perfect condition, with no colour fading as far as I can tell.
The only precaution I take is to make sure the painting is dry before I varnish. I work in a cold garage and usually leave the paint to dry for a couple of days in the house before I varnish. The only exception was a painting I did for my mother's 80th birthday, which I varnished a few hours after finishing, so I could show her it on her birthday.
Edited
by Bill Downie