I recently saw some paintings by Christian Reisse Lassen and was stunned by the luminus quality of the paintings. Having asked the gallery manager how he painted I was told that he glazed with acrylic and used a coat of varnish between each glaze so the light caught the colours. Question 1- how would he have painted this? use the paint like water colour? or thick? Question 2 - what varnish would have been used? Any answers greatly appreciated as I would like to try this technique and see what I get, but new to acrylics I needed to know 'how to paint this' and what varnish to buy.. Thank you Claire Wildin

Hello Anita, My guess is that he used an acrylic glazing medium and vanish. Roy

Glazing with acrylics is similar to glazing with oils. It's best to start with an opaque underpainting in fairly neutral colours, for starters try just black and white. You could apply acrylic varnish between layers, or a plain layer of transparent medium, or none at all. Once dry, use transparent colours mixed with acrylic medium to paint over the top. Match the tones of the underpainting. You can apply as many layers as you want but (as with oils) it's best to increase the brilliance of the colours with each successive layer, avoid repeating the same colours over each other and plan your colourations in advance. Also you'll not have the luxury of painting over your mistakes because the beauty of a glazed picture is to stare down and see each layer right down to the bottom. Successive delicate corrections are possible though. Mark Sheeky http://www.marksheeky.co.uk