What is this type of art called?
It's an aquarelle painting and from the looks of it either watercolors or inks (or both) were used. 

This technique uses lots of water, so you need really thick paper for it. Many hobby / craft / art shops sell special aquarelle paper. It's as thick as cardboard but white.

Acrylic colors are not well suited for this kind of art because they dry too fast and become waterproof after drying. But you can experiement with acrylic colors and see what kind of effects they produce.

You might get the idea of using a cheap, school grade box of watercolors, but these will produce muddy and chalky colors and nothing like the warm glow in the center of the picture. Aquarelle colors are rather expensive compared to acrylic or oil colors because they contain lots of pigments and not much more. They are usually sold in little cubess or disks and you use them by brushing a wet paint brush over them. And one disk or cube of watercolor goes a long way.

If you want to learn painting with watercolors, start with learning about the different effects of wet-in-wet and wet-on-dry technique.