Golden Archival Varnish Gloss 10oz Spray Can

Varnishing watercolors is a relatively new, at least to me, process. Customers are learning that watercolors can be preserved without glass, and shows are accepting them more readily. I downloaded and read the procedure from the Golden website, and have been using their product for the last couple of years. I've tried others, and found that Golden spray varnishes enhance the colors of my paintings while protecting them from damage. They also don't "spit" varnish causing unfortunate inconsistencies. I can frame my work without glass, plexi or mat, thus saving costs in framing as well as shipping due to the decrease in weight. Golden has the best products for varnishing and protecting my watercolors.

Ordered this based on reviews from my artist groups. It has lived up to my expectations. I was wary to try something to seal my watercolor paintings, but they look beautiful and vibrant and I believe this product will give my work protection for a long time.

Not something I would use on oil or acrylic as brushing this on is over all better. In fact the fumes from this are dangerous to breath and you NEED to use it in a properly ventilated space with protective eye-wear and a proper gas mask. For an oil/acrylic painting stick to the liquid version and use a high quality natural animal hair brush to apply it. So why give this 5 stars? Because it is the only way you can varnish a WATERCOLOR painting. I've used this with 100% stunning success on watercolor pieces painted on aquabord and with a 90% success rate on paper. I think the only real issue with paper is you're soaking the entire piece at once and this always causes curls. I paint almost exclusively on boards though, just because curling/rippling paper drives me nuts and even with proper securing is always an issue with watercolor. This spray gives my watercolor paintings the slick wet feeling of oil, with the unique effects you can only achieve with watercolor paints. The only hangup you'll find is that this stuff doesn't like salt. If you use salt with watercolor to achieve cool effects, this varnish won't stick very well to the salt. You'll need extra layers and You'll never get a perfect coat. Little bit of a bummer there, but the tradeoff is worth it for me. Oh and it is worth noting that once you varnish a watercolor painting you can't remove the varnish down the line, but this is non-yellowing so you shouldn't need to. I suppose you could use an airbrush an a high quality acrylic medium to achieve the same thing, but this is a simpler solution.

The brand sold me first. Love their paints. But this was a “meh” for me. I’ll use it but watch it against other products used in the past.

The product is fine. Just make sure to do it in a garage and NOT your home. The fumes are terrible and will drift throughout your home if you try to do it indoors. Also be prepared to have to change your clothes afterwards. this stuff lingers. But the 2 stars I took off were for the absolute idiotic cap design. Why on earth would they make it so impossible to get off? It says use a screw driver. I have a garage full of them and am not stupid nor weak. Yet, I could not pry any of the 4 cans I purchased off. I had to resort to the old 'smack it against a concrete step' approach and watch it fling off into several shattered plastic pieces. Major packaging fail.