For a change of pace, I recently took an acrylic painting class from local artist Kebbie Gibb. Kebbie's teaching style is extremely organized and helpful, and during this short course she walked the class through both foundational painting principles and the many uses of acrylics. New to me were the various mediums that are available for use with acrylics, and I had great fun experimenting with flow medium, gel mediums, and modeling pastes. The painting below (titled The Goldrush) combines all these new techniques: I painted the background very thinly using flow medium, spattered paint mixed with gel medium for the smaller leaves, and used a painting knife with heavy body acrylics for the birch trunks, grasses, and the larger leaves. This experimentation has opened up lots of new possibilities! I'm sure I'll never abandon pastels, but painting with acrylics allows for a bolder, more textured approach that suits some subjects very well, and is lots of fun to paint.
