Some of my older acrylic paintings

The sky is rumbling overhead as I write this. How I love a good storm. I'm uploading some of my paintings onto a file sharing site so that I can send them to my art agent in the USA. It is taking forever because they want TIFF files.  My last post was about my love for watercolour so, while I wait patiently for my files to upload, I though I'd write this post about my love of acrylic paint.....cough.

Acrylic paint..... it's not my favourite medium as you know, but I do have some success with it. I used it for over 14 years and I taught others to paint with it. It requires a lot of layering and boy does it try my patience. Like watercolour, it has the benefit of drying quickly but that decreases the amount of time you have to blend the paint. I tend to work from dark to light when I use it which is the opposite of how I paint with watercolour. I lay down my darkest values first and then I gradually add lighter highlights over the top. Retarder medium can help to slow down the drying time. I use it sometimes but not often. I tend to paint quickly with acrylic paint as I do with watercolour. The beauty of using it instead of watercolour is that you can cover your mistakes and there are plenty of those!

Back in 2006 I was happy with two of my acrylic flower paintings. So happy with them in fact that I kept both of them and didn't sell them. They both hang on the walls in my home. One is on that side of the house and the other is on that side of the house. I'm pointing to the east and west walls. They've been hanging there for almost ten years. I probably should take them off the wall and check the back of them for silverfish damage.

I used to subscribe to Australian Artist magazine years ago. I had a moment of weakness and I entered both paintings in a monthly challenge that the magazine has. I didn't win a prize but I did get an honorable mention the following month when they published the paintings in the magazine. It's nice to have a little recognition now and then.

I have painted with acrylic paint recently because I have more confidence panting with it and some of the subjects I have chosen would have been a little tricky for me in watercolour.

I did this little guy in acrylic paint because I wanted to get that nice sheen on his fur. I wouldn't know where to start with watercolour paint. The reference photo I used for this little sweetie was taken by D Major from Paint my Photo website. PMP is a great site if you are looking for copyright free reference photos to use.

The Kingfisher above was painted using one of my own reference photos. I chose acrylic paint for it because I wanted to add the detail of those fine feathers on his back.

Again I was after feather detail with this little hummingbird. Many thanks to my photographer friend, Larry Baker who lives in Florida, for the reference photo I used for this painting.