Rising Sun Collage Workshop 2012

Last weekend's New Creative Collage Techniques workshop at Rising Sun, Indiana, was fantastic. Here's one example. Go to the workshop page to see more of what these artists did in only two days. Many did more than two pieces. The variety of subject matter and approach is fantastic. In addition to paper collage, I had the class prepare a background with acrylic paints and then collage into it. One student worked mostly with fabrics. Most hadn't done much collage, if any, so you can see why I was impressed with the results. FYI, Rising Sun Art has more workshops through November. It's only 1 1/2 hours from Dayton, closer to Cincinnati, not far from Indianapolis--just a hop and a skip for a fun, productive two-days.

Golden Paint education

A few days ago the Western Ohio Watercolor Society in Springfield, Ohio, hosted Merle Rosen, one of their certified teachers in the use of Golden acrylic paints. Her demo was fantastic. She worked for 90 minutes, slathering acrylic products onto demo boards and passing them around for all to see. The single most enlightening demo was that of the new Open Acrylics by Golden. She painted two thick bands of paint side by side on a board and set them aside. Every 15 minutes she swiped her finger across each band. In about 30 minutes, the regular acrylic stroke was dry. The Open stroke was still wet when the meeting ended nearly 90 minutes later. Merle's talk was filled with information, from the structure of acrylic paint film to acrylic techniques and special mediums. Their product line is awesome. I use acrylics mostly for collage, but the demo has me thinking about adding in more paint and special effects. (BTW, I don't work for Golden!) After reading the three books on acrylics that I recently reviewed, I'm impressed with the possibilities of all acrylics. These products were just getting on their feet when I began painting watercolors in 1970 and I didn't like the plasticky feeling of the paint, which didn't dissolve on the palette like watercolor. I find it much more pleasant to work with now--creamier, I guess--and the colors are incredible. I recently read a review of Ampersand Aquabord (textured Claybord)that is said to be a good support for acrylics. Looks like I'll have to do some experimenting.

Acrylic books reviewed

I've just finished reading Rheni Tauchid's The New Acrylics: Complete Guide to the New Generation of Acrylic Paints. (Watson-Guptill, 2005). I like this book very much, even though it doesn't have some of the acrylic mediums that have become available since the book was published in 2005. It's really hard to keep up with these new products, since it takes about two years for a book to be written and produced for publication. Nevertheless, the book is an excellent reference for painters in acrylics. I like the technical information on paints (not all artists care about this as I do, though) and I especially like the illustrations of techniques, the samplers and demos that show how different techniques look during the process of application. There is some very fine artwork interspersed on the pages, but the emphasis is clearly on techniques and materials. I'm going to add this book to my collection, as I find it to be both informative and inspirational, just because of the exciting possibilities shown through the demo photos.

My earlier reviews of two newer acrylics books, follow:

Nancy Reyner's book was released by North Light early in 2008. Acrylic Revolution: New tricks and techniques for working with the world's most versatile medium provides information on setting up tools and materials for working with acrylics, along with a comprehensive glossary. This is a "techniques book," with detailed information and illustrations using different acrylic viscosity and textures. A few paintings by various artists are included in a gallery, showing different approaches to painting with acrylics. Reyner explains the behavior of the mediums, how to deal with quick drying paints and mediums, and how to finish the artwork with varnish, a step many artists skip over. I especially like Guy Kelly's design, which unifies the pages of complex demos and hands-on photos.


Patti Brady's book, Rethinking Acrylics: Radical solutions for exploiting the world's most versatile medium. (North Light, 2009) is worth the price just for the chart on page 23, showing the effects of 15 different mediums, with a short description telling in a nutshell what each does. I also like the information on how acrylic paints are made, although I know a lot of artists aren't interested in this. Brady provides information and techniques not included in the Reyner book, as well as demonstrations by 28 acrylic artists. Want to print acrylic paint film (skins) in your ink jet printer? Need to know more about interference and metallic acrylic paints? Want to try encaustic with acrylic? It's all here, and more.

Reyner and Brady are active in the Working Artist Program of Golden Artist Colors, Inc., and Tauchid works with Tri-Art in Canada, but these books may be used by artists who work with other brands of acrylics.

Freezing acrylics

It has been so cold in Ohio this month, at one time descending below 0 degrees Farenheit. This morning it was 15 above. We've had a few warmer days, barely up to freezing, but will probably have even more cold ones over the next few weeks. I've had email questions in the past about freezing acrylics to keep them workable and have advised against the practice. Recently, I came across an email I received a while ago from Mike Townsend of Golden Paints: "Acrylic paints can freeze and in turn may not return to usable product. We do design the paints to withstand 5 freeze/thaw cycles (literally frozen solid and then allowed to return to room temperatures) or more as part of our quality control, but this is more so to prevent paint from going bad during shipment or storage. It's generally not a good idea to continually freeze the paints if one can avoid it."

So it isn't a good idea to leave your acrylic paints and mediums in your car during sub-freezing temperatures. This would include cars parked in unheated garages that might drop in temperature over a period of time.

Book reviews--new books on acrylics

There are a lot of books on making art with acrylic paints, but until now I hadn't found any that provided useful information about the different acrylic mediums available. These two books fit the bill for me and now have a permanent place on the bookshelf in my studio. I use acrylic mediums mostly for collage, and now feel I can use them more effectively and branch out into textures and other applications.

Nancy Reyner's book was released by North Light early in 2008. Acrylic Revolution: New tricks and techniques for working with the world's most versatile medium provides information on setting up tools and materials for working with acrylics, along with a comprehensive glossary. This is a "techniques book," with detailed information and illustrations using different acrylic viscosity and textures. A few paintings by various artists are included in a gallery, showing different approaches to painting with acrylics. Reyner explains the behavior of the mediums, how to deal with quick drying paints and mediums, and how to finish the artwork with varnish, a step many artists skip over. I especially like Guy Kelly's design, which unifies the pages of complex demos and hands-on photos.


Patti Brady's book, Rethinking Acrylics: Radical solutions for exploiting the world's most versatile medium. (North Light, 2009) is worth the price just for the chart on page 23, showing the effects of 15 different mediums, with a short description telling in a nutshell what each does. I also like the information on how acrylic paints are made, although I know a lot of artists aren't interested in this. Brady provides information and techniques not included in the Reyner book, as well as demonstrations by 28 acrylic artists. Want to print acrylic paint film (skins) in your ink jet printer? Need to know more about interference and metallic acrylic paints? Want to try encaustic with acrylic? It's all here, and more.

Both artists are active in the Working Artist Program of Golden Artist Colors, Inc., but the books may be used by artists who work with other products.

Another book on acrylics, which I haven't read, seems to be popular with painters: Rheni Tauchid's The New Acrylics: Complete Guide to the New Generation of Acrylic Paints. (Watson-Guptill, 2005.) The author is employed by Tri-Art, a Canadian paint manufacturer. If you've used this book, please leave a comment telling us about it.

Book Review: Abstract Painting

Abstract Painting by Vicky Perry ties historical abstraction in with modern techniques in this colorful book. It isn't a how-to book in the sense of step-by-step demos, but helps the artist to see how abstraction has developed and some directions the artist might take to explore abstract concepts in oils and acrylics. The emphasis is on non-objective abstraction, leaning more toward expressionist organic design than geometric color/field. Probably not for beginners, but a very interesting book for someone thinking to explore this genre. Another book I have learned a great deal from is Painting and Understanding Abstract Art.