New Explorations with Acrylic Paints

Flower Field, 12 x 12 inch acrylic painting on canvas

My creative ADD has surfaced yet again, this time with acrylic paints. I have a stash that I have not painted with much in the past. I have mostly used them for gel plate printing. Inspired by Maria Victoria Chea’s art I have stepped into the deep end of painting with acrylics. Their luminosity is beguiling, I love it. Painting on discarded signs from my employer, I have used much gesso to prep and cover up failures. Practice is key as is good art materials. There is a profound difference in the inexpensive paints vs professional grade (i.e. Golden). The better the paint, the greater the color. It’s worth it to buy good art supplies, even in such basics as gesso. Good gesso is self-leveling and easy to spread. Cheap requires layers and a bit of elbow grease.

If you wish to paint with acrylics outside, Plein Air as it is also known, you will want to use and extender or acrylic paints formulated with a slow dry time. Most acrylics dry fairly fast. Even indoors, I use a spray mister to keep my paint blobs damp. There is no way I would paint outdoors with regular acrylics, they would dry too fast. For my friends in NM and neighboring states, you may want the extended dry acrylic paints for indoor work, just to keep the paint fresh long enough to complete a project.

My stash of Golden and Liquitex acrylic paints. I use a craft sheet as a pallet, it cleans easily. A gel plate is another great option, use the left over paint to make gel plate prints.