About Oil Painting Cleaners

An oil painting is about more than just finding a work of art. It's investment in your home. And just like any investment, you want to take care of it the best way you can. That means cleaning it, but a lot of people don't like to clean oil paintings because they don't want to ruin the art work. Here are some tips to make the process easier.

Like most anything else, oil paintings collect dust, dirt, and anything that floats around a home. However, you can't take a vacuum cleaner or a wet rag to an oil painting. Remember the old phrase about oil and water not mixing. Now, think about what that can do to your painting.

The age of the painting is key to cleaning. Older paintings (before the 1960s, according to some experts, 1940s for others) will have a thin later of varnish on them. That was put on to keep the luster, but it tends to turn yellow and get brittle over time. That means you'll need some kind of solvent to clean the painting. Please note that new paintings won't need this, and can be dusted with a light brush.

Potatoes? Doughy bread? Cooking oils? Onions? Kitchen cleaner? You may have heard one or more people say these work, and you may have heard others who say these don't. How do you know? Most art experts say it depends on what you're trying to do and how well you can do it. Rubbing a potato or bread on the painting might remove the varnish, but it could also ruin the painting. The basic idea is that it can work around the home, but not really for a gallery.

There is a fairly large list of solvents, chemicals and sprays on the market that can be bought to clean an oil painting. Some sell kits that go as high as hundreds of dollars, depending on how much is being ordered. These kits include varnish remover, neutralizers, emulsion cleaners, brushes and swabs. The best advice is to talk to some trusted people who have done painting restoration to get an idea of what works best, what is the best value and what's a rip-off.

One of the more interesting things about cleaning an oil painting is to see what it looked like when it was first done. Many people think that older paintings have a natural yellow sheen that was part of the artist's concept. That isn't true, especially once you see a painting that has been restored to its original format.

Be very careful when cleaning paintings. If you can, watch someone else do it first. That will give you an idea of the time and techniques used so you can avoid costly mistakes.