Friday, November 13, 2009

Experimental Acrylics

" Plymouth Covered Bridge"
New Hampshire
7" x 5" acrylic

"A Rose Is a Rose"
7" x 5" acrylic

" Sunset over Long Lake"
Adirondacks, New York
7" x 5" acrylic

After my two private lessons on acrylic, I wanted to try some different genres with acrylic. Using the paints we had left over after the lessons (they kept well on styrofoam trays in a plastic ziplock bag), I did these three small studies.

The first and third are memories of our cross-USA tandem trip in 2008. We saw the covered bridge just three days before we completed the trip in Portland, Maine. As I am a native New Englander, these old relics are dear to my heart. The Long Lake picture was taken from a boat after we were treated to dinner with an extended family by people we met on the street. One of those great experiences that we will never forget. The roses are done from memory.

In each, I tried to get passages of transparent, translucent, and opaque paint. Some I succeeded in my goal better than others. The roses have a lot of opaque and translucent paint. The bridge piece has quite a bit of transparent and some translucent (far mountain) and opaque (green trees). The lake started with transparent rose washes that show through the translucent and opaque paint.


6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Mary, These are great! You're coming along quickly with the acrylics! It's neat how you're retaining the watercolor feel. The third one particularly grabbed me with it's soft feel. Coolness!

Mary Paquet said...

Thanks, Peggy! The acylics seem to be pretty versatile.

Barbra Joan said...

Wow Mary, you certainly get around. I read your piece on using acrylics and using it as a watercolor. Something I always wondered about but never tried, thanks for sharing.

Mary Paquet said...

Thanks,Barbra, for checking in. They are very interesting to use in a watermedia manner.

Gary Keimig said...

Looks like you are adapting to them. I know they are very versatile and have seen really great paintings done with them. Have tried a number of times but keep abandoning my efforts. I have recently been experimenting using them as underpaintings for my oils. Jury is still out on how I think that works.

Mary Paquet said...

Gary, thanks for stopping by. I admire your oils very much! I will be interested in hearing what you have to say about acrylics as underpaintings.