I’ve been experimenting with new painting surfaces the last two weeks. I‘ve been trying out Ampersand Aquabord. I was already loving the Gessobord, but it was out of stock when I went to reorder it, and I thought I would try something different. And I am SO glad I did. Same great quality as the art panels, and Gessobord, this particular panel has a more textured surface to it. I tried it out first with two gouache portraits.

Madeleine – 5 x 7 inch gouache painting on Aquabord.  SOLD, thank you!

 Giselle – 5 x 7 inch gouache on Aquabord

I love how the gouache reacted to this surface. The Holbein gouache paints I used, loved the texture. The Aquabord seem to “grab” the color, yet I could still blend the gouache. It was SO much fun to paint these.

For this last painting, I was trying out a new brand of acrylic paints, as well as how it would do on Aquabord. Stephen Quiller acrylic paints, at least the set I have tried, seem to be very heavy bodied…so not as creamy as I am used to. They were a bit of a challenge. But thinned down a bit, they did quite well. They have a lot of pigment, and the colors are bold, and show up so well on the Aquabord. Working with acrylics, I could really “feel” the texture of this art panel, as opposed to the Gessobord, which is “toothy” but not too textured. If you click on the photo below, you will see the texture on this painting.

Eden – 5 x 7 inch acrylic on Aquabord.

 I think Gessobord might still be my favorite Ampersand panel so far…but I haven’t tried the Claybord yet. I see that the Ampersand website sells samples of their boards, a nice way to find out the qualities of each of them. I have purchased Ampersand panels from my local Aaron Brothers store, and online from Jerry’s Artarama and Cheap Joes Art Supply. Dick Blick carries them as well.

Have you tried Ampersand art panels? I would love to know what you think of them, and which ones you prefer. I am still learning…but it sure is fun to experiment!

All three of these new Aquabord portraits are now available to view in my Daily Paintworks Gallery, as well as in my Etsy shop.