Hi everyone,
I have a problem and hope to get some advice from the collective wisdom here. I finished a painting about 2 months ago, and let it sit for a few weeks before spraying it with retouch varnish so that I could refresh the colours and get a decent photo. I then moved the painting into a spare room that is seldom used, and left it there to cure. Today I discovered that my husband went into the room a few days ago and moved the painting . . . he leaned it *face down* against a sofa. When I moved it today, it actually made a faint sound as I pulled it away from the sofa, something like pulling low-tack tape off a wall. 🙁 It looks now like there is a spot where the paint looks a bit flat, and otherwise there is lint/dust that I cannot brush off with my fingers. Do I need to use mineral spirits and strip off the retouch? Or is there something else that I can use to clean the surface without disturbing the retouch? Thoughts? Advice?
BTW, in case it helps: I painted this one in layers, using a thin layer oleogel as a couch between layers. The retouch varnish is Winsor & Newton, because I’ve found that other brands (particularly Krylon) don’t get along well with the oleogel.
Thanks in advance.
Jennifer
Thanks so much, Kristin. Your answer is helpful—although it is the advice that I was fearing most—but I will try a small area near the edge first and see how that goes. And I have already had a long talk with my husband. 😉
Jennifer
First of all you should have a long talk with your husband 🙂 This is a very tricky situation and unfortunately if you want to regain that even surface you will just have to remove the varnish from the entire painting. PLEASE realize that the advice we give here is only for you to try as anything you do at this point will risk biting into your paint. What you can do is wear gloves and use a lint-free cotton cloth (e.g. a clipping from a soft jersey T-shirt) that is slightly soaked in OMS. Try to carefully rub the surface in a small area. If you start picking up color then you will just have to wait a month or two longer and try again. If after some time passes and the OMS does not seem to be pulling anything up then you can try to use actual Mineral Spirits to reduce/remove the varnish, always checking to see if you pull up color. One thing: tread carefully where the painting was in contact with the couch as the varnish will be thinnest in this location.
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