The gouache bug bit me big this past year! It's become a favorite medium for smaller works and working on location. The vibrant colors and simple materials and the ability to work much like I do in oils just feels natural to me. This past summer I taught my first intro to gouache class for adults at the LMFA Longview Museum of Fine Arts. After introducing the medium Monday evening and learning how to handle it and mix some basic colors, I did a quick demo of how I start many of my paintings. We first made a few quick thumbnails with a sharpie on drawing paper to plan the composition. I then demonstrated blocking in the main elements of the painting using a very simplified palette of the primary colors plus white. We practiced mixing neutrals from complimentary colors along the way too. The next day I spent a little over an hour finishing up the demo painting which was inspired by a brilliant sunrise after a stormy night at Galveston's East Beach. Gouache is a wonderful medium for exploring as it dries quickly and its opaque qualities allow for easy re-working. In this fast time lapse video you can really see how much my paintings evolve and change through the process. For me it's about the journey more than the destination. Every painting is an opportunity to learn and discover something new.

"After the Rain" in an unframed 8" x 8" gouache painting on paper. I add a light coat of varnish to my gouache paintings which gives them a slight sheen and helps protect the surface. Just pop it into a frame of your choosing to hang.