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Computer Graphics	Varnishing and Other Finishing Touches One of the most common worries over a painting when nothing else is wrong with it, is the varnish surface. This final film applied to the surface as a protection or to give it greater brilliance can change in many ways without leaving any noticeable effect on the painting beneath it. Besides the dirt it can collect and the change in color which also can occur as it yellows with age, it can become webbed with tiny disfiguring cracks and even become milky in appearance so that the painting beneath is almost obscured from view. This last change, called "bloom," is due to the penetration of water vapor into the varnish. Unless it has gone unnoticed for a long period of time and really changed the nature of the varnish it can be removed without too much difficulty. HOW TO REMOVE "BLOOM" FROM A VARNISH SURFACE Bloom may be removed from varnish by waxing the surface with a fine quality paste wax. Get the best type paste wax recommended for use on furniture; be careful to make sure that this is NOT an emulsion of wax and water because that type will not work for this problem. Check the condition of your painting by examining it carefully in a good light to make certain there is no loose paint or weakened areas on the surface. Support the back of the canvas, as I advised during the cleaning, with blocks of wood or stacked cardboards so that the pressure of waxing will not make the canvas sag down and crack the paint films. Take a small amount of the paste wax on a clean cloth or cotton swab and gently rub it into the milky surface. Keep on rubbing in the wax until all the bloom has disappeared. Then wipe off the excess wax and polish what is left with a soft bristle brush or if you prefer a dry silk cloth. If you are going to leave the wax on the surface, hold the painting up in the position it will hang in the room to decide which direction of finishing brush strokes, horizontal or vertical, gives the more pleasant effect. This will depend, as you will see, on the way the light strikes the painting as you look at it in hanging position. Keeping your final brush strokes parallel, you can give the painting the surface appearance which is the more satisfactory to you. A waxed varnish does not bloom but its surface finish is not pleasing to everybody, and wax does catch dust. REVARNISHING If you have just cleaned your painting, using either the mixture of turpentine and petroleum naphtha or one of the detergents in water, you will probably find that the surface has a dull and uneven appearance. This can be taken care of by applying a fresh coat of varnish to rejuvenate the old film and return it to brilliance and transparency. There are a great many picture varnishes on the market but make sure when you select one that it is a varnish intended for use on a painting and NOT on a floor. What you want to buy is a spirit varnish, the resin of which is soluble in solvents which do not act on dry oil paint. Damar and mastic resins have been used for a long time and are prepared for your use with directions on the bottle. You may either brush on the varnish or spray it on; a dealer in artist's material will be glad to help you select a proper brush and give advice on how to use it. See to it that the room in which your painting is to be varnished and where you will leave it to dry, is comparatively free of dust and that the day you choose for varnishing is a dry one. SYNTHETIC VARNISHES Recently we have found that synthetic resins, such as isobutyl and butyl methacrylate polymers, are equally as soluble as damar and mastic and preferable to them for varnishes because they show less discoloration with time and have less tendency to bloom. These are offered for sale under such trade names as "Acrivar" and "M varnish." If you have a painting which has never been varnished, it would be a good idea to use one of these synthetic materials for a surface protection. With newly painted pictures it is customary to wait a year to allow the paint to dry sufficiently before varnishing. TO VARNISH OR NOT TO VARNISH This brings us to the great controversy among both artists and laymen -to varnish or not to varnish. In many oil paintings of the 20th Century the effect desired by the artist is a mat or unshiny surface. To leave these paintings without protection is to condemn them to an early death. Dirt can rarely if ever be removed from the interstices of an unvarnished painting without loss of paint, and a painting left to grow dirtier and dirtier in time has no longer much resemblance to the original concept of the artist. Some people who are violent about the aesthetic values don't care whether a picture lasts, so long as they can enjoy it correctly while it does. As long as they have no illusions about the inevitable, their preference is a personal matter. But unless paintings finished mat are kept behind glass or in dirt controlled atmospheres, it is wise to compromise on their appearance and protect the surface with a thin, quickly drying dull varnish. Museums have found that one of the best ways to solve this problem is to have the surfaces of mat paintings sprayed with a very dilute mixture of one of the synthetic varnishes in a quick drying solvent. This powders the painting with such minute particles of transparent protection that the change which they effect is barely noticeable. I know this does the protective job it is intended to do because we sprayed such a film on an almost all white mat surfaced painting which hung in a New York office. After three years there it collected enough dirt to require cleaning. We removed our sprayed varnish with the dirt which had lodged in it and resurfaced the painting with the same material to the complete delight not only of the owner but also of the artist. The pristine whiteness of the painting offered an extreme case and an excellent example of the wisdom of protection.