Painting with Gouache

May 16th, 2010

The first time I ever heard of and used gouache was in college. We used it in our graphics class for colorizing some project because gouache can be laid down as a solid, opaque, flat color without streaks. (pronounced “ga-wash”)

Gouache painting is centuries old and originally referred to painting oil over a tempera base. Today it is just used alone, as a water media paint. I like it because of the dried finish. Hard to tell from a scan on the computer, but in person the finish is flat and reminds me of my screen printing days - I like the way light hits the surface of the media. To me part of the fun is the challange of it drying fast and the way the colors generally dry a different value than what you see when wet. Darks dry lighter, lights dry darker.

On the IllustratedATCs site, I just joined a 4×4 Cat Lovers Swap – ATC (artist trading card) collectors also collect other sizes, sometimes binding them together. Here are 3 I just finished in gouache and ink that are 4″ x 4″.

Many people don’t realize that the cut out paper art of Henri Matisses later work was not cut out colored paper. I was cut out gouache painted paper. Most are familiar with his Blue Nudes, but my favorite is a simple piece called Lagoon.

Lagoon, Matisse, 1944

I never appreciated his cut paper work until I tried it myself for a Matisse ATC Swap. We had to make our own paper cut out art in the style of Matisse. Here are my pieces: Woman with Shell, Woman on Beach, Garden and Bog Pond. It was more difficult that I thought it would be. I like how they turned out, I tuned into Matisse.

Matisse style cut out ATCs, Julie Howell

I like to think that Henri Matisse would have liked concept of “mail art” and Artist Trading Cards and would have readily traded original ATC art with others.

Painting with Gouache

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