[Leopoldo Benavidez]

Miguel,

You can either buy ready-made Damar varnish or make your own, which is considerable cheaper! I prefer to buy the Damar crystals, which are inexpensive at any art store. They dilute readily with turpentine almost overnight, and much faster if you crush the crystals. By weight, dilute equally. Now you have a varnish that is thick, but has impurities in it: let sit for a couple of weeks or longer, so the nasty stuff settles to the bottom. Decant the clear varnish off and discard the gunk! Now you have something to work with. This needs to be diluted further with turpentine. I personally do not like the beautiful shiny surface that Damar creates because of the glare that it produces to the viewer. I add beeswax, pastilles unbleached, which again can be procured at any art store. It produces a wonderful matte finish that unifies the sunken areas in your painting as well as reduces the glare to the viewer. For this recipe, I take the original varnish of 4 parts Damar, 1 part wax and 2 parts turpentine, which needs to be heated over a low heat to combine all of the ingredients, especially essential in wax. Best to do outside, if one has any apprehensions about fumes or combustibility. Store in jars until ready to use.

Now you are ready to varnish in whatever drying time frame of your painting you adhere too. Lay painting flat in a dust free area. Again, heat the wax/Damar varnish over a low heat. Important to apply heated! Get yourself a very good varnish brush. Escoda makes a wonderful ox hair brush, but whatever your choice, make sure it is top quality! Nothing is more frustrating than a poor, uneven application of varnish, and even worst yet, hairs being deposited on your work! Again a heated Damar/wax is essential! Load sparingly and work fast over small areas before progressing to the next area. Have good lighting and angle your view so you can easily see the glare in the areas you have missed so that you can attain to them quickly before moving on. If you have to go back to semi- or dried areas of varnish you are usually in trouble. This is where a painting that is varnished improperly will overlap itself over semi-dry/dry areas. You don