Artists of all levels are coming together this week during the Inaugural Acrylic Live, taking place now through Friday, March 28, 2025. This week, we’re broadcasting live from three entirely different locations and two countries, to an audience across 16 countries! During the event, attendees are enjoying bonus presentations and giveaways from our sponsors, chatting with the experts, and more.
Replays are available! If you missed it, here’s what we saw on Day 1 of Acrylic Live:
This is the halfway point of Jed Dorsey’s demo on a black surface. As he painted, he also explained his five basic steps for creating a work of art, start to finish.
Jed Dorsey says he loves to paint on colored surfaces, which is how he discovered he loves to use a black substrate. His demo was on a hardboard gessoed panel, which he used to show how having a black surface can impact your painting, and how to work the acrylic colors to your advantage.
“Sharing your thought process is just as valuable as watching you paint. Thank you so much.” ~ Wendy W.
From Tad Retz’s “Figure in the Landscape Demo”
In his acrylic lesson, Tad Retz used an 18 x 18-inch canvas for his subject: a cowboy riding a horse. Tad spends much of his time studying Old Master paintings, learning about color, values, and compositions to better understand the bare bones of their paintings.
Samantha Williams-Chapelsky creates large-scale landscapes that employ techniques of impressionist and expressionist abstraction to harness the powerful emotions these spaces can evoke.
Abstract landscape painter and plein air artist Samantha Williams-Chapelsky explained how to add textured acrylic products into a painting to create a more gestural response to a natural space.
From Patti Mollica’s Figure in the Landscape session
Using a photo reference and painting on an Ampersand hard panel gesso board (because it’s a smooth surface), Patti Mollica’s demo featured a figure in an urban scene. She says she likes to use a glass palette because when the acrylics dry, she can easily scape them off with a palette knife.
From Mike Hernandez’s Acrylic Gouache Seascape Demo
Mike Hernandez explained how to build up body, richness, and luster in a painting using his “recipe” that includes acrylic gouache, flat acrylics, and regular gouache. He began by “modeling” some rocks in the scene with burnt sienna and white.
And we closed the evening with our cocktail hour paint-along session. Follow the fun on Instagram at #acryliclive and join us for the remaining workshops and social fun with fellow artists! Visit AcrylicLive.com now and don’t miss another minute.
