During the 2020 Florida Watercolor Virtual Convention, Terry Denson demonstrated painting on Aquaboard. I had never tried it before but remembered that I had purchased a couple of the 2” cradled Aquaboard at the 2019 convention. So I dug them out and proceeded to create this painting of an Octopus arm.

I was surprised at how well the board took the paint although I felt that I did need to use more pigment than I normally do when painting on paper. Once finished, I took it outside to spray with Clearcoat gloss varnish. It took several coats because the Aquaboard is very absorbent. The sides of the Aquaboard were a light birch and seemed too light to properly compliment the deep, rich colors of the Octopus arm. I did not really want to paint the sides as I felt that would actually distract from the looks of the painting. I also like the looks of the wood grain. Not having any type of stains and not wanting to make a trip to the paint store, I set the piece aside for a few days. A few nights ago I had an epiphany! I had some Old English furniture polish in Walnut, so I tried that and loved how it brought out the beautiful wood grain. I put two layers on and allowed it to dry before putting a coat of MinWax clear varnish on it. Then I decided I wanted the painting to have a little more shine so I also added a layer of the MinWax overtop. I'm very pleased with the final outcome. What do you think?