Looks like everyone’s OPEN to the new slo-drying acrylic nowadays. (Bad pun intended)
Now Matissee is adding a new Gel Medium called MM31 Open Medium.
Using a slow-dry medium seems more economical to me than purchasing a new set of slow-dry pigments, but I am sure their are subtle nuances between the two that I don’t yet know about.
The Matisse Open Medium is designed to be used outdoors, in hot weather. If anyone know about hot weather it’s the Aussies!
This medium dries to a satin finish. Matisse claims that it can be added to their Structure line without reducing the impasto effects. OR added to the the FLOW line without thickening the paint. Sounds too good to be true! I must order some immediately!
Note: Golden Artists Paint, Inc. launched their own slow dry acrylic product line, also named OPEN line in 2008. Liquitex has offered Liquitex Slow-Dri Gel Retarder for years. And Chroma has offered their complete line of slow drying acrylic paints called Atelier Interactive for several years as well.
A word about Acrylic Medium: Retarder
Retarder has been around for years. Most paint manufacturers, include Derivan Matisse, offer it. The difference in the retarder and the MM31 Open Medium is the mixing ratio. Generally speaking, one can only add a small percentage of retarder to the paint pigment (3 -5%) without messing things up. By this I mean things get gummy and sticky and don’t dry properly for archival purposes.
With slo-dry acrylic mediums, one can add much, much more medium up to 50% or so. The paint will stay wet, or open on the palette much longer than it will with retarder.
See: How long does it take for Acrylic Paint to Dry?
I will let you know as soon as I do a product test on this. I am not typically an impasto painter, so I especially welcome any reviews from artists who regularly paint with Matisse Structure Acrylic.
