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Golden Open Acrylics: Flying Colors, December 8, 2008
By BeeDurham

"I’m very impressed with Golden Open Acrylics.They actually do stay open on the palette and workable on your panel or canvas for hours––WITHOUT spraying or the addition of a retarder. This is so incredible that you have to “learn” to slow down your painting!
With Golden Open Acrylics you can work wet into wet, evenly blend solid areas, such as backgrounds, and achieve quite subtle effects for skin and hair. You can "feather" edges. You can glaze as with oils. They are not as dense as oils, but there is more similarity to oils with Open Acrylics than with traditional acrylic, although Golden says they are not meant to be a "substitute." In some ways, acrylic is even more responsive than oils, when painting fine detail--at times a thin consistency can be used to great advantage. And of course, you can build up more impasto as you go.
I think you’ll get the most satisfactory results with Golden Open Acrylics if you build up layers of color as with oils---thinly at first. The first layers may look uneven --patchy or streaky--but the more you layer , the more evenly blended they will be, and the more easiily you can apply the paint. The mediums will help reduce “brush drag..” But brush drag seems to become less a factor as you add layers of paint.

If you’re an acrylic painter, you owe it to yourself to try these. If you’re an oil painter, or looking for a way to avoid using solvents, you may want to try them too. Even if you didn’t want to paint with them all the time, they’re wonderful for sketches and small pieces.

One of the reasons they are ideal for underpainting is that you can scrub and lift color to create highlights and middle values. You can work this way for hours. Once they are dry, they will be completely "lean." (Remember that "fat over lean" rule!) The oil paint glides on like a dream. Golden recommends waiting 1-3 days before overpainting acrylic with oil--until the painting has "cured," otherwise, there could be problems with adhesion. There's more info like this on Golden's website. Or you may decide you like your Open Acrylic painting just as it is.

YOU DONT" HAVE TO THROW OUT YOUR TRADITIONAL ACRYLICS! --Golden says these paints are compatible with ALL their other pigments and mediums. So if you get impatient with drying time, add some traditional pigment or medium. Or do your painting in traditional acrylic, and "smooth out" patchy areas with the Open Acrylics. There are many many ways you can use this new paint--- I have a feeling it's going to revolutionize acrylic painting. Try them---you have nothing to lose!"

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