Tag: gouache

Painting in July

I have done a fair amount of painting this last month, some of which has pleased me, and, of course, some which is not what I intended. In between has been some sewing and photography.

The paintings in this gallery were done mostly in July and are in both watercolor and gouache. I have been doing water studies for the most part – some still, inland water – some oceans and shore. For years the subject intimidated me, but now it is getting a lot easier. From water on the ground I have also moved to water in the air – fog, rain.

Now I plan to pull out the pastels and try these same subjects in a very different and unwet medium.

Misty Lake

I tried to capture the sense of mist rising from a lake in the early morning. Dry brush seemed to be the best solution, but I think I sort of missed it (hahahaha). I used a square, flat brush, moving up and down and sideways. The thing is, it wasn’t really foggy and blurred, but rather defined in the image.

Feels good to be painting again!

Misty Morning

Summer, fog, early morning rising mist. One color blends into another, overlapping, blurring together. How to express this?

Gouache does not readily lend itself to the color movement as does watercolor. In watercolor, you can discharge one color into another, and the wicking action of water and paper do the work for you. Here, I thought a lot about how to blend and merge colors to create that soft effect of fog. In the end, for this painting, I decided to use a narrow, flat brush with stiff bristles and scumble all the colors together.

Rather a brighter painting than I anticipated, but I think it does express the rising fog and early morning sky fairly well.

7×10 Arches hot press paper.

Breaking Fog

Another study of an Oregon coastline. Morning fog with a bit of sun breaking through.

I must admit, I am really pleased with how this painting turned out. It seems that returning to the scene (of the crime?) is helpful, as well as working in different media. I did this same scene in watercolor a bit ago, and I plan to do it in pastels as well.

Done on Arches 7×10 inch hot press 140# watercolor paper. Hot pressed paper seems to be the best choice for gouache. Time to order some more!