Hello everyone,
I just wanted to pass on a tip I recently learned that really helps me with the problem of beading up. For those that don’t know what this is, it’s when you go to apply paint onto a surface and the paint (or medium or oil, if you’re painting into a couch) ‘beads up’, like water on a freshly-waxed car. This often occurs when there’s a shiny, glossy surface, often due to using stand oil or a resin in your medium mix.

Anyway, the tip is to lightly rub/brush on a little Windex over the area in which you’re going to paint. This works wonderfully, and does NOT remove any paint… you just put it on, wipe off or gently blot off what didn’t already evaporate, and paint (or put your couch in, then paint).

I didn’t come up with this; I learned it reading a blog post from a great, well-respected artist, Sadie J. Valeri.
Here’s her take on it, for those interested:

http://www.sadievaleri.com/blog/2013/12/6/windex-for-removing-lint-from-a-oil-painting.html

She uses it to clean paintings, which works well too, and also to prevent beading.

I used to use a little OMS to perform the same function, but there was always a danger of taking off paint, even a little; and for those of us who paint thinly and in layers, this is not a good thing:).

I used the Windex on paint 2 days dry, a slow-drying paint actually, and it took nothing off. The paint sticks well, the couch, if used, goes on with no beading, and it seems to be totally safe.

I keep a specific brush to apply it and don’t put it in my turp jar, just to make sure there’s no contamination. Anyway, just wanted to pass this on, it will also work right before you varnish to clean the painting and prevent the varnish from beading up.

Cheers!