metamorphosis

Since I've taken up painting in oils I can't, for the moment, continue my work on the acrylics I've started. I've been having too much fun discovering all sorts of new things that are very different from acrylics. I still love acrylic paint and its properties, and I will come back to working with it, but the thrill of discovery is too strong at the moment to be ignored. The way of working with oils is so very different that it makes it exciting, it's uncharted territory. Of course there are some similarities between the two mediums, but the inherent drying speeds (oils slow, acrylics fast) and their binding properties being so different, the way in which you apply the paint, even the way in which you think about constructing the image, is completely different. And the smell, it's a completely different smell. It might sound like a totally insignificant detail, but it is also part of the process, part of the whole, it affects my mood and my desire to use something to work with or not.