To Glaze or Not to Glaze...

I am often asked why my paintings are framed using glass.

If you own one of my pictures, you'll see that I have glass over the top of the painting, with a spacer in between (called a slip) so that the paint does not touch the glass. The reverse has a backing board covering the canvas, so that the painting is presented as a 'sealed unit'.  

Now, I have a friend who is a painting conservator, and he says that most of his work comes from paintings which have been ripped or damaged by the edges of chairs or tables.  Hence a backing board on a painting is a no-brainer.

However, the argument I often hear is that 'oils shouldn't be covered by glass', as you can't see the texture of the paint.  I would say that if you go into any major art gallery or museum, you'll see that all the paintings have glass over them.

The reason for this is conservation.  Glass provides the best environment for the long-term preservation of the painting, and protection of both the canvas and paint surfaces.

Pigments can be faded and the paint made brittle by the action of UV light upon the painting. Ordinary glass cuts down UV light by around 40%.  The more expensive museum quality glass is 2-3mm thick glass with a UV coating, sandwiched between two layers of  anti-glare optical coating, and cuts down 98-99% of harmful UV light.

Glass also protects the textured paint surface from dust and dirt.  Oil paint never fully 'cures' or dries.  If it did, it would come away from the canvas.  

I was told a story about a conservator who, many years ago (before Van Gogh was so famous) took a Van Gogh into his lecture to show his students.  Although the painting was at that point about 70 years old, when he stuck a pin into a textured part of the paint, it came out with wet paint residue on it.  (You wouldn't be allowed to do that nowadays with a priceless masterpiece, but obviously art lectures in the 60s were much more relaxed, cavalier affairs...)

I take a huge amount of care and put a great deal of thought into all my work, and I want it to leave my studio and go out into the world in absolutely the best condition that it can.  Painters are always aware that their work will outlive them as their legacy, so my paintings are quality products made with quality materials, to the best of my ability.  Therefore I choose the best bespoke Belgian linen canvasses, and bespoke hand-crafted, hand-gessoed and gilded frames, with glazing and backing. 

However, I am also aware that the trend is now for people to enjoy my work without the barrier of glass between themselves and the texture of the paint.  And that's fine - the paintings won't fade in my lifetime or yours, so please choose to enjoy them and live with them as you wish now. Homes are not museums.

(Top tip for getting rid of dust on the impasto - use a hairdryer on a cool setting to gently blow the dust away.)

Hopefully, my paintings will last for hundreds of years, give a lot of pleasure over generations, and still look as good as the day I painted them.

Van Gogh's Colours

You might have seen reports recently about new research which has shown that some of Van Gogh's colours are fading and altering in his paintings.  His paintings are of course around 125-130 years old now.

It seems to be a problem with his yellows especially.  Layers of varnish which were added later to his paintings appear to have absorbed some of the surface layers of the oil paint, leading to a dulling or fading effect.

This is one of the paintings which art restorers have been looking at, called Flowers in a Blue Vase.  Paint was extracted and examined in two areas (marked).

Cadmium yellow, which is this colour

had turned a greyish-orange colour and had cracked.  Normally cadmium yellow gets paler and less vibrant as it ages.  However, in this painting the cadmium has formed oxalates within the surface layer of varnish.  

Ironically, this varnish wasn't put on by Van Gogh himself, who preferred his paintings to have a natural raw 'genuine' feel, rather than a pretty finished look.  The varnish was applied by later dealers, conservators and private individuals in accordance with popular taste and accepted practice of the time.  However, the fact that some of the paint surface has been drawn into the varnish creates a troubling problem for present day conservators, who of course want to prevent any further degradation but are duty-bound not to remove any original material.

Van Gogh also used chrome yellow a lot, which is a sharper, more acidic colour (cadmium is a more eggy colour).

Here's that chrome yellow in action in the background, along with cadmium yellow and yellow ochre (the more mustardy shade) on the flowers.

Vincent van Gogh, Sunflowers

 

For Van Gogh, the colour yellow in all its forms symbolised feelings of love, life, hope, positivity in the future.  However, chrome yellow is affected by sunlight, darkening to a brown shade over time.  New analysis using sophisticated X-ray techniques shows that the cause of the problem is a "reduction" reaction that alters the chemical make-up of the chromium in the paint.  

As you can tell by the names, these pigments are made from the colour-bearing metallic elements at the centre of the periodic table.  You don't really want to tangle with cadmium, lead, titanium, chromium or anything else in the paint too much - although as an artist, you do get covered in the stuff.  It's not really advisable to ingest it, although artists do have a habit of 'tipping' their brushes - licking the ends to get a fine point.  Charles Rennie Mackintosh, for example,  tipped his brushes whilst painting his watercolours in the south of France, and ended up dying of oral cancer.

Back at the Van Gogh's, the Van Gogh Museum in the Netherlands is on the case as regards the fading and altering pigments.  However, what about those paintings that are in private hands or in less pro-active or cash-strapped institutions?  

It could mean that, without conservation, we will be looking at some very faded and brown Van Gogh's in a hundred years time.  With colour so bound up with meaning in Van Gogh's work, it would fundamentally alter the essence of his paintings.