Chroma Atelier Interactive Acrylic Product Review

Photo Credit:  Original Acrylic Painting, titled “Winter Starts in High Country New Mexico” by J. Richard Secor.

A  landscape and plein air painter, J. Richard Secor is well known  for his use of bold, striking colors applied with both brush and palette knife in a free and loose manner.   

Article written by guest blogger, J. Richard Secor.

I am an acrylic painter who transitioned to this medium after many years as a watercolorist. I was drawn to try acrylic because of its potential for vibrant color and bold texture, and because acrylic can resemble oil without the drawbacks of oil. Like many artists, I discovered that painting with acrylics had its drawbacks too – including fast drying time, the inability to go back into a painting to blend colors, and colors darkening in value after drying.

I often paint Plein air in the mountains around Santa Fe, New Mexico and along the High Road to Taos, and I also paint in my home studio. Most of the time, I paint Alla Prima and very quickly wet into wet, using palette knife and brush. My style is a combination of Impressionistic and Expressionistic, at times bordering on semi-abstract with what I call a touch of rusticity.

I like bright-bold-sassy color and lots of texture. The ability to prolong the “wet” period of my paints is especially important when I am painting Plein air. And, it is important that I have the ability to go back into a painting when I return to my studio, without losing the original color values that are such an essential element of a Plein air painting.

Chroma has developed “interactive” acrylic paints and mediums that enable acrylic painters to do this. The name Interactive refers to the unique ability of these products to prolong paint time, to re-activate the medium after drying and to maintain color value. The paints and mediums are interacting not only with each other, but also with you, the painter! I don’t feel that it is overly dramatic for me to say that these paints and mediums have transformed not only my style and my paintings, but also my enjoyment of painting with acrylics.

How do Chroma Atelier Interactive Acrylics Work?

Chroma Atelier Interactive Acrylic paints go through a curing cycle instead of drying suddenly and forming a skin the way conventional acrylics do. The curing cycle goes from wet to damp to tacky to dry.

During the tacky stage, the time to re-hydrate the paint is when your brush starts to drag. You can do this with either a wet brush or a Chroma fine mist sprayer. The drag on the brush is telling you, “I need some interaction!” Because you are able to keep painting during this stage, the dreaded “over-painting” becomes a nightmare of the past.

If the paint has dried, the Unlocking Formula Medium will reactivate it. Simply spray or brush some on and start painting again.

The ability to reactivate the paint allows you to stop painting and return to it later. You can take a nap, walk the dog, catch up on some reading, or have a ham and cheese sandwich. You can pick up where you left off with a simple spray of water or by using the unlocking medium to reactivate your paint. Now how great is it that?

Features of the Chroma Interactive Acrylic Paints and Mediums:

Paints:

• Stay wet longer, allowing for improved blending capability
• Can be reactivated, re-opened, and returned to a wet usable, blending and painting state with a slight spray of water during the first few hours of your painting session (depending on your drying conditions).
• If paint has dried for a longer period of time, (even days), the Unlocking Medium will return it to an open and wet state.
• Tonal change does not take place so you can over-paint without worry about tonal match
• Depth of color is extraordinary, with over 75 colors in single and multiple pigments
• Professional paints that are both Archival and Lightfast
• Dry to a satin finish, not to a shiny or plasticized finish

Mediums:

• Allow you to keep paints open longer and to reactivate them when tacky or dry
• Slow Medium Liquid used with a Chroma sprayer reduces viscosity and extends wet working time
• Thick Slow Medium Gel extends open time and keeps the paint a more impasto textured wet paint
• Unlocking Formula Medium allows you to reactive paint after it has dried

Artist Opinion: Chroma Atelier Interactive Acrylic Paints and Mediums:

Unique – Revolutionary – Incomparable!

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Acrylic Paint Review Disclaimer: Although J. Richard Secor is not an employee of Chroma Paint Company, recently gave a demonstration of Chroma products at an art store in Santa Fe, and was paid for his time. He was hired as an independent contractor for this event.
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Written by Guest Blogger: J. Richard Secor

A  landscape and plein air painter, J. Richard Secor is well known  for his use of bold, striking colors applied with both brush and palette knife in a free and loose manner.  Mr. Secor  began painting at age 54, after retiring early from a 32 year career in banking on the East Coast.  He is represented by several galleries in the Southwestern USA as well as in Mexico.

Artist’s Statement:

I enjoy painting Plein air in the mountains near my home in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and also paint in my home studio. My style, which is primarily Impressionistic, continuously evolves through curiosity, intense observation, sudden inspiration and experimentation. Ultimately the style of any given painting will be the result of how I feel about that particular scene at the time I’m painting it, and is often influenced by the music to which I am listening. I like to paint “outside the lines” and “outside the box” as well as “outside the rules.”