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How to Varnish Paintings Course

Do You Really Need to Wait Six Months to Varnish?

george_pbp
George April 23, 2020
5 Comments

The age-old advice to wait at least six months before varnishing oil paintings is sound advice, but one resisted by many artists. It’s an understandable position. When you finish a painting it often needs to be delivered immediately for exhibit or into the customer’s hands.

The Big Sleep before Varnishing

So, artists often tout the recommendation to wait until the painting is “touch dry”. For some this may be a sufficient amount of time. This recommendation, however, assumes that all paintings are created under the same conditions. Of course, we know this is never the case, since one painter paints on absorbent substrates, another on non-absorbent surfaces, another will use lead white others will use slower-drying titanium white, many paint with impastos and others with thin applications of paint.

Apply When Touch Dry

A few manufacturers claim their varnish can be applied much earlier. The advise is , such as when the painting is “touch dry”, so many artists grab this idea and run with it thinking the moment the paint surface feels dry they have a green light to varnish. However, even these manufacturers are a little more cautious by recommending to test the surface of the painting for sufficient dry time such as with a “fingernail test”.

Somehow many artists believe there is something special inherent in these varnishes. One blogger writes:

Gamvar allows the painting to continue to breathe so the paint underneath can still continue to dry. It doesn’t stop the drying process.

Debra (2017) How To Varnish A Painting: The Easy Way. Red Palette Studio. August 17, 2017. View Online. Last accessed 15 March 2020.

Are Varnishes Permeable?

In reality, all varnishes are permeable so oxygen will diffuse into and through them, allowing the polymerization of oil paint underneath. All varnishes, of course, slow the ingress of oxygen into the paint film, thereby delaying the drying process.

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Categories: Varnish
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George

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  2. John July 20, 2021

    What about speeding up the drying? I’ve just finished reading “Billion Dollar Painter” for the fourth time and in it Kinkade apparently had a huge wooden box with a heating element in it since he worked on 4-5 paintings at a time. He also painted in layers…up to 50 layers…he claimed that’s how he got that light effect. I understand the Old Masters used something like a modern-day pizza oven to “speed-dry” their paintings. I know another artist who simply uses a cardboard box over the painting set out in the sun. Would such devices help to speed up the drying so varnish could be applied earlier? Thanks for the great article.

    1. George July 21, 2021

      While it is possible to hasten the drying time of oil paint to some degree with heat, it does not accelerate polymerization through the paint film, which is why the “touch dry” stage does not provide a suitable surface for recoating with a varnish. I am not aware that any old master hastened the drying time with heat such as from an oven. Indeed, heating a painting in an oven or other space is fraught with many perils since the heat lowers the relative humidity (RH) rapidly causing much mechanical stress to the painting. We do not recommend exposing paintings to direct sunlight, since ultraviolet light causes significant damage to the oil binder and pigments.

      1. John July 21, 2021

        OK…I get it now. The drying would allow for layering, but not for varnishing. Thanks for the prompt reply!

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