Ellen Starr Lyon

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#Varnish can be pure magic! Here’s a few swipes to show the change in color saturation and gloss. This #portrait is headed to #miami for the Context Miami Art Fair 🎉🎉 @33 Contemporary Gallery @artsy #artfair #varnishvideo

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Varnish time for “Winter Foliage”. For this I choose to use a layer or Laropal with Regalrez if needed, both from @natural.pigments. It’s tough to illustrate proper application while filming 😅 but it is important to apply varnish in long, even strokes. Keep the application thin- don’t pour directly onto the surface and use a large enough brush (mine could have been wider). You can see that I have a dedicated varnish brush for each type of varnish, this is because I don’t clean them. After application, the solvent evaporates and leaves the brush stiff. When I varnish again, the solvents in the varnish dissolve the dry varnish in the bristles and it is ready to use again. I’ve also gotten good results by using the inexpensive foam brushes but using a new one each time. Remember to ventilate and *important* cover the painting as it dries to prevent dust etc. settling on the surface, especially if you have three cats like I do! The inherent issues of a home studio… #varnishing #varnishingpaintings Available through @33 Contemporary Gallery on @artsy