Image courtesy of Berry Campbell
In the 1970s you could buy Rhoplex acrylic resin in 5 gallon pails or 55 gallon drums and you went to town! That soon came to an end and the faithful were rewarded by a cometary rise (not ‘meteoric’ rise, as meteors ‘fall’ they don’t rise) in the new range of acrylic mediums and colors available. Surface was released from the bondage of shrinkage and fragility. Further, in the spirit of recollection, in 1973 artist, jazz flautist and extraordinary figure drawing teacher Lloyd McNeill explained in my urgent phone call to him, the answer to my pressing need to understand how Frankenthaler ’stained’ acrylic paint into cotton duck. I still have that small square of stained yellow and green canvas and am forever in his debt.
– James Walsh
