Why Acrylics?
I work exclusively with acrylics for my painting medium. If you look it up you find acrylics defined as ‘fast drying, water-based made pigment suspended in an acrylic polymer emulsion’. Manufacturers refer to it as heavy body acrylics. My choice was limited, many years ago, because I am allergic to solvents. But, also because I have found that acrylics have some advantages, particularly for plein air painting.
#2261124 A Snowy Day on Mill Street 18x24.jpg
Back in the 1980’s I was painting in watercolours. I would use a 2” brush for washes and flat brushes for detail on 300 lb paper in my studio and outside. In a few minutes the watercolour would be dry and I could proceed with more washes and detail. Eventually, I became bored with the restrictions that watercolour imposes, such as negativity in the use of white paint or the need for framing with glass protection.
Sometime around 2000, I began seeing artists squeezing out acrylic paint. To my surprise, art stores had acrylics available in tubes and in the same hues that I had used with oils, previously, and watercolours. So I purchased some tubes of acrylic in colours that I needed including titanium white, checking to be sure that they were high quality, colour-fast paints. And I experimented with them just using water.
I was amazed to find that I could apply a wash of colours, not unlike watercolour, and in a short time the acrylic paint would be dry and I could add more washes and make changes easily. I noticed that some colours darkened slightly overnight and found it no trouble to repaint under studio lighting. AND, I could apply white at any time. When I’m plein air painting, canvasses are easily packed away after drying, (Just not face to face as the acrylics can bond together). The fact that acrylics dry quickly is fine for some of us who work quickly. It can be difficult in hot weather when the paint dries on the palette. And in winter, acrylics are not usable outside when it’s freezing, needing at least 8 degrees C, I understand. Realistically, I don’t paint if it's colder than 20 degrees outside anyway. I prefer the softer long hair flat brushes rather than hogs-hair brushes. A medium such as Golden Gloss Gazing Liquid helps to make mixing and application easier. In the winter I paint 11x14 sketches from my safely parked vehicle with the motor turned off. I use the sketches to paint larger work in my studio.
When acrylic painting was just becoming accepted, I sensed a bias in favour of oil media paintings. These days there is no perceivable difference that I can see. It’s been twenty-five years, since I started using them. I continue, happily painting with my acrylics, still hoping for my best painting yet just around the corner.
