The Essential guide to Mixed Media - The Art of Painting

After reading this eighth issue of The Art of Painting, you’ll know all there is to know about acrylics and mixed media!
Laurent Benoist, Assistant Editor.

EDITORIAL
Acrylics are one of the most popular media with artists. They are the most flexible of them all and work just as well in thick layers as in delicate glazes. Another advantage over oils, to which they are often compared, is that they dry much faster and being water-based are far less toxic. Only water? We’ll see. I fact a large number of gels, mediums and additives can be used to alter the properties of acrylic paints and add texture and density to meet whatever characteristics you are looking for. In the first chapter of this special edition of The Art of Painting, which focuses entirely on acrylics and mixed media, you will discover the host of possibilities that it presents.
We have also dedicated an entire chapter to each of your favourite subjects: flowers, portraits, still lifes, landscapes, city life and people and this issue ends with a special final section on the animal kingdom. Each of these chapters groups together the very best articles previously published in Pratique des Arts and Plaisirs de peindre, two magazines that have made their reputations through the quality of the contributing artists and the precise technical advice they offer. In these pages, you will find these artists’ recommendations and technical advice alongside images of their greatest works, which you will be able to admire in the masters’ portfolio at the beginning of the magazine.

PORTFOLIO
Diane Garcès de Marcilla, Yong-Man Kwon, John Walsom, Ellen Dittebrandt, John Lovett, Colette Odya Smith, Chris Bacon, etc.

THE ESSENTIALS OF TECHNIQUE
- Using mediums with acrylic paints : Gel and fluid mediums
- Changing the properties of acrylics with additives
- Creating the unexpected with special effects mediums
- Adding volume with modelling paste
- Varying texture effects with texture gels and mediums

FLOWERS
- Jennifer Bowman: An explosion of colour!
- Emmanuelle Mertian : Double composition Know-how:
- Jennifer Bowman: A field of poppies
- Emmanuelle Mertian : Spring blooms
- Marie-Pierre Le Sellin: Tropical passion flower
- Benoît Graux: New poppy

PORTRAITS
Jean Pederson: Renewing portrait art
Know-how:
- Florent Maussion: An alla prima study
- Isabelle Munné: Romantic siren

STILL LIFES
- Pascal Lionnet: Southern flavours
- Gabriel Berlusconi: Imprints and traces Know-how:
- Pascal Lionnet : Oriental still lifE
- Nancy Stark: An old steam engine
- Alexandra Kraif: Back from the beach
- Eva Gohier: Daring combinations of texture and colour

LANDSCAPES
- Mark Harrison: An illustrator becomes a painter
- Javier Torices: Light on water, a challenge that has become a passion
- Greg Navratil: Autumn atmospheres / From figurative to abstract
- Michael Sole: Experimenting with the elements
- Cath Read: Variations on a bird’s eye view
- Pierre de Michelis: A sketch to canvas approach Know-how:
- Jean-Marc Janiaczyk: Bright spring
- Claire Barjolle
- A walk along the banks of the Sèvre

URBAN SCENES AND PEOPLE
- Murielle Vanhove: Fleeting moments
- Emmanuelle Lemetais
- Bringing colour to life
Know-how:
- Murielle Vanhove: Triptych from her “Les Autres” serieS
- Andrew McDermott: Lights of Vancouver
- Alexandra Kraif: Floating market

ANIMALS
- Christophe Drochon: Recent works
- Britt Freda: An artist fighting for animal rights
Know-how:
- Christophe Drochon: Techniques of transparency – Glazes with acrylics
- Eva Gohier: Playing with expression
- Matricia Ménoret: Feline fur in glazing and washes