Acrylic
A paint made with a synthetic acrylic resin, quick-drying and usually water-based. First used in the 1940s, it combines some of the properties of oil and watercolour and can be used to create a variety of effects from thin washes to thick brushwork. Although it behaves like oil paint when wet it doesn't give the same rich translucency.
The Meeting, Royal Academy of Arts
by Leonard Rosoman
1979-1984
NPG 5740
Diana, Princess of Wales
by Bryan Organ
1981
NPG 5408
Philip Larkin
by Humphrey Ocean
1984
NPG 5746
Leigh Bowery ('What is he trying to get at? Where does he want to go?')
by Stephen Willats
1984
NPG 6660
Queen Elizabeth II
by Michael Leonard
1985-1986
NPG 5861
Sir Michael Kemp Tippett
by Martin Rose
1989
NPG 6043
James Ivory
by Don Bachardy
1996
NPG 6372
Derek Walcott ('The Sun Poet')
by Ross Wilson
1997
NPG 6400
Neil Kinnock; Glenys Kinnock
by Andrew Tift
2001
NPG 6583
Alfred Brendel
by Tony Bevan
2005
NPG 6720
Johnson Gideon Beharry
by Emma Wesley
2006
NPG 6803
Paul Nurse ('Paul')
by Jason Brooks
2008
NPG 6837