My first acrylic painting! And I loved it, loved the experience of using this paint. I don't know why I resisted it for so long, but so many of my artist friends have moaned and groaned about it, particularly its fast drying property, which does keep you on tenterhooks, compared to the sense of leisurely time you have with oils, that I just didn't want to bother with it. I was happy with my lovely, sensuous oils. I never did enjoy water colours, because I don't want the medium of my painting be my master, I want to be the one in control - yep, a control freak, that's me :)- So I naturally assumed that acrylics, being water-based would be the same, or at least similar. So, can you imagine my surprise when I discovered how fun acrylics is.
First, let me talk about the feel of painting with acrylics. Unlike water colours, you can work from either light to dark, or dark to light, which is great. For that meant that I could go back over parts didn't like and put in other values, as I felt like. Water colour is rather rigid in that aspect, which I dislike. I dislike rigidity in all matters, such as rigidity in thinking, in attitude, in ways. I find it stultifying, and when I find it in the mental make up of people, I invariably end up distancing myself, usually after a disagreement about some matter wherein the person behaves rigidly. And this aspect - non-rigidity - applies to practically everythingI do, particularly my art.
But, I'm digressing. As for its fast drying, though I had thought it would bother me, it actually didn't. In fact, I found that this aspect actually enabled me to re-work stuff immediately, without my having to scrape paint off or wait for it to dry, as it is in oils. I had also thought that the fast drying would hamper blending colours, but since acrylics are opaque paints, I found I could work on a previous layer and achieve similar blending to oils. Though I do get more subtle effects in oils, but I think with practice, blending in acrylics will become as subtle as in oils. Actually, I find acrylics is ideal for that impressionist look, which I find quite hard to achieve in oils, because I have a tendency to over blend - again, my controlling nature being the culprit.
As for the painting itself, ever since I saw Monet's lily pond paintings, I've been hankering to try it out. I guess every artist does a version of Monet's lily pond some time in their lives - it's like a pilgrimage or a homage to that great artist. What subtleties he created with mere blobs and dashes of paint seemingly randomly applied, and his were huge. Mine is nowhere close to Monet, of course, but I love it anyway. I painted this on a piece of odd shaped plywood had lying around, and again enjoyed painting on this surface. In the past, before the advent of canvas, artists usually painted on wood panels. Now, wooden panels, masonite boards, plywood and the like are gettng popular again. My artist friends say plywood is longer lasting, hence a better support base for paintings, but I must say I have canvases I have painted on that are over 30 years old, of which I haven't taken much care, but with a bit of a wash with a detergent, and they are as good as new, practically.
Another thing about plywood is, that one has to prime them, since you don't get primed ones, as you do canvases. Personally, I don't have a problem with that, because I find I rather enjoy the process of sandpapering, applying the primer, the gesso.. and so on. Of course, just buying and paintng on a pre-stretched, pre-primed canvas is easier and more convenient. I remember how in the past one had to buy raw, unprimed canvases, stretch and prime them oneself - I always gave the job to the carpenter - so, I suppose in time as the demand for primed plywood for artists grows, it will come into art supply shops. Of course, many artists still do stretch and prime their own canvases, especially when they want to achieve particular effects, or want special sizes.
Coming back to this painting, as usual, I felt it needed more work. I felt the water was too flat in the first version so I added lighter values to liven it up, make it more dynamic. But now I can't decide which one I like more. The more I see them, the more I like the first version. In fact, come to think of it, I think the second version looks too flat now. So I think I shall rework it and get it back to closer to the original version. And I'll make the kois prominent again. Thanks to acrylic paints, I can go back and make the changes - would have been impossible with water colour, though I could have done the changes in oils too.
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