S.O.F.A. member Sara Butt shares her love of working in acrylics.
In the early years of studying art and experimenting with mediums from oil, water colour, pastel to coloured inks, it didn’t take long to find my soul mate acrylic, I find it works for me, very forgiving and with a good quality pigment paint the layering of colour gives wonderful depth. I have tried many makes of acrylic through the years, but since I have been using Liquitex soft body, I have never felt the need to stray it dose everything I need a paint to do, the pigments are wonderful. I apply my paint by layering from dark to light, the application of this paint layers beautifully and I use far less layers with Liquitex which makes the tubes of paint last a long time, as well as faster results. I only use water with this medium, but rarely needed as they are very soft almost runny, also the colour you mix on your pallet is exactly the colour that dries on your board /canvas, these dry very quickly which suits me.
I use a canvas board with a fine grain (Honsell Armaco ), which I then prime with Gesso. Like Tamsin Lord, I also use Rosemary & Co brushes, I find the Pointed Round Golden Synthetic 301 Series 2/0, 3/0 for main detail larger brushes for back ground are brilliant, excellent value and they really last well even with acrylic paint! A tip for when brushes becomes worn, dip the brush tip into boiling water for a couple of seconds and then place between a sheet of folded kitchen roll press down firmly with the end of your finger on the brush hairs this reshapes the hairs and you’ll get more use out of your brush.
Before framing I give my painting a couple of coats of matt varnish.
Canvas board, Gesso and Gerstaecker varnish (matt) www.greatart.co.uk
Liquitex soft body www.cowlingandwilcox.com
Brushes www.rosemaryandco.com
by Sara Butt S.O.F.A.
www.sarabuttprints.co.uk
Do you have particular materials or techniques you’d like to recommend to other members? Do you have a particular brand of paint or pastels you love to use? Where do you buy your supplies from, do you have a great local art supply shop or do you use an online store? If so we’d like to feature you and your work along with those recommendations on the blog. Contact the editor.
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