Gouache at the Beach

 

Plein air gouache at Goleta Beach

One of the appeals of gouache is its portability and the fact that it’s easier to travel with than oil paints.

For a vacation to Santa Barbara, I brought only gouache. Here’s what I experienced and learned:

Every conceivable palette setup works—but none works perfectly. I ended up simply laying out paint directly on my Strada Easel mixing surface. I tried using soaked paper towels, but eventually just squeezed out small amounts of gouache and replenished them throughout each painting session. Working with fresh paint proved to be the best solution.

My favorite surfaces are smooth ones: hot press watercolor paper and Strathmore Toned Sketch paper in either gray or tan. I haven’t yet tried Bristol, but I’m looking forward to it.

For brushes, I’ve gotten excellent mileage out of the Richeson Plein Air Travel Brush short-handle set and Princeton Select synthetic brushes. Anything that is relatively stiff and doesn’t absorb much water works well.

Working small helps. My paper size was 6 × 8 inches, and that proved to be a sweet spot.

The fun part of gouache is laying down a confident stroke of paint and leaving it alone. Fussing with it churns up the underlying pigment, and I find it quickly loses its beautiful opacity when overworked. Layering, however, works wonderfully, and subtle shifts in color and temperature are part of the enjoyment.

The challenge most artists mention with gouache is its unpredictable color shift as it dries—darks tend to dry lighter, while lights often dry darker. My experience has been that the more you paint with gouache (I was doing three studies a day), the more those shifts begin to make sense as you get to know your paints. Yes, I painted studies where the sky dried darker than I intended, but that’s simply part of the learning process.

I see gouache as both an outstanding study medium and one that fully stands on its own as a finished painting medium.

As for painting on the beach, a perfect day with a gentle breeze—like we enjoyed in Santa Barbara—certainly helps. Beyond the weather, though, shade was essential for me. It made judging color and value much easier and made the entire painting experience more comfortable.