I prefer to paint on a totally flat surface for both watercolor and acrylics, and my preferred surface is 140 lb watercolor paper.  Usually stretching will provide fairly flat paper but doing large areas with wet on wet will still cause some ripples on 140 lb paper.  Although 300 lb paper eliminates this problem it is very expensive.  One way around this is to bond a sheet of 140 lb paper to a piece of mat board using rubber cement.  Like most painters I have lots of scrap mat board as center cutouts so the only additional cost is for rubber cement.  Coat both sheets with rubber cement, assemble while still wet then weight it evenly for several hours to get a tight even bond.  Then, voila, you have 300 lb sheet for very little cost.

You must be careful to get an even bond across the paper,  otherwise large local bumps will form when the paper becomes wet.

Last weekend I met with several other artists from the Tucson Plein Air Painters Society at the Patagonia-Sonoita Creek Nature Preserve.  This a beautiful piece of real estate along Sonoita Creek owned by Nature Conservancy.  It is a real haven for bird watchers.   I was able to block in a nice scene while "off trail" on a sandbar along the creek before being runoff for not "staying on the trail".  The original plan was to paint plein air but I had to go to plan B and limit my on-site work to blocking in and taking photos for later use.  It would be really tough to stay on a trail as there are many walkers.  Here is the result as a 10 x 14-inch acrylic on mat board. A larger version of this is available in the Gallery.

For an easy to use palette for acrylics, especially for plein air painting, use a piece of window glass taped to a white matboard backing.  I use a piece of glass 8 x 10 inches  and spring clip it to my French easel. The white backing allows me to see the true colors of each mix.  Just let the acrylic dry on the glass then scrape off with a razor blade for easy cleanup.  This tip is based upon usage by Rodger Bansemer.

Last week we hiked at Cochise Stronghold.  It was a gorgeous day with many sites that could serve as a model for a good painting.  This one I was especially taken by as it illustrates why Cochise, the Apache Chief, was able to elude the US Army so long by hiding among the large granite boulders in this area.  The painting is acrylic on watercolor paper and measures 21 x 29 inches.  See the Gallery for a larger version.