Acrylic painters, your day has come! This week, join painters from 16 different countries for the inaugural Acrylic Live online art conference, taking place now through Friday, March 28. No tech skills? No problem! If you can click a link, you can join our event.
We want to help you grow, become a better artist, learn new ideas and techniques, and give you world-class painting instruction from international artists — all while introducing you to a community that will support you!
Watch and interact with acrylic teachers such as Anne Blair Brown, Aimee Erickson, Jed Dorsey, Kevin Macpherson, and many more, hosted by Publisher Eric Rhoads and PleinAir Magazine and American Watercolor Weekly Editor-in-Chief Kelly Kane, and Charlie Easton!
The event started with “Essential Techniques Day.” Here are some of our favorite highlights in case you missed it:
2025 Acrylic Live Essential Techniques Day Recap
After watching the first of several educational, sponsor-led bonus presentations, we welcomed Charlie Easton as our guest host for the week. Then, we launched right into the faculty demos, including sessions led by Kathleen Denis, Claudia Hartley, Brenda Hozjan, Dianna Shyne, Angela Bandurka, Sarah Burns, and David Langevin.
From Kathleen Denis’s “Essentials for Acrylic” lesson
“Acrylics were first introduced around the 1940s,” Kathleen Denis explained, “so being a relatively new type of a painting medium, some people might think it’s inferior or entry level, but it’s actually a fantastic medium for painters of every level, and you will see that over the next few days. Acrylics continue to evolve with new mediums being developed all the time, and that provides for the artist new ways to use acrylics and give us gives us greater creative freedom.”
From Claudia Hartley’s color demo
Claudia Hartley led a colorful demo based on a black-and-white sketch so she could come up with her own creative color schemes in a modern landscape. She began with a yellow ochre-toned canvas with broken rectangles of blue, noting that the contrast “makes your brain dance.”
From Brenda Hozjan’s “Building Layers” session. At the end of her demo, Brenda recapped her process by addressing the shapes, lights and darks, focal area, background, and one of the benefits of acrylics when it comes to making changes to your near-final work.
Brenda Hozjan gave a demonstration on how to paint a life-like bird, addressing how she chooses and mixes her colors when starting a painting, and much more.
From Dianna Shyne’s lesson on values
Pursuing her passion for art, Dianna Shyne has spent almost 40 years working in acrylic, oil, and watercolor. At Acrylic Live, she led a helpful lesson on how to translate color into values in acrylics.
Dianna is demonstrating how quickly acrylic can be completed. Sweet!” ~Robert P., attendee at Essential Techniques Day
Angela Bandurka’s demo painting (left) along with her photo reference, notan image, and color palette
Angela Bandurka guided us through the process of creating a balanced still life composition, including a teacup and flowers, on a square canvas. In addition to the physical props, Angela tells us that “the light source is almost as important as the props themselves because the shadow becomes a big part of the design itself.”
She added that you can make notans using your phone’s camera or an app that works: “Just search ‘Making a Notan’ to turn your photos into graphic black and white images.”
From a plein air landscape demo with Sarah Burns
Joining us from a beautiful location in Scotland, Sarah Burns led a plein air demo on using acrylic gouache. Tip: Because it dries quickly, Sarah does her initial drawing before she pours the paint onto the palette.
From “Creating Texture” with David Langevin
Joining us from British Columbia, David Langevin showed us how he uses acrylic gel mediums to create texture effects in his tree portraits. He began by demonstrating with the gel mediums for the textures, then applied paint to the surfaces to create the color effects.
“Wow! What a process! So much good NEW info about the huge number of acrylic products and materials.” ~Twinky S.
“Each demo has been fantastic!” ~ Dennis M.
Of course, we wrapped up the evening with the infamous Cocktail Hour / Paint Along, during which attendees shared their works, their stories, and their love of acrylic.
This is an experience this amazing event from the place where you are at your most comfortable and creative such as your own home or studio — No need to spend on travel, hotels, or expensive in-person workshops!
When you register, you’ll be able to ask questions, paint along, and quickly learn methods and techniques that took these artists decades to master — All thanks to their exceptional teaching skills.
We love to have fun! Shown here: Eric Rhoads and Charlie Easton kicking off Acrylic Live 2025
There’s still time to join us and replays are available, so visit AcrylicLive.com now to register!
Acrylic Live 2025 is sponsored by Blick Art Materials (Platinum Sponsor), Golden Artist Acrylics (Gold Sponsor), Workshops in France (Silver Sponsor), PaintTubeTV, and Cheap Joe’s Art Stuff. Thank you!
