A few weeks back I sat down with my wife and we setup a still life in front of the window. Two hours of beating my brush against the canvas resulted in the painting on the right. It was a frustrating experience. The root of my frustration was my inability to replicate in the acrylic paint the colour’s of my subject.

Now I’m not a painter and colour has always been my nemesis, but it got me to thinking about my relationship with the acrylic painting medium.

My Acrylic Painting History.

Squash Acrylic Painting

I remember my first acrylic painting well. I was 14. It was crap. Fast forward 30 years to my squash still life and that is my complete experience with acrylic painting.

Not completely true. I vaguely remember some acrylics on paper somewhere in that 30 year time span, but the squirrels got them so they don’t count.

Advantages of the Acrylic Medium

Despite never really using the medium it’s not because I dislike anything about it. Acrylic has may things going for it.

• It’s quick drying
• thins with water – no nasty solvent
• you can glaze with it
• it’s opaque – you can paint right over mistakes

So I think I’ve talked myself into painting more, and I think I may learn to like the acrylic medium.

I’ve made an appointment with myself tomorrow for an hour of painting, so we’ll see what comes of this.