Varnish Day!

Today was "Varnish Day"!

I've had two completed oil paintings that I've needed to varnish. Oddly, I had not been taught to varnish my oil paintings (or acrylic, for that matter) when I was in art school, so it was new to me when Dean taught me last year.

Why Varnish a Painting?
Varnish is a final layer applied to a painting after it is finished and completely dry. It’s used on paintings that are not going to be framed under glass to protect them from dirt, dust, and pollution in the environment. Varnish also homogenizes (evens out) the final appearance of a painting, making it all equally glossy or matte.

Important stuff, right? :)

I had varnished my first several paintings after finishing them at Dean's. I had finished my Chinatown Treasure Hunt painting right before he left for his trip to teach in Florence. I had also finished my Warming Hut Painting just when he had come back. I figured it was a good time for me to go out, buy the supplies, and do it at my own place.

First stop: I went to Michael's to buy the varnish and varnish brush. I was armed with a 50% off coupon, which is why I decided to buy it there. Good thing I did! The Varnish brush cost $60!! (that's $30 to me after the coupon, which was MUCH better!) Holy Cow! When I've told some friends and family members about the cost of the brush they've asked me what it was made of. I told them, "Unicorn Hair". It's the only thing that makes sense. ;)

I hadn't ever cleaned the varnish brush when we'd varnished at Dean's before, so I asked him what to use for that. I had to also purchase Turpentine - the real stuff. I use Turpenoid to paint with, which is a gentler, less chemical alternative. For the varnish brush, it was going to need the real thing to get all the sticky varnish off my unicorn brush.

So, here's my set up:

Two jars, with mouths wide enough for my unicorn hair brush to fit into: one for the varnish, one for the turpentine.

Varnish materials

I decided to bring the paintings out to our garage to varnish, figuring they would need some good ventilation (there are vents in the garage door) but I didn't want to do this outside, for fear of dust/dirt/bugs/plums (kidding) getting stuck in the wet varnish.

Basically, you brush on a good, solid coat onto the painting with the unicorn brush. Make sure that the whole surface is covered evenly - it's helpful to look from each side, and at the level of the painting to see if the glossiness if even throughout.


the before picture

I think it takes about an hour to dry - must quicker than oil painting! :)


the after - hard to tell the difference in a picture! :)