Landscape Impressions I - Gouache painting

This is an ongoing project to extend my knowledge of gouache. I have always enjoyed ethereal watercolour paintings that suggest the information but with no detail. As I was playing around with the gouache I wondered if I could achieve that effect with gouache. Here is my first try:

 Landscape impression I  by Marion Hedger

12.5x17.5cm (5"x7") Gouache on canvas board
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I coated the canvas with a ground of dark orangy colour acrylic.  Then roughly mapped in the design with the gouache and gave it a spritz with water, turning the support now and again to let the paint run but generally letting it go where it wanted to.  I then worked back into it, ocassionally spritzing again. In the final pass I tried to recapture some of the highlights as these had sunk into the support and some areas were qute dull where the paint had run. It was difficult to know how much reworking to do and how much could be achieve with gouache. When finished I varnished it with spray acrylic gloss varnish which lifted some of the dulled colours.

I was surprised at how much I enjoyed working on the canvas as I thought it might be a little rough, but the gouache behaved well and it was stable enough to withstand the spritzing and the reworking and it had a nice feel to it while I was painting.

Not a watercolour 'ethereal' look, but I like the result. What do you think?

Through the woods - 2nd Gouache Experiment

This is my second attempt at a gouache landscape.

Through the woods

Gouache painting by Marion Hedger

21x30cm on thin black card.

I really like the effect of this one. I am still learning how to use the gouache and I have kept this fairly loose with the black ground peeping throught, hopefully giving it some harmony. As I still have my limited palette of kid's paints I could not mix all the colours I needed, but to me it does have a nice energy about it.

This is from one of my photos while walking through the woods close by. We do not get a typical autumn here, it is a mixture between a few coloured and dry leaves and fresh growth that sprouts after the autumn storms following a very dry summer. I hope I have captured some of that feeling.

Landscape - gouache study

This is an experiment in using gouache, the first time I have used this medium.

 Gouache landscape study

16x21cm (6.5"x8.5") on blue/gey paper.

This is painted very quickly with a very limited palette very bright blue, pink and yellow plus a black and white. I was looking around to see what I could paint with while sitting on the sofa as I have a sore throat at the moment and didn't want to venture into my cold studio.

I used the paint straight out of the tube with very little mixing on the palette and hardly any water. I was very surprised at how fast they dried, but they were easy to go over with a second layer. A good medium to use to stop you fiddling with the brushstroke. The bright pink in the sky is because I ran out of white paint to mix it with.

Once I got used to how they reacted on the paper, I found I really liked using them and the effect they gave. I used my granddaughter's paints that I purchased for her - cheap and cheerful - as she likes to feel she is using 'real' paints - she's becoming an art supply critic at the age of 7! So I would imagine that artist quality paint would be even better to work with.

 After Peploe still life by Marion Hedger

Watercolour on140lb watercolour paper

This small painting (10x15cm) was painted as part of the wetcanvas.com Master's challenge project. I concentrated on the Scottish Colourists for the series. When I started I did not know much about any of them, but by the end of the project I was a fan of Peploe.