FRENCH BREAKFAST RADISHES 8 x 10 Acrylic on Gessobord panel
About a month ago I started to react to my oil paints, migraine headaches and nausea for days after only 15 minutes of painting... outside, in a breeze, on the beach with no solvents.
It didn't matter what I did, even working with water soluble oils didn't help so I've given them up and I've been working with acrylics for about a month now. It's been quite a learning curve.
One thing about acrylics, they make me paint faster! This is good for me I suppose. I've always been a very slow painter, taking breaks often with oil paints I think personally that caused me a lot of stress and over-thinking. For some people that process works. I'm learning that for me maybe it doesn't.
I'm painting more freely now and without care. I'm still stepping back and taking stock but I'm taking it less drop-dead seriously, I'm not so choked up about it all and I think it's just less think-time that's freed me up. The paint is drying in seconds and you've just got to get on with it!
I'm not sure yet if I'll go back to oils. That will be up to my body and what I find out from my doctor. For now I'm having quite a lot of fun exploring these acrylics, I honestly didn't think they could paint like oils but you can get them to do just about anything with a little patience. Even edges. (I can literally hear certain friends rolling their eyes right now 😭)
A great reference I found for really making acrylics paint like oils is Will Kemp. He's talented, kind and generous and trained in Florence to boot. He's a marvelous oil painter who seems to paint more in acrylic now. I felt completely lost until I bought a couple of his tutorials. He speaks the language of the traditional painter so if you're starting to react to solvents and you want to try acrylics but they feel like you're painting with well... yogurt, Will is your guy.
French Breakfast Radishes is available for purchase here.