The Big Reveal

Acrylic, 11x14 inches

So, I know you've been waiting with baited breath (ew). Bated breath? Whatever. Why there haven't been any new paintings here, and only a few sketches, is because I've been secretly experimenting with a different medium. For the past few weeks I've set the watercolors aside and tried to make acrylics behave. Well of course, they don't. But now that I've finally stopped treating them like watercolors, I see some limited success.

I signed up for a series of plein-air classes with Deirdre Shibano and made a commitment to at least give it a try. The first few classes were awful, not the classes per se, but because I couldn't figure out how to approach the darn canvas. Plus, the acrylics en plein air dried quickly, and I was frustrated by having to unlearn how to do the flowing washes and transparent layers of watercolor. I likened my first day's experience to pushing wads of bubblegum around with a stick.

While I won't go so far as to say I've fallen in love with acrylics, I'm finding them interesting enough that I think I'll enroll in an acrylics class during the fall semester. Assuming the classes will still exist after California's budget cuts. Cuts nothing - more like decapitations, eviscerations, and amputations. But, I rant.

Above is the same view of Keller Beach as in the previous post obviously. But I did the Moleskin sketch afterwards, then studied the lights and darks and patterns to tweak the painting. The tweaking is one of the parts of acrylics I'm liking. I've got a few more to post, but I promised to exhibit them and didn't have time for scanning or even photos, but they'll be showing up. I'll be visiting in Washington near Gig Harbor this coming week, so I'll see what air travel with acrylics is like. Going to check out the local plein air scene and visit some galleries. Later . . . .