Hi,
I have to varnish a big oil painting (200×370 cm), and I do not have a lot of experience with varnishing oilpaintings, to be honest. So I have some questions that I hope you guys can help me with.
-It will take quite some time to get the whole surface varnished, right? What varnish would give me enough time to work? (I’ll ask two students to help me).
At the same time, the work is hanging in a canteen, so fumes should be not overwhelming for too long :-/.
-And how much varnish do I need for such a surface? The paint itself is rather smooth, but I doubt if 1 liter would be enough.
-And third, and last: we have to do this with the work standing, so not laying flat. How do I avoid dripping?
Thanks in advance,
Matthijs
Hi, Thanks so much.
I am afraid I cannot use a spray gun, It should be done by brush or roller. It is a canteen, I think they won’t be happy if I am gonna use a spray gun.
I guess I’ll use a gloss varnish first, to even out the gloss (there are quite some differences in the surface), then do a second semi-gloss layer.
We’ll work with 3 people. Perhaps we all start at the top, taking 1/3-rd of the width, then working our way to the bottom.
Do you have any idea about how much time we would have before the varnish starts to dry? I guess we will be working with room temperature.
Honestly it is not so much WHICH varnish to use (but we will get back to you on that) but HOW to varnish this large format painting. If you must brush varnish ALWAYS start at the top. There will inevitably be drips that appear on the lower half but you can address these as you move down the painting. However many of these issues can be avoided if you use an HPLV spray gun….are you willing/able to do so?
I think a high-density foam roller could yield a good result, if the roller material is designed for use with solvent-borne varnishes.
As for type and amount of varnish…..please refer to our advice on varnishing in our Resources section which can be foundhere. But we feel that a liter for a painting of this size is more than enough.
