I did this painting in a class. I forgot my usual paper and a nice classmate gave me this sheet of slightly textured toned paper. Wow! I liked it! Changing materials can be very inspiring! This is a favorite walking place that can get very dramatic in late Fall.

This moon rise was from last year on November 15. The grass turns from gold to almost orange. I think there is a little purple color in there too. Done with a limited palette so things don’t get too complicated!

I love North Hero in September. The lake has a different personality every morning, and every sunrise has cloud and color surprises. This is a view from the east side of the island at about 1:00 in the afternoon. I started this as an ink and watercolor drawing, but it wanted to be a gouache painting.

April showed up at the shelter when my mom was looking for a friend. For this one, I did a preliminary sketch as well. A square format adds composition challenges, but also really focusses attention on the expression.

Animals definitely have expressions. A Labrador Retriever can be particularly expressive when making a silent request for food or a walk.

Using gouache lets me plan a painting with light layers and add depth with more layers. If I make a mistake, I can wipe off a forgiving paper like Arches 140lb cold press. I do a sketch underneath to make sure the proportions are right.

What better way to start the new year than with an alla prima class!

Alla prima means “at the first” or “all at once.” The idea is to get the image down at the first try. Some definitions cite “wet on wet” but this is difficult with gouache as it dries quickly.

This is quite a challenge. It requires drawing, value rendering, and color mixing all at once with not a lot of adjustments! Because my usual method involves lots of studies, I challenged myself to make a painting in only three steps.

Tone the paper.

Make a drawing

Make a painting.

This little painting took about an hour.