A Happy Medium
Here I have to apologise to my reader for not posting so regularly on my blog as I might have wanted to. As you will have gathered, if you read my earlier blog posts, I had a bit of an exhibition in Salisbury District Hospital earlier in the year. At the time I was asked about it, I rather enthusiastically said that I would be happy to display 30 paintings minimum, at a point when I probably only had half that available, so I was then somewhat preoccupied with getting enough paintings painted and framed in order to meet my commitment. I have, of course, NOT stopped painting and/or drawing on a regular basis, but I did find the process of doing all those watercolours got in the way of thinking about my website. The experience of displaying was fantastic for me and I’m extremely glad to have done it. Thank you once again to ArtCare for letting me take part!
I don’t think I’m a particularly careful painter, if truth be told, and so I was feeling like a bit of a change from the very deliberate and slightly tense activity of painting in watercolour; if you make a mess, there really is nowhere to hide! I therefore decided (in July) to have a revisit of acrylics - so much more forgiving than watercolour, which, let us not forget, Vincent van Gogh did not even seem to consider to be painting!
My experience so far has been largely very positive, with some things that I have really enjoyed, plus some stuff that I need to think about in order to improve with my acrylics.
Things I’m enjoying:
1) I can overpaint my mistakes. What mistakes?
2) I can achieve a real vibrancy of colour - can also do this with watercolour, but the more layers you add, the less vibrant the overall painting becomes, so less really is more.
3) I really like the ability to use big expressive strokes and texture in my paintings.
Things I need to watch out for:
1) Some of my paints (lemon yellow, I’m looking at you) aren’t at all opaque, so I have to try to remember not to underpaint these areas with dark colours.
2) Control and skill (plus good observation) are essential still, so I have to try to reign myself in when I’m getting a bit too sloppy in my approach. The old adage “trust the process” still stands true.
3) Sharp edges are somewhat troublesome, especially when painting into an acute angle and using thicker paint. For example when I’m doing a sharp corner of a roof edge. In these cases, I perhaps need to paint “over the lines” and then cover that with crisp background strokes…..I’ll get back to you on that one.
Overall, I’ve really enjoyed the acrylics. I’m using mostly Winsor and Newton Professional acrylics, as they have a very pleasant creamy texture, with lots of pigment. They also seem to stay damp and workable for much longer than the System 3 and Galleria student-quality paints I have used previously. I’ll probably do a little blog post on the pros and cons of these in the near future. So far, for me, acrylic has been a happy medium.
