Hi!
I have been painting lately acrylic paintings on paper pre-prepared with gesso. I like that because it gives me a more “hard” surface to paint, scrap, sand the painting if I want. My question is because they will be displayed framed behind glass and also I wanted to varnish them, is this wrong? Is the varnish looked behind a glass visually will work and not be affected by the glare of the glass and the varnish at the same time or should the varnish be matte or satin, although I prefer using the glossy one?
Thank you
I like to use gloss varnish with my acrylic paintings too (except those with a great deal of darkness/low key) But mostly I use canvas. I have varnished one or two I have done on canva paper and put behind glass and I think maybe I used matte varnish those times and it was fine. Perhaps, if you are worried, you could paint a similar colour on a scrap of paper and varnish half of it, or do a strip of gloss, a strip of matte and an unvarnished area, put it under glass and see what it looks like.
Hope this helps! Good luck!
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Hi Hilda,
Matte varnish could be a solution, I guess it’s all about trying, experimenting, discover and get the feel of what works best.
Thank you so much for your response.
Great advice to test the warnish on scrape paper and check for the gloss🥇
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If I end up with acrylic studies that I feel are keepers, I spray the finished painting with Krylon UV Archival varnish. I like the matte finish for framing under glass since you are already dealing with the glare of the glass itself. I feel like the gloss finish adds to the glare. I always use a mat to keep the painting from touching the glass. Good luck!
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Hi Kerry!
Thank you for your input.
That’s what I thought “matte varnish below the glass”. But because I like to see a bit of sheen in my paintings and I think varnish gives a nice touch to the acrylics, I will mount them in a panel.
Regards