Tag Archives: Golden Paints

Golden High Flow Acrylics

This week and last week I was experimenting with Golden High Flow acrylics. High Flow is their newest acrylic paint that can go from “brush to marker or from dip pen to airbrush and more. From fine lines to broad strokes, High Flow Acrylic has an ink-like consistency that lends itself to a wide range of techniques, including staining, leveling, calligraphy, and mixed media.”

Like the painting in my previous post I started this new painting with various background colors and a little light blue house paint. I then painted some random trunks.

Next I got out the indigo blue and turquoise high flow bottles and my water spritzer. I poured a drip of high flow to the top of where I wanted the tree branches to start and immediately shot the drip with water. Like last week the paint bloomed into interesting tree like patterns.

Ann Hart Marquis-using high flow acrylics and water

Waiting for the Morning Sun, acrylic on canvas, 14 x 14 x 1.5 inches.

It was fun to use and I loved the surprises I got from adding the spritz of water. High flow paint works well as a pour. According to Golden, it is well suited for use on large areas, where the thin consistency allows for free flowing color layers.

The pigment size and intensity varies between each of the 49 colors. Unlike other acrylic paints high flow paint is not degraded by water. It retains its intense color due to their high pigment load.

They can be modified as needed with water when working on paper and other absorbent surfaces.  Over thinning with water can create sensitive paint layers, especially when used on non-absorbent surfaces.

I enjoyed the spritzing process and now I want to see what I can do with washes and letting it free-float all over a canvas. Are you experimenting with anything new lately?

Palette Cleaning

If a painter uses a palette to hold paint, eventually it probably needs to be cleaned. Since I am an acrylic painter for the most part, I like to use a palette that stays damp so I can keep my paints damp from day to day.

My preference is Masterson’s Sta-Wet Palettes. Their palettes come in various sizes from 8 x 7 inches to 16 x 12 inches. My favorite is Masterson’s Painters Pal which is 12 x 13 inches and I like it because it has the best seal.

Since I like to mix colors on my palette, I do my palette cleaning approximately every month or two depending on how many colors I have used. This week it got cleaned, but I still had a little paint left so I found a sturdy white painter’s cardboard and created a small abstract.

Molding Paste

I protected the cardboard first by putting on a heavy layer of molding paste. I haven’t used molding paste in my paintings for some time. This medium is not particularly absorbent, so the paint can slide around when held at various angles.

After the molding paste dried, I thought of a very loose composition, perhaps representing an abstract landscape, put a little water on the molding paste and then applied the paints. Here is the result. The dark color is a chromatic black made up of odds and ends on my palette.

An Hart Marquis-Oh Happy Day-palette cleaning

Oh Happy Day, acrylic on cardboard, 8 x 6 inches.

Although at this time I don’t use molding paste, I have used it extensively in the past and I like its effects. As mentioned below, I used it basically to add texture, but I have also used it to cover texture in a specific section in a painting that I didn’t like.

According to Golden Paints, molding paste can also be used to create foundations for painting either to create texture over a smoother surface, or to smooth out a textured surface. It dries to a hard, yet flexible, opaque film and blends with colors to tint and extend paint.