So I’ve finally started a larger-scale (comparatively), non-watercolor painting again. It been seriously a long time… the last time I really painted was a little more than a year ago while I was working at the PA Gov School. Needless to say, I didn’t know how much I missed it until I went back to it. Although I have to admit some impatience. I’ve been so used to making smaller watercolors/drawings that only take a couple of hours; it’s slightly frustrating getting used to working on something that takes much longer to resolve! But I’m getting through, and enjoying myself. Nothing major subject-wise, just a pair of Great Blue Herons for my aunt. But I’ll post photos when I’m closer to the finish line!
Anyways, my return to painting got me thinking about paint choices. I’ve done some work in oils (usually per professor request) and some work on canvas, but I’ve always preferred acrylic on paper. I don’t know what it is… maybe my impatience is satiated by quickly-drying paints, and printmaking has made me a sucker for a good cotton-rag paper?
No matter what sparked my painting preferences, my painting preferences sometimes seem… wrong. Sometimes I feel like people look down on acrylics and anything non-stretched. Is it just me? Was it just a weird vibe the painting department at MICA (a department I avoided, something I admit semi-apologetically) seemed to send my way? Am I just imagining it? Maybe, maybe, and maybe. But I still feel this way! I still feel like oils are considered better, more complex, more sophisticated. But they’re not, I tell you!
I guess it doesn’t really matter either way. I like what I like, and people usually seem to respect my painting. There will always be pretensions (whether imagined or true) in any vein of anything. And I’ll always love complaining about whatever I can think of to complain about.
But seriously, Rives BFK paper + acrylic + water = love. And like Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, and Mariah Carey (and other ppl too) sang, “They can’t take that away from me!” Ha. How melodramatic!