Why I Love Acrylic Paint but Want to Ditch It
Underpainting the Pomegranate artists book ©Cherry Jeffs 2020
Never mind the acrylic paint itself. I realised I'd used nearly a whole 500ml bottle of acrylic medium to make the structure of my artist’s book, The Pomegranate.
A friend of mine - previously tasked with getting supplies for me - says I have an acrylic medium addiction. But even by my standards, that’s a lot.
Why I started using acrylic paint
I resisted using acrylic paint for the longest time. The synthetic-sounding name put me off. I didn’t see myself as an acrylic sort of a girl.
But when I eventually tried acrylic paint in the early 2000’s, I found its quick drying time and opaque quality suited my workflow perfectly. I like to be able to make mistakes and cover them easily. And I don’t have much patience for waiting for paint to dry. So acrylic paint became an integral part of my creative process.
But I love our planet and my distress at climate change is growing.
But when I eventually tried acrylic paint in the early 2000’s, I found its quick drying time and opaque quality suited my workflow perfectly. I like to be able to make mistakes and cover them easily. And I don’t have much patience for waiting for paint to dry. So acrylic paint became an integral part of my creative process.
But I love our planet and my distress at climate change is growing.
Making paper clay leaves for The Pomegranate artists book ©Cherry Jeffs 2020
The contradiction of art about climate change painted in acrylic
In 2013 I made the artwork “Creative Fire”. It was my response to the increasingly unbearable summers we were experiencing in Spain due to global warming. But I painted the piece mostly using acrylic paint. It hasn’t escaped me how much of a contradiction this is. Acrylic paint is made from a synthetic resin binder called acrylic polymer emulsion. Basically liquid plastic!
Compared to my other pieces, The Pomegranate contains a lot of sustainable materials - corrugated cardboard, unbleached tissue paper and paper clay. But it's is surprisingly heavy. And this weight is mainly due to that 500ml of acrylic medium! I feel it as the weight of my ecological footprint.
Too deep a print by far.
If I make a similar piece to The Pomegranate in the future, I'll use a cornstarch paste instead of acrylic medium. That’s not a difficult switch.
And I’ve already changed from using acrylic medium as a varnish to cold wax medium. It's not 100% eco but around 97% which is a huge improvement.
But substituting acrylic paint in my workflow is a much bigger ask. There’s no doubt that it’s going to require not only some changes in my process but also a change in the look of the work.
Compared to my other pieces, The Pomegranate contains a lot of sustainable materials - corrugated cardboard, unbleached tissue paper and paper clay. But it's is surprisingly heavy. And this weight is mainly due to that 500ml of acrylic medium! I feel it as the weight of my ecological footprint.
Too deep a print by far.
If I make a similar piece to The Pomegranate in the future, I'll use a cornstarch paste instead of acrylic medium. That’s not a difficult switch.
And I’ve already changed from using acrylic medium as a varnish to cold wax medium. It's not 100% eco but around 97% which is a huge improvement.
But substituting acrylic paint in my workflow is a much bigger ask. There’s no doubt that it’s going to require not only some changes in my process but also a change in the look of the work.
Can you make acrylic paint eco-friendly?
It's a common practice among ‘environmentally concerned’ artists is to filter out the remnants of acrylic paint from the painting water. Then leave the left-over paint sludge to dry out before throwing it away. But this isn’t very practical now that I don’t have a permanent studio. Plus it still begs the question of what’s going to happen to those plastic solids at the end?
Whichever way you approach it, there's always a trade-off. Trashing the acrylic paint I already own without using it won’t make it less polluting. And I'll be wasting its embodied energy. So I’ll probably still be using acrylics for quite a while.
And, of course I know that my tiny consumption of acrylic paint doesn't contribute to global pollution massively. But I believe in living according to my core values as far as possible. So I’m not happy with using so much of a material that has no place in our planet’s ecosystem.
Whichever way you approach it, there's always a trade-off. Trashing the acrylic paint I already own without using it won’t make it less polluting. And I'll be wasting its embodied energy. So I’ll probably still be using acrylics for quite a while.
And, of course I know that my tiny consumption of acrylic paint doesn't contribute to global pollution massively. But I believe in living according to my core values as far as possible. So I’m not happy with using so much of a material that has no place in our planet’s ecosystem.
