How I seal and protect my paintings - Gamblin cold wax and Spectrafix fixative

If you gloss seal a painting and don’t like the gloss, go over it with wax and it gives a great effect. Then buff to desired luster. Keep in mind that wax does not protect from UV, so I spray a UV protectant first them wax. Don’t wax until you have signed it and are SURE you are 100% finished, as any additions after wax must be in OIL. It is good to wear gloves, as the wax CONTAINS SOLVENTS.

Thank you for explaining this product! Will be buying for my watercolors!

great video and beautiful art. thanks for sharing.

You've helped so much, thank you!!

Liquitex and other like products come in a variety of finishes. Satin would probably be closest to the wax. The thing I love about the wax is how much energy and life it gives to a painting. It isn't plastic. It's organic and it shows. I first tested it on two old (15-20 yo) watercolor paintings on gessoed Ampersand boards. They had been boxed up in the heat and had some fading, basically throw-aways. I used Dorland's Wax but Gamblin is great as well. Completely brought those two paintings back to life. I was amazed. The color is back and it has a very nice hand. I'm about to use it on some new work. What I"m not sure about is whether I need some kind of isolation coat and/or UV protection as well. Watching tons of videos to see if I can find an answer to that. Love all you YouTube artists who share with us.

Very nice video! You have a nice delivery which invites everyone to try along with you. I've added this cold wax medium to intermediate glaze layers, just to knock down distracting gloss as I work. Gamblin also has the wax pastilles which you dissolve in OMS and add to their Galkyds, their various alkid painting mediums, to do same. I'm finishing my latest painting soon and plan to use this cold wax as a finish.

Superb , Lovely . 👍

Hi there can you make a video showing how and what you use for mounting your painting on board?

You don’t have to press hard and you don’t have to keeeeep going over it. Just go over it lightly one time, wait about 30 minutes then buff.

couple questions: Can I use the wax to finish oil paintings on stretched canvas? And will the wax melt when I have my work on display at outdoor summer festivals??

I use a gloss medium-extender in my acrylic paint (later layers are a wash with paint+gloss extender medium), and so my painting comes out too shiny for my liking. I'm hoping something like the Gamblin Wax Medium will tone down the glossiness of my paintings. Any experience with toning down any acrylic paint glossiness with the Gamblin wax?

Question: can I seal a casein painting with cold wax? Should I use SpectraFix first, on same painting?

I'd really like to try this Gamelin's cold wax. I just spent $8.50 on a 1 oz. jar of Tim Holtz's distress glaze and I was only able to cover the front page of 12 5 x 6" watercolor Christmas cards and 14 3 x 6" gift tags. I still need to protect the middle greeting page and the envelope, which is also watercolor paint on watercolor paper. Is the Gamelin cold wax costly?

I really can't see using this process on watercolor pigments. Wouldn't it smear them? Acrylics set differently, right?

Would you be able to get a sponge in dollar tree and cut it in half and use it to wax a water color and wax it off?

Cool. Does it give the watercolor a bit of a sheen? Or enhance the colors?

I used this for my watercolor paintings. After an hour it is still tacky. Does it dry to buff again?

Why is the sponge getting black? Isn't the pigment coming off onto the sponge? It doesn't seem that the "fix" is keeping the charcoal from coming off when you wax? And if the sponge is getting black (from the charcoal?), aren't you smearing black into the was and over the top of the entire painting?

Can you use this over gouache paint, too?

Amazon has it the cheapest right now.