How Do These 4 Artists Show us the Limitless Possibilities of Acrylics?

What happens when colour becomes a way of seeing the world? That is the magic of acrylic painting. It begins with a blank canvas, a few tubes of paint, and the courage to begin. Acrylic paint is one of the most versatile mediums in art. It can be thick and textured like oil, or thin and translucent like watercolour. It dries quickly, allowing artists to layer, experiment, and play without fear of losing momentum. Acrylic artists are explorers of colour and movement. They mix, pour, scrape, and brush paint to capture energy, light, and feeling.

A single stroke can suggest a horizon, a patch of texture can hold a memory, and a bold splash of colour can change the way we feel. Acrylic art is as much about the process as the final result about the way colours blend, overlap, and surprise us. It celebrates both control and freedom, planning and spontaneity. It is a conversation between artist and canvas, one that shifts and changes with every layer added.

Acrylic painting invites us to slow down and look closely. It asks us to notice the textures, the edges where colours meet, and the emotions hidden in each gesture. At the Arts to Hearts Project, we see acrylic as a celebration of curiosity and possibility. This week, we turn our attention to the artists who remind us that acrylic can be more than just a medium that it can become memory, energy, and emotion. Their work shows us that art can be bold and gentle, structured and free, and that beauty often comes alive in the space between precision and play.

Eric Jacobsen @jacobsenstudio

Eric Jacobsen’s paintings hold a quiet but undeniable power, the kind that draws you in slowly, until you realize you’re standing inside for a moment. As an acrylic and mixed-media artist, Eric has built a practice around capturing the essence of light, space, and mood. He is best known for his landscapes, often painted en plein air, where he sets up his easel outdoors and paints directly from life. This practice allows him to work with immediacy, responding to the shifting atmosphere and translating the fleeting beauty of a scene before it changes. Raised in New England, Eric’s connection to nature runs deep. The rhythm of rural life, the play of light across fields and woodlands, and the quiet presence of changing seasons continue to inform his work. His brushwork remains loose and gestural, yet intentional, giving his paintings a fresh, breathing quality that feels alive.

What sets Eric apart is his commitment to painting atmosphere over detail. Rather than focusing on photographic accuracy, he builds paintings that invite us to feel the air, sense the temperature, and notice the stillness or movement in a scene. Each piece becomes a dialogue between artist and place  planned enough to hold together structurally, but free enough to allow spontaneity and surprise. While landscape is his most frequent subject, Eric’s work is ultimately about presence. Through his use of acrylics and his outdoor practice, he captures those fleeting instants when the world feels suspended, and invites viewers to pause, breathe, and step into the quiet poetry of the land.

Lucy Reed @_lucyreedart

Lucy Reed is an emergent acrylic and mixed-media artist based in London, England, with roots in Bournemouth on the southern coast. Though self-taught and only beginning her painting journey around 2020, she has quickly developed a vivid, confident style that pulses with energy and colour. Lucy’s work is informed by her surroundings, movement, and emotional response to space. She begins with a spark of an idea, a hue, a feeling, a line but let’s intuition guide the brush. In her compositions, bold, saturated pigments interplay with textured layers, gestural strokes, and patterns that feel alive. Her process honours spontaneity: she doesn’t over plan but moves with the moment, letting each mark respond to the one before it. 

Growing up in Bournemouth, Lucy moved later to Cardiff to study psychology, and it was after that she revisited painting as a means of expression and exploration. Her art journey started with landscapes and more representational forms but evolved swiftly into abstraction; her signature now lies in energetic abstractions that resonate with emotional depth. Her paintings both in smaller and larger formats invite a feeling more than a narrative. Shapes, lines, and vivid colour fields coexist and push against one another, creating visual tension and harmony at once. Through texture and layering, Lucy creates movement even in stillness, asking viewers to feel her work rather than decode it. In Lucy Reed’s hands, acrylic painting becomes a field of emotional resonance vibrant, playful, intuitive. Her work reminds us that even a spontaneous splash of colour can carry meaning, and that expression can live in boldness as much as subtlety.

James Mertke @painting_with_james

For James Mertke, acrylic is both play and devotion. A self-taught acrylic painter from San Jose, California, he infuses everyday objects with color, charm, and character turning the ordinary into something you can’t stop staring at.  James is known for his vibrant still lifes: fruits, candies, snacks, and items of nostalgia all appear in his work, painted on small panels that demand both intimacy and presence. His pieces don’t overwhelm: each one reads like a quiet celebration of shape, hue, and detail.   His style balances precision and spontaneity. The edges are clean, the color bold, but there is always a sense of delight in his choices: a tilt of light, a shadow, a saturated tone.

What might be a simple lemon or candy wrapper becomes something that stands on its own, as if asking: “Do you see me now?” James’s process is both consistent and exploratory. Over time he’s built a routine of daily painting challenges pushing his technique, trying new color combos or subjects and he shares that journey with his audience. His work has found homes in collections across the U.S. and beyond. Through his acrylic practice, James Mertke shows us that size doesn’t limit significance. He reminds us that a small panel, treated with care, color, and intention, can carry mood, story, and delight. His paintings are invitations to notice  to see something familiar reimagined, to linger just a second longer, and to feel the energy of a simple object made luminous.

Ollie Le Brocq @ollielebrocqart

For Ollie Le Brocq, painting is a way of slowing down and paying attention to the quiet details of life. Based on the Heritage Coast in Suffolk, UK, and originally from Jersey in the Channel Islands, Ollie shifted from years in digital art and animation to acrylic painting as a way to reconnect with the tactile, hands-on act of creation. What began as a personal exploration soon became a distinctive practice rooted in balance, simplicity, and atmosphere. In his acrylics, everyday subjects’ cups, plants, figures are transformed into compositions of shape, light, and colour. Rather than tell a fixed story, his paintings create open spaces for interpretation. Edges soften, forms overlap, and fields of colour hold a rhythm that feels meditative.

There is restraint in his palette and clarity in his shapes, but also a subtle playfulness that makes each canvas feel alive. Ollie’s work balances precision with spontaneity. Flat planes of color meet unexpected textures; controlled forms are interrupted by a flicker of looseness. His paintings invite viewers to notice how much meaning can exist in the simplest arrangements. Recent works such as Reader and Reaching Out reflect this quiet power: pared-down yet resonant, structured yet full of breath. Through his practice, Ollie shows us that acrylic painting does not need to be loud to be impactful. In his hands, minimal forms and gentle tones become invitations to pause, reflect, and discover stories hidden in the spaces between.

Acrylic art is more than paint on canvas, it is energy made visible, a conversation between light, colour, and the artist’s hand. These acrylic artists remind us that the medium is endlessly versatile, able to shift from bold, expressive strokes to delicate, layered atmospheres. Every brushstroke is a decision, every layer a chance to rewrite what we see. Acrylic painting celebrates immediacy; its fast-drying nature allows artists to work quickly, experiment freely, and follow inspiration without hesitation.

At the Arts to Hearts Project, we celebrate those who embrace this freedom and transform blank surfaces into luminous stories. Their work invites us to look closer, to feel more deeply, and to see how colour can hold memory, movement, and meaning all at once. If you are drawn to the vibrancy and versatility of acrylic, explore these artists’ worlds, let their canvases pull you in, stir your senses, and remind you that beauty can be as bold and fluid as the paint itself.