Tag Archives: Gouache

In and Out of the Studio

I have been having the best time lately, in and out of the studio.

Airport people

I never go anywhere without bringing some sort of art supplies, even if just a colored pencil and a tiny sketchbook. On our trip to CA earlier this month, I learned just how easy it would be to bring along my gouache and accompanying materials.

The center flap of this case flips over and has 6 pen straps on the other side which holds all my brushes. The numerous zippered & elasticized pockets assure I have plenty of room for everything.

I bought an inexpensive travel palette that has a silicone cover which keeps the paints moist and leakproof. It nestles within a generously sized collapsible water container which, along with all the rest of my gear, fits neatly into my 4″x9″ pencil case. Together with a lightweight Holbein 7.5″ x 6″ watercolor/multi-media sketchbook, I have a very compact but complete travel kit.

Note the palette with its silicone cover in place.

That said, makeshift studio space while traveling can be a bit of a crapshoot. Luckily, our Berkeley Airbnb not only had terrific natural light, but a lovely little desk looking out on the garden.

Berkeley Garden

You may laugh, but with no IKEAs in VT, wandering through the maze of the Emeryville store was more than a planned activity – it was an inspirational treat.

IKEA pattern

This boldly patterned duvet cover was a real eye-catcher. The calm of recreating it later with paint was equal to, if not better than, any meditation app.

This little exercise was a great way to use up leftover paint that I didn’t want to waste.

A subsequent field trip to the Ruth Bancroft Garden in Walnut Creek was just as fruitful in the inspiration department.

You have no idea how hard it was to choose just 2 photos among the many I took, to show here

This dry garden has been on my to-see list for a long time and it was worth the wait. So many wonderful layers of color, pattern, and texture.

Succulents

The bottom line is, pretty much anything can serve as input to brew in the back of one’s mind and eventually lead to new ideas. This trip got me thinking about ways to incorporate pattern within my worktable still lives — sometimes as a last layer, but also at the beginning of a sketch.

I used some Neocolor I’s for the under-layer of this experiment. Unlike Neocolor II’s, they aren’t water soluble, so didn’t bleed when I washed a thin layer of gouache over everything, followed by the contours of objects, again with gouache.

It’ll be interesting to see how pattern might affect a push and pull between the fore and backgrounds. Because of its opacity, gouache gives me the freedom to try this in a way that isn’t possible with watercolor. And that is a game-changer!

2025 Elizabeth Fram, Gouache on paper, 9″H x 5.75″W As I go along, bits of the original pattern poke through, which I can obliterate or enhance with subsequent layers of paint

Before I go, you may remember that last year I took the month of December off from posting to Eye of the Needle. It was such a successful way to recharge my batteries that I promised myself I would do it again this year. With that in mind, my next post will be on January 1, 2026 — which will be here before we know it.

Till then, wishing you and yours the happiest of holidays ahead!

PS: I want to give you a heads-up that there are changes on the horizon for Mailchimp (the platform I use to send out blog notifications to all you lovely subscribers). Looking into other options is one of my December chores, so there is the very likely possibility that I may send you a test in December and that my notification emails may have a new look when I return for real in January. Thanks for your patience.

Risk, Discovery, Momentum

With Art at the Kent now in the rearview, I’ve just finished another broken vase and shadow piece and have a fresh sheet of paper stretched on my board, ready to begin a new one. I still need to get these pieces out of my system before I can move on.

Even so, I’ve spent the majority of my studio time pushing forward with gouache. It’s a dance of two steps forward, one step back, yet feels ever so liberating. With each sketch – and at this point they are definitely just sketches – I’m becoming more aware of what a deep and, at times, mysterious pond I’ve jumped into.

Stlll, there are plenty of folks to lead the way. Aside from masters such as Paul Klee, Lois Dodd, and Fairfield Porter, contemporary painters like Lena Rivo, Maru Godas, and Mike Hernandez give me plenty to think about and to study.

In a timely bit of kismet, I was listening to an “I Like Your Work” podcast by Erika b Hess in which she touched on the commonality, and even the bravery, of delving into the fresh territory of a new medium. Her characterization of such explorations as a period of “risk, discovery, and momentum” nails the feeling. What better time than now, after a couple of big exhibitions, to thwart complacency by breathing some fresh air into my practice?

Orange and Purple Bowl

Please note: I’ll be back in four weeks (Nov. 20th). We have a date to meet our first grandbaby!

Something New

Perhaps the biggest gift of an ending is the beginning that follows.

This past summer has left me with a lot to digest.
Marked most significantly by the loss of my father, I can’t ignore that that sadness was bookended by two events which have brought me tremendous joy. Both “Full Bloom” in June and “Holding – Mementos Kept, Memories Kindled” (which wraps up at the Kent Museum this Sunday, 10/12) have grounded me over the past several months while being an ongoing reminder of the irrefutable fact that life is inherently a mixture of bitter and sweet.

Maybe it’s the confluence of these three recent endings that has led me to seek out something new this fall. Without departing too terribly far from the familiar, I treated myself recently to a basic palette of gouache and a few new brushes. With no particular endpoint in mind, I have been having a wonderful time this week, just seeing what happens.

If you look closely, you will see this was the first pass for the painting below.

Following the examples of Sandi Hester and Peggi Kroll Roberts, I divided a sketchbook spread into quadrants of color as a starting point, then ad-libbed a composition of items from my work table — letting those initial four colors be something of a guide without being too restrictive. The point for now is to keep things simple, concentrate on learning to handle the paint, and to make discoveries about color. I’ve ended up happily lost in the process.

Up to this point, my only painting experience is with transparent watercolor, so the opaque quality of gouache is a revelation. It has triggered a whole different way of thinking and is SO MUCH FUN! I can’t help but consider a million possibilities, not to mention how great it will be to incorporate stitch once I get my sea legs and figure out where I may be headed.

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Not able to make it to Calais for “Holding” at Art at the Kent? Get a taste of its unique flavor with this episode of Across The Fence. If you keep your eyes peeled, you’ll see a few of my pieces along the way.

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In case you didn’t already see it, please enjoy this gifted-to-you New York Times article by Sam Thielman and Gabriel Gianordoli about Emil Ferris – “The Comics Artist Who Sees Monsters in Museums, and in the Mirror”. Her drawings are spectacular.