Having Fun With Acrylic Paint!

On the surface, you might not think that experimenting and painting are in the same genre but I am here to share that for me, a career engineer, experimenting was part of the daily grind. So, when I retired from the tech world and switched to becoming an artist, there are some things you just cannot let go of.

How does this work for me? I did not think about it much until recently a fellow artist came into my studio and I was showing him some test panels I was working on. I had done controlled experiments with different viscosities of 2 different colors and then adding in another chemical to change to the properties of one color at a time. I then documented each result with photos and notes in my notebook. He looked at me and shook his head. 

It was then that I chuckled to myself. For me, trying to learn how paints will react by changing their properties in a controlled fashion was second nature. I was trying to perfect a new technique so instead of doing a trial-and-error approach, I did test samples. This allows me to learn quicker and be more productive at the same time. 

This probably is not the only “different approach” I have brought to my art career but it works for me. I left the world of logic, discipline, and invention on purpose to develop and explore my creative side. In life, we bring along our experiences and hopefully use the ones that add value to our journey. For me, applying approaches that help me learn more effectively seems perfectly normal.