Let me summarize by saying that my Golden MSA varnish is driving me crazy. I've been trying to change my methods, adapt, and work around these for several years now.
In a moment of sanity, I decided that I needed to question the true value of using this varnish - not so much in technical terms but in terms of my time and health. And with that, bought some Liquitex permanent non-removeable varnish instead. (The MSA varnish is removeable and applied with solvent; this varnish is acrylic-based.) I've only used it on 2 paintings so far, but application was a dream and the finish is perfect. (or rather, perfect technically - it's a bit of an eggshell finish rather than totally matte, but I'm going to think about if that's acceptable to me)
There are questions for me with this varnish, and technical discussion doesn't abound like it does for the solvent-based varnish. So if any artists know of information, technical papers, research, etc, please do feel free to post link. I will be contacting some organisations while I'm in the USA, and have a couple of Golden and Tate papers to read in the meantime. I've also started a thread on wetcanvas.com for anyone interested in the conversation: http://www.wetcanvas.com/forums/showthread.php?p=8739659
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4 Comments
I dont usually varnish my acrylic paintings, but after I read your last post on varnish, I decided maybe I should try it out. Got a little bottle of the Liquitex varnish and will test on a garbage peice of board. Its interesting that yours turned out matte. I bought the gloss version, so I'm excited to see how it looks.
Your health comes first. Glad to see you publicly considering the varnish change!
Thanks guys. :) After a couple little mishaps this week I'm definitely stopping with the solvent-based varnishes. Still have mineral spirits in the studio for my printmaking (oil based inks) but the sheer quantity needed for varnishing/removing on my large canvases is getting unmanageable. (Soaked rags to apply to a 150x120cm canvas.) I must accept that at this point at least 25% of all varnishing I do has to be removed and redone (100% of the last batch of paintings) so that's a lot of solvent, at a time when my paintings are just getting larger.
The good news is that the Golden polymer varnish looks excellent and will still meet most of my needs. So I will be buying that after my return from the US in June to compare the matte finish to the Liquitex. (The Liquitex seems absolutely fine should anyone want to try it, but I prefer the fuller disclosure of information Golden gives about their products on the website.)
I am a huge fan of Golden Polymer varnish. Easy to apply and if needed can be removed with household ammonia. Still need some ventilation for the ammonia fumes, though.
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