Before I can frame a painting, I have to varnish it. But I can never get it right. I’d like a good glossy and even coat of varnish, so the paining looks clean even when light is reflected back from it.

Mine are always lumpy, streaked, spotty and generally uneven. I do three coats at least.

You’d think that after 30 years of painting, I would have figured out how to properly finish a picture with a good coat of varnish.

I can make canvas frames, I can stretch my own canvas and prime it, I can paint, I can make frames (even though I don’t like to do this and I take them to framing shops), but I can’t varnish.

It must be my technique. Time to get online before I ruin another painting.

A session last night from a photograph I took while in Yellowstone last fall.

My painting of Chelsea is getting close to done.

Here is the progress after two sessions.

When it was done:

This is a large painting, 36 x 36, to match the one I did of Devin a couple of years ago. I am not sure I’ll be able to make them work as a set.