The Summer Challenge for 2022 was to produce something in a medium that you have never used before (or not for a long time).

​

Since joining the group I had been using pastel pencils and sticks almost exclusively. I had seen some really interesting results on You Tube of people making abstract works with acrylic pouring. So this is what I decided to try.

​

There are many different techniques that you can try. Over 20. There are Clean pours, Dirty pours, Dutch pours, Blooms, Swipes, Flip Cups, Colander pours and lots more.

​

As with many You Tube art videos, the artists make it look a lot easier than it is in practice for us beginners. My first attempts all ended up with the same title: 'Greenish Mud With Splodges'.

​

After a while however, some attempts began to look a little more interesting and worth keeping. There's a science to acrylic pouring as well as an art. It's a skill to prepare everything correctly and another skill in using what you've prepared. Like all skills, it requires practice. Having said that, despite the frustration of many failures, it's highly addictive, great fun, and really rewarding when you get a nice result - especially so when something has a bit of a wow factor.

 

It seems that at the moment, acrylic pouring is the Marmite of the art world. But I like it.

​

Below is a list of the materials and equipment used for acrylic pours. Since the Summer Challenge started, I've obtained and built-up most of what's on this list. I did however begin with one of the ready-made pouring kits from The Range, which worked reasonably well even though I didn't really know what I was doing as the kit came with no instructions!

​

Below the list is a gallery of some of my pours and blooms.