91 More about Advanced Plein Air Acrylic

It was a lot of fun oiling up the acrylic painting in the field. I thought it might be useful if I cited a few benefits and drawbacks of this technique. One thing I probably didn’t emphasize enough in the video was that I had to wait for the acrylics to dry before I added the retarding gel. It was a warm day so that wasn’t a huge problem but it did seem to break my flow a bit. I had a chair to sit in and would critique the painting with my wife Debra while I waited for the paint to dry. So it was pleasant but it was a different pace from an oil plein air session.

To dry the painting quicker I placed the painting on the hood of our truck. Which worked well until it was time to leave. We loaded up our gear and drove off and like you might imagine I left the painting sitting on the hood. I was home and unpacked by the time I realized what I had done. Fortunately my painting site was only about a mile away so I drove back and found my painting lying face down in gravel at the side of the road. But since it was acrylic it was entirely dry and unharmed (if it had been an oil painting it would have been ruined).

In the interim between realizing I had lost my painting and finding it the painting had become in my imagination the best plein air painting I had ever done. Proof that our perceptions can often distort our judgement. I suppose you might call it the fish-that-got-away syndrome.

Brad Teare

Persistence of Vision by Brad Teare | Make Your Own Book

90 Advanced Plein Air Acrylic

I USED ACRYLIC retarding gel as an "oiling up" medium in the studio with great success. So I wanted to try it in the field.The results were similar even though the heat and wind did cause the gel to dry quicker. It still worked very well and I can easily see that a very sophisticated plein air technique could evolve from this method of painting. One word of caution though, be sure to varnish the finished painting with a thick application of acrylic varnish. Otherwise the layers won't properly cross link and you may have problems with de-lamination (the layers won't properly adhere to each other).

89 Aspects of color

ADJUSTING COLOR can be tricky but if you understand three aspects of color; hue, value, and saturation, it can make things a bit easier.

88 Nine Value Grayscale

I USE THIS grayscale in the field and in the studio. If you use it outdoors be sure that the light on the grayscale is the same as the light on your palette when you are matching colors on your palette. When you are matching to the landscape be sure the light on the grayscale is the same as the light on the scene before you.

87 Acrylic En Plein Air

IN THIS VIDEO I paint a small acrylic in half an hour. The paint started to dry at about 20 minutes in. Next time I want to be sure to seal the canvas with acrylic medium. I might also add a bit of Golden acrylics slow dry acrylic piant to my mixtures.

86 Acrylic Field Painting Kit

IF YOU NEED an inexpensive solution to painting outdoors with acrylic I demonstrate how I made my pochade box (a miniature outdoor painting kit). I hope you find it as useful as I do.

85 The Painting Journey

THERE ARE A LOT OF MYTHS surrounding the creation of art. These myths do little to help students of painting find their way forward. To clarify the process I thought I would share my experience learning to paint. It is pretty mundane which I believe should come as a relief to most.