Making the basic structure out of corrugated card and tissue paper for The Pomegranate artists book ©Cherry Jeffs 2020
Tempera - an eco-friendly alternative to acrylic paint?
I'm committed to exploring green alternatives to acrylic paint so I can gradually reducing my dependency on it. The most obvious alternative is to use natural pigments with some kind of binder.
(As I've learned more about paint, I've come to realise that this is the recipe for most paints pre-acrylic.)
In fact, I've used powdered earth pigments before but mixed with - you guessed it - acrylic medium! And there are lots of suppliers offering earth pigments. But finding reasonably-priced, ready-prepared ‘green’ paint alternatives other than oils is difficult. Particularly outside the US as many 'green' paints are exported from there, which makes them very costly compared to acrylics.
So I kept coming back to the idea of Tempera. Tempera paint consists of pigments mixed with a glutinous, water-soluble binder medium such as egg yolk. (It dries to the touch quickly, but can take up to a year to fully cure.) But using eggs as the binder opens up another set of ethical questions. I'm not vegan, although I don't eat meat, but my collectors might be...As I said before, these decisions are fraught with considerations and each of us has to decide what's right for us and our situation.
(As I've learned more about paint, I've come to realise that this is the recipe for most paints pre-acrylic.)
In fact, I've used powdered earth pigments before but mixed with - you guessed it - acrylic medium! And there are lots of suppliers offering earth pigments. But finding reasonably-priced, ready-prepared ‘green’ paint alternatives other than oils is difficult. Particularly outside the US as many 'green' paints are exported from there, which makes them very costly compared to acrylics.
So I kept coming back to the idea of Tempera. Tempera paint consists of pigments mixed with a glutinous, water-soluble binder medium such as egg yolk. (It dries to the touch quickly, but can take up to a year to fully cure.) But using eggs as the binder opens up another set of ethical questions. I'm not vegan, although I don't eat meat, but my collectors might be...As I said before, these decisions are fraught with considerations and each of us has to decide what's right for us and our situation.
Structure complete: The Pomegranate artists book ©Cherry Jeffs 2020
How changing from acrylic paint might affect my creative process
I have to admit that making my own paint is a big bar to entry for me. Definitely an excuse for procrastinating massively!
I am trying to trust that my creative voice is strong enough, my process robust enough, to subject it to some stress. And to embrace the idea that different media can add an exciting new dimension to the work.
We'll see!
I am trying to trust that my creative voice is strong enough, my process robust enough, to subject it to some stress. And to embrace the idea that different media can add an exciting new dimension to the work.
We'll see!
Join other eco-friendly artists!
What about you? How do you reconcile ‘being green’ with your creative process?
Have you struggled - or do you continue to struggle - with your own dilemmas in terms of materials you previously took for granted?
If so, why not join the Eco-Friendly Artists group? It's a free, supportive and non-judgemental online space to share ideas and links for artists who are trying to find eco materials to work with.
The group is a private community on Mighty Networks so you don't need to be on social media to join and no-one will be selling you anything.
It's a place to share recipes and links to books, websites and suppliers of interest. You can upload pics of your own work and generally chat about your experiences.
(Yeah, that's right, it's like those networks that used to exist before Facebook, sorry META, took over everything.)
Since I began the group in October 2020, we've grown to almost 350 members! So, as you can imagine, there's a world of interest and expertise in the discussions going on over there!
I'd love it if you joined us!
Have you struggled - or do you continue to struggle - with your own dilemmas in terms of materials you previously took for granted?
If so, why not join the Eco-Friendly Artists group? It's a free, supportive and non-judgemental online space to share ideas and links for artists who are trying to find eco materials to work with.
The group is a private community on Mighty Networks so you don't need to be on social media to join and no-one will be selling you anything.
It's a place to share recipes and links to books, websites and suppliers of interest. You can upload pics of your own work and generally chat about your experiences.
(Yeah, that's right, it's like those networks that used to exist before Facebook, sorry META, took over everything.)
Since I began the group in October 2020, we've grown to almost 350 members! So, as you can imagine, there's a world of interest and expertise in the discussions going on over there!
I'd love it if you joined us!
