How I Learned to Love Acrylics
I was never a fan of acrylic paints for many reasons. They darken as they dry so the color you see on your palette is not the same on your dry painting. The finish is matte and the color is harder to “ish” than other mediums. The fast drying time creates hard edges where you do not want them. For someone who likes soft edges and muted colors I was never a fan.
I have warmed to them over the past few years because some of my Zoom students use acrylic. Over time I realized acrylics share a lot in common with pastels. You use lots of layering to get soft edges and “ishy” colors. Best of all, you can quickly paint over mistakes.
Earlier this year I lost my watercolor mojo. I did some good ones but they began to feel forced.
(I was happy with this one)
I set them aside to finish this large oil painting of an Idaho sunrise, which is a belated wedding present for my son and his wife. I loved using a palette knife and large brushes to capture the scene. Feeling joy in painting is important to me and when I get stuck or frustrated I will turn to another medium or subject matter to reset my brain. 
I was going to return to watercolor but the inspiration was not there. One day after finishing an acrylic Zoom lesson, I still had wet paint on my palette. So I grabbed a 6x6 canvas and painted this white house.
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It was ridiculously fun so I continued by painting six 3x5 canvases capturing big landscape drama on the tiny surfaces. This would have felt clumsy in oil but with acrylics the fast drying time allowed me to refine shapes by cutting into them, and layering glaze after glaze to get the color I wanted.
Then I was looking at the pile of watercolors that went wrong and thought they could use an acrylic redo. You can use acrylic on any surface and thought the watercolor could serve as a luminous underpainting. It was exciting to see underwhelming watercolors take on a new life.
This is a 6x8 watercolor gone wrong
I began with repainting the clouds in acrylic
I continued to paint the sky but left the sun as watercolor
Finished! I left a lot of the watercolor to show through and give a glow.
This is not my first time working with acrylics. Over the years I have used them to paint murals at my children’s elementary school and spruce up our kitchen walls as a cheaper alternative to tile. That was over 30 years ago and the paintings are still holding up.
So now I work in four mediums: pastel, oil, watercolor and acrylic. Each medium has its unique advantages and disadvantages. Understanding what those are is key to choosing what medium you want to work in for a specific painting.
What I really like with acrylic is what I like about pastels. They are quick to paint and you have the ability to easily change the painting at any time. Unlike pastels, they do not need to be framed with glass, which is an advantage they share with oils.
I even experimented with using them for plein air and was pretty happy with how well they worked.
I am now a fan of acrylics and eager to show them along with my watercolors and oils in an upcoming exhibition at Fuller Art House in Sylvania, Ohio. The show is called Little Works/Big Works and I will be sharing the space with two other artists, Dani Fuller and Arianna Meisner. The show starts October 2nd and runs through the first week in November.
The reception is October 2nd from 5:30 to 8:00.
