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Fir Trees and Holly 16”x20” Oil

Back to oils, my all-around favorite medium.

For the representational artist, the acrylic medium can be a difficult medium, if the aim is to emulate oils in achieving exciting texture and fluid surface quality attributed to the oil medium. This difficulty is due to its quick drying tendency and also to its plastic nature. Even, getting moderate semblance to oils, as I have tried to do in my recent acrylic paintings, is not easy to accomplish and it takes a lot of doing. On the other hand, with oils the advanced artist can easily attain this most desirable look. Of course one cannot preclude pitfalls in working with oils. A few misguided brushstrokes, such as repetition of applying the wrong colors to the wrong places, may quickly plunge the painting into a muddy mess.  In contrast, acrylic is a forgiving medium and mistakes can easily be corrected.