[Michael]

I looked on the Sennelier website (as you probably did) and couldn’t get much help. They only point out that their varnish is “difficult to reverse”.

Winsor-Newton has instructions for removal of dammar varnish and recommend using distilled turpentine. It is also the solvent used in the Sennelier varnish. Distilled turpentine is a stronger solvent than mineral spirits so it is your best bet. I can’t find what the varnish resin in Sennelier is yet. I’ll keep searching.

Here’s the Winsor Newton article: How to remove varnish from an oil painting | Winsor & Newton (winsornewton.com)

Proceed carefully. If you notice that paint is beginning to be lifted, that means the varnish is gone from that area.

[Michael]

Looking at Sennelier products, I see that they also have an acrylic spray varnish. Which varnish did you use?

• This reply was modified 1 year ago by  Michael.

[Jody]

Thanks so much for your help. I used the brushable Sennelier “Gloss picture varnish” which I have used in the past and have never had any trouble. Of course I attempted to get fancy and that’s when I messed things up royally.

The brand of Paraloid B72 that I used is by Kremer pigments, it is a 15% solution in Ethylacetate. I contacted them to see what they advised and their conservator was very puzzled as to why I would use a “metal varnish” on a picture, thinking the lack of adhesion had nothing to do with the open time but with the fact that it’s a HMW varnish and not a LMW varnish as one should use to varnish a painting. It was my desire to even the surface of the painting which caused my adventures with Paraloid, which I have no want to every repeat again.

If “real turpentine” works to remove the Sennelier, will that also work to remove the Paraloid b72? And just like that I’ve realized the difficulties created for the conservator when we use two different types of resin. The technical advisor at Kremer advised against using aroma free mineral spirits saying Paraloid doesn’t “tolerate” it and would make a horrible mess. She mentioned Shellsol A as a diluent, but I’m not sure whether or not this is safe to clean the painting, and if so how long should I wait to revarnish? I attempted to purchase the tutorial on cleaning a painting from this website, and while it had no problem accepting my payment that doesn’t seem to be working for me either right now…. rough day in the studio.

[Michael]

Shellsol A is naphtha and has about the same solvent strength as turpentine. It evaporates quickly like mineral spirits.

Odorless mineral spirits has less solvent strength than regular mineral spirits and regular mineral spirits has less solvent power than turpentine. Any of them has the potential to remove the cured paint.
When removing varnish from a painting only small amounts of any solvent should be used. If you see paint appearing on the cotton ball you should stop before you damage the paint layer.

I’m not familiar at all with Paraloid B72 and my experience with removing varnish from a painting is with removing Gamvar using Gamsol. Gamvar is a Regalrez based varnish and Gamsol is simply odorless mineral spirits.

What I would do is to go back to the conservator at Kremer Pigments and ask them about the potential for damaging your painting with the Shellsol A. So far, I haven’t found much useful information on the Senellier brushable gloss varnish except for the warning that it is difficult to remove is is dispersed in turpentine.

From your photos, it looks like the varnish was applied in a very thick layer. It should only be applied in very thin layers. I’ve seen YouTube videos that teach pouring a puddle of varnish on the painting and then spreading it around with a brush. Not knowing any better, I did that when I first varnished some paintings and the result was terrible! That’s how I got my experience with removing varnish! The video on this site gives authoritative instructions.

At this point, I think that going back to the conservator at Kremer is your best bet for how to proceed. Then proceed very cautiously.

I just bought the course on cleaning paintings and it gave me a link to start the course. It doesn’t give information on varnish removal though.

I hope you get your paintings repaired!

