A return of Acrylic Painting and process
After playing with the collage artwork a couple of weeks ago, and using acrylic paint as a base to the work, it inspired me to return to painting in acrylic paints.
I decided to paint a local scene and had a lot of photos saved of unique landscapes that I took in 2023. The landscapes are of a sandflats often referred to as a mudflats and is a landscape that straddles between land and sea. The sandflats are mostly dry, but can be an area that gets water over it. It is quite a unique area that has a slight surreal feel to it- at least my in my imagination it is. I had taken some photos near the sandflats of a rocky beach and I have painted a few of those already, but I hadn’t painted any of the mudflats, so decided it was time to go ahead and pick a reference photo.
Normally my process is to complete the painting in one sitting- acrylic paints usually lend well to that, but I spent two weeks to complete it. If I add up all the time I took, it could have been completed in a couple of days. I will admit, I am less inspired to paint and do art in winter than any other month so keeping up with an art practice during this time is challenging for me. I tend to paint in the afternoons or evenings so I think lighting has a part to play as to why my art practice in winter is more sporadic. Outside of winter, I am a much more prolific art maker.
My process has changed slightly as I normally start top to bottom- sky first, background, then foreground. Instead, I started with the hills first (background) then did the foreground. I also seem much more concerned about the small details than previous artworks. So this painting has several layers to it.
There was at one point a time when I thought I was finished the artwork, but actually it needed more layers and more refinement and I am much happier with the final result. I have not thought of a name of this painting yet, so have currently called it Sandflat 1. It may get a different name at a later date.
Overall, I enjoyed the speed of painting in acrylic again and certainly missed painting on canvas. I think I will paint a few more acrylics and sell them on the website as originals. Sandflat 1 will form part of collection and will be released as part of a collection on my shop.
