The essential components required for creating my oil paintings:

Using archival materials is the single most important choice you can make to ensure your artwork survives for centuries without fading, cracking, or warping. When you build a painting to last for generations, every layer—from the structural support to the final surface protection—must be physically stable and chemically inert.

1. Structural Supports, Linen, Sizing & Priming

• Key-able Stretchers: I prefer professional expansion keyed miter stretchers (such as American Standard Stretched with beveled back by Simon Liu Inc.) which allow you to fine-tune canvas tension over decades as humidity fluctuates, instead of using fixed-corner frames. Simon Lui Inc. have been creating stretches for all my paintings for over the past 26 years.

Behind The Canvas – S02E02 – Simon Lui Inc. by Baumgartner Restoration

• Double-Primed Belguim Linen, 91 Thread Count: Linen is vastly superior to cotton canvas for longevity. It contains natural oils that preserve its flexibility, resists moisture damage, and has a tighter, more stable thread weave (such as heavy-weight Utrecht Beguin linen).

• PVA Size or Rabbit Skin Glue: Raw fabric will rot if it comes into direct contact with oil paint. Utrecht uses a neutral-pH Polyvinyl Acetate (PVA) size on their Belgium linen to isolate and protect the linen fibers.
• Oil Primer vs. Acrylic Gesso: A traditional oil-primed ground provides the most chemically cohesive bond with oil paints, ensuring the paint layer won’t delaminate centuries down the road.
• Copper Tacks: I prefer to use copper tacks every inch around the perimeter of my canvases to attach the linen to my stretchers for perfect tensions, resulting in an even tight painting surface. Art conservators dislike using staples because they cause both physical and chemical damage to artifacts over time (rust & corrosion).

2. Professional-Grade Paints & Mediums

• Pure Pigments: Prefer to use professional oil paints (such as Winsor & Newton & Rembrandt Artist’ Oil Paints) that use pure, lightfast pigments ground in drying oils like linseed or walnut oil. I never use student-grade paints, which contain fillers that yellow and weaken the paint film.
• The “Fat Over Lean” Rule: To prevent cracking, I use Linseed oil on the lower layers of my paintings (“lean”) and Refined Linseed Oil or Polyseed Oil on the upper layers of my paintings (“fat”). This ensures upper layers dry slower than the ones beneath them.

3. Conservation Varnishes

• Removable Resins: I like using Winsor & Newton Conservation Retouching Varnish (mixed with Liquitex Gloss Varnish for additional film flexibility, and a slight amount of Liquitex Matt Varnish in order to create a semi matt service). A conservation varnish acts as a sacrificial shield against UV rays, dust, and pollution. It must be completely removable without damaging the paint underneath.
• Modern Synthetics: I sometimes apply first a Paraloid B-72 Varnish for additional surface protection (before applying the above varnishes). A Paraloid B-72 varnish is durable and non-yellowing. I avoid traditional varnishes such as damar, because damar varnish turns yellow and brittle over time.

4. Museum-Quality Framing

• John Rowland Workshop LLC, Ferndale Michigan: I have been using this professional framer for over the past 26 years for all my paintings. John has created for me a specialized signature warm black frame for my large & small scale paintings with an undertone reddish ground layer that accent my paintings.
• John has been creating frames for collectors, art museums, and professional artists for over the past 30 years.