A Step by Step Details On How to Clean an Oil Painting

A Step by Step Details On How to Clean an Oil Painting

When you select an oil painting artworks for your house, you will surely be thinking of it to last longer. It will surely only if you take proper care of it. You need to store them properly, clean them and keep them in an optimal condition and they will be with you forever. But how do you take care of it? And how can you clean them to avoid spoiling them?

Here’s the answer to all your questions. We are going to talk about all the important steps to clean them well in this article. 

Whether you have got a new piece or you have discovered a historic treasure, proper care is required to have that intense look that it has the day of your purchase. Oh yes!! When you are talking about purchasing oil paintings, you need to look out for all the artworks by Lana Zueva. She is well known for his oil paintings and indifferent works like portraits, still life, landscape, animals, and many more. 

Now let us get into some details on how to clean your oil paintings well.

Oil paintings are made from very minute details, with a different range of colours and the most tedious process of working with oil. 

So how can we take good care of them?

  1. Removing dust: Firstly, if your paintings have got dust, then you need to clean them with a mild solution. You can use an olive-oil based soap as it will be safe to remove it. Alcohol-based soap can have more chances to remove the paint too along with it. Also, for the corners, you can make use of cotton buds to get into the pockets of dirt settled there. 
  2. Thorough cleaning: After the dust removal, if you still see some grime on the canvas then please do not try to scrub it and remove it. This might cause some damage to your canvas. This usually happens when your painting is exposed to certain elements for a longer period such as smoke. In such cases, you might require a stronger cleaning product specially made for art. You can take the help of an art restorer to get rid of this. 

Ok, so this would work out for paintings made on canvas. Now, what about paintings made on paper? How can you clean them?

First and foremost, you will need to identify if there are any water-based paints used on these paintings. If yes or if unsure, then you can make use of a dry brush that is soft to just dust the surface. You get those sable bristle paint brushes that can work well in such cases. Do not use any chemical-based solutions here.

If in case your painting is not water-based, then you can use a cloth and soap water. But this would be a little more difficult than the one you can do with the canvas. You try to clean the area which is exposed to paper, then you might end up dampening the paper or it might change its shape. 

Never be lethargic if your art collection has oil paintings in it because the more you take care of it the more it will shine in your house.

Edward Powell