ACRYLIC & COLLAGE

"DOWN RIVER" on stretched canvas - Collage and Acrylic 42 x 30" SOLD

Traditional tube acrylics have come a long way in the past 40 years. This painting, done on canvas, was first covered with several layers of small pieces of various textured washi papers. Tube acrylics, diluted down with matte medium, finished the painting, and although the transparency of watercolor is lacking with tube acrylics, I still liked the vibrancy of the painting. The painting received 'Best of Show' at The Fitton Art Center in Hamilton, Ohio, in 2005.

One of my good friends returned from a trip to the Grand Canyon, and after she showed me a slide show of her adventures, I was inspired to create my impressions of the colors and textures from memory. I need to go to the canyon and see it myself, I know.

GINKGOS

I've used fluid acrylics a lot in the past two years, but mostly straight from the bottle, without diluting them. Using them just like transparent watercolors works superbly! Thanks, Nick, for showing us how versatile they are.

It seems that transparent watercolor has a nearly identical twin sister now in the fluid acrylics. Both paints have their own personality, but come out equally as transparent. I would NEVER have thought acrylics could be used this way, ever. The ones I used in college straight from the tube certainly had a plastic, cheap look to them. This is entirely different. Painted on Arches 140# hot press 30 x 22."

I like how much more versatility is at my fingertips by having a choice of which kind of paint to use to do the best job at the moment. Can you tell which part of this painting was done with transparent watercolor and which part with fluid acrylics? Click on 'comments' below and let me know.