How to paint permanent pictures

Chapter 25: REPAINTING

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About This Book

The work presents practical guidance for artists on selecting and using pigments, vehicles, supports, and varnishes to produce durable paintings. It explains simple and complex palettes, permanent foundations, preparation of wood and metal supports, and the properties of oils, tempera, watercolors, waxes and mediums. The author discusses common causes of deterioration—fading, darkening, cracking, peeling—and prescribes materials and techniques to prevent them, including labeling and sequence of application. Chapters cover specific problem pigments to avoid, varnishes and blooms, repainting, restoration and cleaning, and framing. Advice is technical but conveyed in plain language to help painters and collectors produce and preserve long-lasting work.

REPAINTING

MANY painters and restorers are uncertain as to what materials to use for retouching and repainting. Some use Tempera colors; and, after they are dry, they varnish the entire picture, and the results are usually very good. With this exception, the Tempera colors do not change, whereas the surrounding oil painting yellows and darkens in undue proportion to the new color applied.

The best method to pursue is to use dry pigments, which should be rubbed, or mulled on a glass plate with a muller, and mixed with dilute Damar Varnish. The chances are that a mixture of this type will dry in fifteen or twenty minutes, and the color can be matched up with the surrounding painting very exactly. In filling up cracks, flakes and holes in paintings, this method is really the best, because it insures matching, quick drying and very little decomposition.