Golden Fluid Acrylics Outdoors

To see my paintings visit my website www.janblencowe.com

I've been dying to try Golden Fluid Acrylics in my Stillman & Birn, Beta sketchbook, and today was the perfect day. Spring sunlight is so beautiful and clear making all the delicate colors of spring pop! I worked on the paper as it is, no gesso, no priming with matte medium. The paper is very absorbent which is fine, as long as you know that. Next time I might coat the paper with matte medium first. Other than that the paper is wonderful and held up exceptionally well to repeated layers, scumbling and glazing. This is by far my favorite sketchbook for outdoor landscape work.

One of the great things about being able to paint in your sketchbook is well, that you can paint.  The sketchbook then becomes a very valuable tool in which you can practice color mixes, compositional strategies, explore a location for plein air painting, make color notes, catch an atmospheric effect or fleeting time of day quickly without worrying about completing a "painting". The work becomes just another sketch, which for me anyway means I'm freer, looser, more intuitive and means that I'm more likely to take creative risks, instigate happy accidents and in general be more expressive. 

A sketchbook that I can paint in becomes a safe place to push boundaries without fear of failure or judgement, my own or someone else's.