Thank you for all your suggestions! Some of you misunderstood me I think but it might be the way I explained it. I don't want any area on the mat paper to be glassy except the image so I cannot start with glossy paper. I realize I can print on glassy paper and cut the image out and then mount or glue it to mat paper but I want to find a way to paint on the print before I do any other option.
There is a photographer (Luis González Palma ) who paints on his Hahnemuhle mat paper to get a glassy look. I will explore his technique and see if I might apply it.
http://gonzalezpalma.com/actualidad2/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/faam10_60_gonzalez_palma.pdf. ("Virginal, 1993–2011, hand-painted photograph on Hahnemühle watercolor paper, 413⁄4 × 413⁄4 in., edition of 5."
There is a print of "Vriginal" hanging in my favorite restaurant just down the street from me! How lucky is that!???
David:
Nice...kind of like monochromatic Mona Lisa. I am intrigued....does he simply apply a clear paint on globally to give it a sheen or some reflective quality or does he actually create a texture/structure or even a tint to enhance his nearly painting-like photographs?
Also, I am wondering why do you need the borders to be matte. Does it add to the print visually to have that contrast of two different surfaces. Can you not reverse your process and print on a glossy paper like many suggested here, but coat a matte material on the border. There are also sprays available that will give a "flat" look. May be even white paints that could do the same. Just thinking out loud here...
After your post I decided to do an experiment with GO printing over matte paper. I own a Epson p400 which has a built-in GO channel. So I simply printed a white block with glossy paper parameters over an already printed Canson Photographique Rag paper . First coat, I could see that the area became a little darker - clearly dermarking the area from the rest of the print. Dmax probably went up but no "wet" look or added sheen. Printed 2 more times over the same area, got progressively darker, still no sheen to speak of. Canons have what they call Chroma Optimizer that might be different/better (or not.)
Finally, as I mentioned I pursued the same thing long time ago. One of things I tried that I came close to liking was applying a water-based "varnish" that painters use routinely (Liquitex High Gloss Varnish, for example.) If I remember the major problem with this was that the paper, being very porous and hydrophilic, sucked up the varnish too much resulting in a disfigured print. A solvent based varnish may work better in that respect.
Good luck. If you find something that works, please do share...
:Niranjan.