161 of 86

GOLDEN OPEN ACRYLICS! Test-Painting, 7x5"

I had the opportunity to try out some new Acrylics tonight, called Golden Open. They differ from normal acrylics in that they have a longer drying time. I was only given the three Primary Colours so I had to use a tube of System-3 White. The full range of Golden Open paints extends to 40 colours.

As usual, I added a little Flow Improver to my water and everything seemed pretty normal when I started to paint. The viscosity was a little on the thin side for my liking, but not vastly different to say, W&N Galeria.

Within a short space of time I began to get a little irritated at the drying time, because I'm just so used to acrylics drying very quickly. I thought that the Golden Open had a slightly longer drying time but for me, it was just way too long! Even when i returned to the painting the next morning, I was unable to complete it because areas were still wet, preventing me from getting the effect I wanted. 

I'm not sure I'd invest in a set of these paints because I have an "in-grained" expectation of acrylics and if I wanted to have a drying time of 24 HOURS (much longer if applied thickly), then i would probably switch to using Griffin Alkyds instead. Another point worth noting is that you cannot varnish your painting for something like 30 days! Now I normally varnish my acrylics a couple of days after completing them, so this is a big bugbear!

Having said that, I can imagine these paints would be quite popular with artists who do a lot of Plein Air painting on hot summer days when the paint usually dries way too quickly (or even dry windy days).

Photo to follow.