Acrylics are the most popular artist’s paints in the world, as they are easy to use and give good results. Acrylic paint is extremely versatile – it can be painted thinly or thickly on virtually any grease-free surface; it can be poured, sculpted, made into skins, used as a stain and a glue, and can even be used to transfer images from magazines!

Acrylic paint is water-based, and as the water content of your paint evaporates, the remaining pigment and acrylic resin lock together to form a water-resistant, flexible film. This happens quite quickly, depending on the thickness of the paint and the weather. The drying can be sped up by using a hair-drier or slowed by adding certain paint mediums (Golden Glazing Fluid will keep even thin films wet for 30 – 40mins).

Like all artists' paints, you can buy different quality acrylics, depending on your budget and level of engagement. We think that a few good quality colours provide better satisfaction than a lot of poor quality colours for about the same price, and besides - the less you know, the more help you need from your tools!

In both our Golden and Schmincke ranges of artist’s acrylics, we offer Heavy Body and Fluid colours, depending on what effect you’re after. Heavy Body paint retains brush strokes, so is ideal for thick paint work using either brush or palette knife. Fluid acrylic has a much lighter consistency, like that of cream, so is more suited to painting wide flat areas, detail, watercolour effects, and dry brush.

Our most popular acrylic colours are made by the Golden family in upstate New York. The Golden’s have been making paint since the 1930s, and have always developed their colours and mediums in close partnership with leading artists. They pay special attention to the latest technological advances in pigment and binders, and offer the most comprehensive range of artist’s acrylics in the world.

Golden Acrylic Colours are made using a concentrated acrylic binder that will maintain its film integrity even when diluted up to 50% with water; and from concentrated pigments, which are designed to be extended with gels or other mediums and still provide exceptional colour intensity. Their range of painting mediums is the most comprehensive in the world, allowing you to work in almost any way imaginable – thin stains, smooth glazes, stringy webs of paint, self-levelling pools, chunky impasto, textures that scatter light, metallic and iridescent effects, fabric sculpting, velvet matte through to high gloss surfaces, unbelievably long working times, the ability to incorporate digital images…

Golden only make professional-grade acrylics. If you want student acrylic, simply mix their acrylic colour with water and medium for an economical paint, and it will still be superior to most student colours!

At the end of 2008, Golden released a whole new type of paint – OPEN Acrylics.

Golden OPEN Acrylic feels like no other paint, combining some of the best properties of acrylics and oilpaint. Open Acrylic dries slow enough to allow you to blend and soften your colours, but also allows over-painting much sooner than with oils, and being a professional artist’s acrylic, OPEN washes up with soap and water.

Golden OPEN is a great first paint – a lot easier than oil and more forgiving than acrylic, but it is also an important new paint for:
• Artists who struggle with the fast drying times characteristic of acrylics – plein aire painters, portrait artists, landscape painters, painters working in large formats, painters who need more time;
• Artists who want a greater range of control over their materials;
• Oilpainters who would rather use acrylics for safety and convenience, but find it difficult;
• Artists and instructors who value the versatility, ease of use, and low waste.

Contact us for your free Golden OPEN Information Leaflet!

You can use different primers for preparing your painting surface, depending on the technique you wish to use.
The most popular is Acrylic Gesso, an opaque, bright white primer that’s great for preparing canvas, wood, and paper. If you use your acrylic for fluid, watercolour or staining effects, Absorbent Ground provides the perfect paper-like absorbency. Extra smooth surfaces can be achieved by using Sandable Hard Gesso on wood panel and other non-flexible surfaces. Black Gesso is useful for achieving dramatic contrast when using opaque colours, and Matte Medium makes a good transparent primer for acrylic colours. For building up surface texture prior to painting, choose from a range of Molding Pastes or for a crazed surface try Cracking Paste!

Acrylic paints work best with synthetic brushes. You can use hog-hair brushes but they are harder to clean, so don’t usually last as long.
Soft synthetic brushes work best with fluid acrylic colour. German brush-maker da Vinci make special synthetic blended-fibre brushes which hold the most fluid and are great for watercolour effects.
For thick impasto effects, extra strong synthetics like da Vinci’s Impasto brushes work like a flexible painting knives.
A good, all-round brush like the Top-Acryl will suit most techniques.
You don’t need to just use brushes with acrylic paint though – rollers, painting knives, rubber sculpting tools called Colour Shapers, and even old credit cards make excellent tools for manipulating your paint!