[Jody]

Hi Michael,

Thanks for the info on Shellsol A. I did email back the technical advisor at Kremer immediately hoping she could clarify for me the type of solvent I should use to remove the Paraloid B72 varnish, she has yet to respond.

you hit the nail on the head with the pouring and spreading of the varnish, that’s exactly what I did. There are as I mentioned two coats in those flakes, but obviously I’ve displayed my complete ignorance in varnishing, so your advice to thin it out is accepted wholeheartedly. I had an incredibly difficult time finding any information on the internet as to what solvents should be used with what resins, and so in my doubt I didn’t want to dilute them. Like I mentioned earlier, even Natural Pigments failed to respond when I emailed asking what solvent to use to dilute the regalrez and laropal resins I purchased from their site.

I’m thinking at this point to remove as much of the varnish as possible by making it flake moving the painting. It can’t be very good for the paint, but perhaps less damaging than harsh solvents, then I’m hoping I can move to solvents to get the remaining areas.

I’ll have to email tech support and get the link for the “cleaning class”. While it won’t be of much use to me now, always good to have a bit more knowledge.

[George O'Hanlon]

Jody,
Cleaning the painting surface is very important because dust and air pollution collect on surfaces that can interfere with the adhesion of paint and varnishes. Avoid using tack cloths for cleaning or dusting because they contain lubricants that also interfere with the adhesion of paint and varnishes. The Cleaning course provides the correct procedure for cleaning paint and varnish surfaces.

Paraloid B72 is not a “metal” coating but is often used as a varnish by conservators. While it is an excellent varnish to mitigate sinking in, the solvents used to dissolve Paraloid B72 can present issues for artists who choose to use this varnish on their paintings. We usually recommend an alternative varnish, such as Rublev Colours Isolating / Finishing Varnish, which contains Laropal A81 as an isolating varnish when there are large matte areas on the finished painting. This varnish contains less “aggressive” and slower-evaporating solvents. making application easier.

[Jody]

Hi George,

Thanks for your help. Absolutely, I will watch the cleaning course as the link has now arrived, and rest assured the importance of cleaning the painting before varnishing has sunk in well and good. I will also be taking the course on varnishes before attempting it again, I previously took the “oiling out and sinking in” module which was very informative.

Unfortunately I still have a void when it comes to what type of solvents to use to prepare the resins I have already purchased. I would have loved to have simply purchased the Rublev Isolating varnish already prepared, but it isn’t available on the EU site and I am located in Italy. Unfortunately there aren’t any solvents available either, aside from Spike oil, so that I could have purchased the properly labeled solvent, in fact there are no solvent based products at all on the EU website; I’m assuming the EU bureaucracy was more headache than it was worth. I went ahead and purchased the Regalrez and Laropal resins, along with the tinuvin, assuming I would be able to find a recipe online but that is proving more difficult than I had imagined. Would you be so kind as to tell me what type of solvent I should procure so that I have the possibility of preparing the varnish myself. I realize that the recipes are relatively loose, but a general idea of where to start would be greatly appreciated. As you can imagine, after the last disaster I’m pretty gun-shy about the whole process, but it would be a pity if I end up learning nothing from my mistake.

Kind regards,

Jody

[George O'Hanlon]

Jody,

For Regalerez 1094, use odorless mineral spirits or any mineral spirits. Laropal A81 requires mineral spirits with at least a 30% aromatic content. A lacquer thinner or VM&P naphtha solvent should also work.

We are working to bring our varnishes to Europe, but there is a lot of red tape to overcome.

[Åse Maj]

I mix my own Regalrez, that has been really easy to do. With proper drying time and cleaning before varnishing, the results have been very good. Also, lead oil grounds have improved my results over the acrylic primers/gessoes.

Finding a solvent for the Laropal has been more cumbersome..

• This reply was modified 1 year ago by  Åse Maj.

[Jody]

Hi George,

I’m slowly making progress on my varnish disaster. With a lot of patience and Shellsol A, I’m finally getting back to square one. I think I’m ready to take the varnishing course and I attempted to purchase it yesterday, Order #14019, but once again the link did not arrive. I’m not sure what I have messed up in my profile that I have such a hard time with the links, but in any case would you please send it along? I would greatly appreciate it.

Kind regards,

Jody