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Hello folks! I don’t know where to put this question, but my paintings are originally acrylic so I figured this is the best place.
I use Interactive Acrylics, and once done and dry, I will spray my painting with a high end acrylic based finish as an isolation coat, and then apply a spray-on varnish (specifically Golden’s Mineral Spirit Acrylic Aerosol w/UVLS
Gloss w/UVLS (Product #7731)). I adore this varnish.Anyhow, I often enter my paintings into competitions where you absolutely may not mark or sign your work in any way or you are disqualified– this is in an attempt to keep things fair and keep the judges from biasing their vote based on the artist’s name. However, this creates a dilemma for me when the painting is returned to me– I want to sign it! I know that signing on top of the varnish is a no-no, but compared to the risky, expensive and chemical-laden alternative of removing the varnish, signing, and then re-varnishing… I’d like to sign on top, and then sign the back of the painting as well. My trouble is that nothing will stick to the varnish. This is great– the varnish is doing a great job of protecting my painting, but it makes signing it a real pain! I have tried acrylic paint, and various archival inks.
A simple solution is to send the painting for judging unvarnished, but this runs the risk of the paint surface being damaged (one came back with lipstick?? Or something similar, smeared all over it, once. I sure was glad for the varnish). And honestly, varnished paintings tend to score better as it creates a uniform surface to the painting. The judges are not always (or even often) ‘understanding’ artists….
Any suggestions?
Thank you most kindly for any help.
Thank you for your input. My isolation coats, though gloss, always seem to deaden my colors while the varnish really brings them to life. The one competition that I scored highly in, one judge actually wrote to me and said that my work stood out to them because of the varnish! So you can understand that I am really on the fence…
The competitions I enter are mostly for stamps.. such as the duck stamp, and there is arguably a strong bias toward ‘big names’ in these events, so they do not want any signatures that would give away the artist behind the work.
I have entered juried shows and they don’t care if the art is signed or not. The competitions I am speaking of are judging pieces against each other for a single winner, and it’s remarkably competitive.
Perhaps I will stick to signing these paintings on the back only! Hmm.
Jennifer, given what you’d like to do here what I’d recommend is to remove the varnish from that corner of the painting, paint your signature, apply a thin layer of medium over the top of that, then revarnish that area. You’re using a varnish with the useful property that it’s soluble in a weak solvent (not especially toxic) so why not take advantage of this? Plus you’re using the version in a spraycan, which makes feathering in fresh varnish much easier than it would be otherwise.
Other than just living with having your sig on the back only this seems the easiest route, the sole alternative I can think of would involve even more effort sadly!
Einion
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Or, how about hiding your mark or signature in the piece itself? I no longer sign my pieces; but, instead have a graphic mark a la Albrecht Durer. On occasion, I have incorporated it into the composition, in effect hiding it from the casual observer. Another artist whom I know, incorporates a red triangle in every work, hiding it somewhere in the piece.
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This is clever, but the competitions I’m entering are for extreme realism in the paintings, of natural settings (ducks), and the rules state: “No scrollwork, lettering, bird band numbers, signatures, identifying marks, or initials may appear on the design.”
Jennifer, given what you’d like to do here what I’d recommend is to remove the varnish [I]from that corner of the painting[/I], paint your signature, apply a thin layer of medium over the top of that, then revarnish that area. You’re using a varnish with the useful property that it’s soluble in a weak solvent (not especially toxic) so why not take advantage of this? Plus you’re using the version in a spraycan, which makes feathering in fresh varnish much easier than it would be otherwise.
Other than just living with having your sig on the back only this seems the easiest route, the sole alternative I can think of would involve even more effort sadly!
Einion
Hi Einion! I have tried this before in the past with poor results, see below.
Having used that varnish for many years – it’s very difficult to remove and revarnish just one area. You’ll get a sort of “halo” area where the edge of the varnish was partially dissolved and that just doesn’t seem to go away. I always had to remove the varnish from the entire painting. And yes, even with the spray version I always had that problem.
It’s starting more and more to sound like signing on the back is your best bet!
Yes– this has been my experience, too. Either you remove the varnish from the whole thing and re-do it (I have had scary experiences with this– even with an isolation coat!!) or not at all. I have tried to remove varnish from a corner before and have been met with the haloing that you are describing each time. I figured it might have to do with humidity, so I tried in low humidity. I tried letting things re-cure for three months in between. I did a little dance to the varnish gods.. etc. I cannot seem to do it!
I think you are right– singing the back is probably my best solution. Thank you everyone for your input!!
An acrylic based varnish has quite a different finish actually. I have switched to an acrylic based from the MSA (due to health issues) and the matte finish with acrylic based is every so slightly satin, whereas the MSA matte is absolutely matte and gorgeous.
So I’d assume even the gloss finish will differ slightly between the two. As they use different binders the light reflection/refraction is bound to be different.And I must try a dance to the varnish gods! Maybe that’s the answer but we just don’t have the right dance yet?
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