Mini-acrylic paintings - a series of landscapes
Here I am again! In the past 2 & 1/2 weeks, I have been going back to acrylics, thorugh a challenge. You know me, I am a sucker to learn through small challenges. I had 8 gesso-ed postcards (A6 format), and decided to select 8 reference photos I had taken from walks around my appartment. Goal was clear: 1 postcard ~ 1 reference image… all in acrylics.
Why acrylics?
Acrylics are still unfamiliar to me, I have only started using them quite recently. I am experimenting with my flow and how to best get the results I want with them. This journey has been at time quite unsatisfactory and I have considered giving up on them. I come from water-soluble art supplies, that reactivate, blend and react to water and create subtle mixes. Acrylics are stubbornly opaque, dry permanent and felt very loud.
Earlier this year, I made my most ambitious acrylic painting ever, filled with tons of details. I am not so sure why I have tackled such a challegning project when acrylic techniques felt so estranged. But I was quite blown away by the result, and the process was way more enjoyable than what I had feard.
February 2025, Scottish harbor in acrylics - my most detailed and ambitious painting in acrylics.
However, after this success, my acrylic paints went back to their box and I had not gone back to them. Why, you may ask? A few reasons. First, I was focusing on my plein-air process, and I had no idea how to tackle plein-air painting in acrylics. I had looked up a few setups but couldn’t find anything that felt right for my process. Second, acrylics need to be set up. I sort my acrylic water to bring it to the recycling plant, I need to prepare my stay-wet palette and make sure it does not get moldy, the canvases (or surface) needs to be primed, etc. I was just not feeling going through “all” this setting up.
In August, I have been feeling the itch to go back to my acrylic paints, and decided to take the plunge thorugh this challenge!
How did it go?
Wonderful, actually! I was so happy to try my hands back at acrylics. I used a limited palette (quite a big one actually…) stored on my stay-wet palette (though I had to refill some of my most used palettes throughout the challenge).
My palette :
Ultramarine blue (red shade) - Liquitex heavy body
Teal - Golden heavy body (not for all paintings, but a fun addition)
Yellow ochre - Golden heavy body (my main yellow, I had to refill it)
Cadmium-free yellow medium - Liquitex heavy body (a latecomer to the palette, but so useful)
Quinacridone crimson - Liquitex heavy body (a latecomer to the palette, but so useful)
Phthalo green - Winsor & Newton Galeria (almost not used, I’ve mixed my greens and also… most scenes were winter scenes)
Payne’s Gray - Golden heavy body (so useful, I had to recharge it)
Neutral Grey - Schmincke PrimAcryl (a warm dark, super useful, I also had to refill it)
Old Holland violet-grey - Old Holland classic acrylics (one of my favorite colors! Heavily featured on all my paintings)
White - Winsor & Newton Galeria (obviously, I needed mooore)
I focused on light and trying to capture the values of the scene, but not replicating the colors. It was more about conveying the atmosphere of the place than creating a perfect photograph of the landscape. Through the challenge, I could feel my process becoming smoother, and the paintings flowing more and more effortlessly (of course, there were some hiccups throughout the journey - but no major drawback). I enjoyed the process, learned a lot on what I liked and how to make that happen on the paper. This small format was perfect to take the pressure off, and work 40-60min on each piece before moving on to the next. And I love having all of these memories of the place where I live captured on these postcards!
By the last painting, I felt confident enough to go back into trying to integrate acrylics into my plein-air process! And today, I’ve finally made my first acrylic painting outside. But that’s a story for another day :)
