Dutch Pour Experiment: WITH vs WITHOUT Cell Activator — Does It Matter?

Does adding cell activator to a Dutch Pour actually make a difference? Hello everyone and welcome back to Ron Sexton Art! Today I’m doing a side-by-side Dutch Pour experiment to answer a question I’ve been curious about: Will adding cell activator to a Dutch Pour create more cells or noticeably change the finished painting? To find out, I’m using two identical 16” × 16” canvases, the same base, the same colors and essentially the same Dutch Pour process. There is only ONE major difference: 🎨 Canvas #1 — NO Cell Activator 🎨 Canvas #2 — Gold Cell Activator Added Then we put them side-by-side and compare the results. And I have to say… the result wasn’t quite what I expected. 🎨 COLOR PALETTE The color palette for this experiment was inspired by the beautiful work of Tomoko from Tomoko Fluid Art. Custom Red/Orange: • Cadmium Red • Primary Yellow • Red Oxide Additional Colors: • Pébéo Iridescent Blue Green • Pébéo Iridescent Gold 🖤 BASE PAINT For the black base I used a mixture of: • Amsterdam Oxide Black • U.S. Floetrol • Water The canvases were completely flooded with the black base before adding the colors. 🧪 THE EXPERIMENT For the first canvas, I layered the custom red/orange mixture, Iridescent Blue Green and Iridescent Gold before blowing everything out with a handheld blower on low speed and cool temperature. No cell activator was used. For the second canvas, I repeated essentially the exact same process using the same paints and same black base. But this time I added a Gold Cell Activator immediately before blowing out each section. Because cell activator tends to sink into the other paints, I worked in sections—adding the activator and immediately hitting that area with the blower. The idea was simple: Would the cell activator produce noticeably more cells, lacing or definition than the regular Dutch Pour? 🤔 THE RESULT This is where things became interesting. When I placed the two paintings side-by-side, I expected the canvas containing the cell activator to show a pretty obvious difference. But it really didn’t. The first painting—with NO cell activator—already developed plenty of cells on its own. The second painting—with the Gold Cell Activator—certainly produced cells as well, but I didn’t see the dramatic difference I was expecting. So based on this experiment, my conclusion is: Adding cell activator didn’t appear to make a significant difference in this particular Dutch Pour. Of course, that’s based on ONE experiment, one paint combination and one cell activator recipe. Different paints, consistencies or techniques could certainly produce different results. And that’s exactly what makes experimenting with fluid art so much fun! 👀 NOW I WANT YOUR OPINION Take a close look at the two finished canvases. LEFT: No Cell Activator RIGHT: With Cell Activator Do YOU see a meaningful difference? Does one have better cells or lacing? And most importantly: Which painting do you prefer? Let me know in the comments because I’m very interested to see whether everyone reaches the same conclusion I did. If you enjoy these kinds of fluid art experiments, Dutch Pours, acrylic pouring tests and side-by-side comparisons, please consider SUBSCRIBING to Ron Sexton Art and giving the video a THUMBS UP. It really helps support the channel and allows me to keep experimenting. There’s a lot more paint to pour! 🎨 Ron Sexton Art Original Fluid Art & Acrylic Pouring RonSextonArt.com 🎵 MUSIC CREDIT “Sweet Love” Music by DayFox Source: Pixabay Music Sweet Love by DayFox on Pixabay Music used in accordance with the Pixabay Content License. 🎨 INSPIRATION The color palette used in this Dutch Pour experiment was inspired by the beautiful work of Tomoko from Tomoko Fluid Art. If you enjoy fluid art and acrylic pouring, be sure to check out her channel: Tomoko Fluid Art on YouTube A big thank you to Tomoko Fluid Art for the color inspiration for this experiment! #RonSextonArt #DutchPour #DutchPourExperiment #CellActivator #FluidArt #AcrylicPouring #AcrylicPour #FluidArtPainting #AcrylicFluidArt #PourPainting #AbstractArt #FluidArtist #AcrylicPouringTechnique #PaintPouring #FluidArtExperiment