Making a varnishing cover

An oil painting should be varnished when its finished and only after it has dried for at least six months (longer if the artist has used thick impasto paint). I've seen comments from other artists saying they never varnish, along with the usual statement of '... and my paintings have been alright.' This doesn't make not varnishing a good reason and I've read loads of sound, scientifically-backed advice, that varnishing your finished oil paintings is definitely something you should do. Why? Well because it provides the following benefits:

• It helps protects the painting from sunlight as many varnishes contain a UV filter.
• It protects the painting from dust, dirt and any other atmospheric pollutants such as cigarette smoke.
• It helps to enrich the colours, especially if there has been any 'sinking in'
• It protects the painting from oxidation and from abrasion during handling and transport.
• It can provide a gloss, satin or matt finish (depends on your choice of varnish).

An oil painting needs to dry or cure for at least six months before varnishing. It is best to do it on a warm, not too humid day so, living in Scotland, I usually wait until the summer to do this and will do more than one painting, if I have them ready.

There are detailed procedures you can follow when varnishing and you can find YouTube videos which will take you through the process. After you've varnished your painting(s) they should be left flat to dry completely and I've found that this can take twenty-four hours. During this time, you need to protect the painting from dust, lint and pet hair, otherwise you'll see it stuck to the varnish. The purpose of this article was to describe how I made a cover for the painting after it has been freshly varnished.

I've read about people using small tents to put their paintings in while they are drying or placing them inside a large cardboard box. I wanted something that was of a reasonable size, lightweight and allowed the varnish fumes to evaporate whilst still protecting the painting while the varnish was drying.

I'm in the process of planning my largest painting to date; it'll be over 1 metre in height so I wanted to accommodate this size of painting.

I made a frame using planed timber, 48mm wide by 11mm thickness. The total size of the frame was 1210mm x 970mm. It was very lightweight and seemed a bit too flimsy so I reinforced it using 3mm plywood pieces on the corners.

Next, I took an old cotton duvet cover and cut it a few inches larger, on each side, than the frame itself. This was so I could hem it using the iron-on hemming tape which helps stop it shedding cotton fibres. Then I placed self-adhesive Velcro strips all round the frame at regular intervals.

The cover is then stretched over the frame and fastened to it using the Velcro strips. (I've marked both the frame and the cover top and bottom for the correct orientation and to ensure the Velcro parts line up).

When varnishing, I typically lay the painting(s) on the floor on top of an old kitchen cabinet door. After varnishing, I place a support to the top and bottom of the paintings and then simply lay the cover on top of the supports. The supports can be a box or in my case, I'm using a couple of floating shelves; as long as they provide sufficient height to leave a bit of space above the painting and below the cover.

The weave of the cover protects the painting from dust and lint but also allows the varnish fumes to evaporate. This time I thought I'd try two coats of varnish, as recommended by the varnish suppliers and I have to say I do think the results were good - better than a single coat. When applying the second coat, you can feel the brush starting to 'drag' a little, so its best to ensure the first coat has thoroughly dried - give it two to three days before applying the second coat and brush lightly when applying it.