Artist’s Gouache
A unique water based Gouache paint, based on an emulsion of gum Arabic with poppy seed oil. Produced with high pigment load, derived from the highest quality performance pigments available and therefore conforming to the description ‘Artist’s Quality’. Our Gouache colours have best resistance to light and air when compared to standard gouache ranges and a delicate satin-matt finish when dried.
The paint paste dilutes with water and stays re-workable for 1-2 days, before becoming permanently fixed when thoroughly dried. This allows passages of applied paint to be carefully lifted out and modified during the painting process. The inclusion of a small percentage of poppy seed oil gives this true ‘tempera’ paint greater depth of colour than standard gouache colours. The broad colour spectrum also includes the cobalts and cadmiums, normally associated with oil colour ranges. In fact, we use the same pure bright cadmiums and cobalt pigments (still manufactured in the English Potteries) as in our oil colours.
Gouache dries with a flat, velvety satin-matt finish and can be applied to all art papers but also to gesso primed panels and papers. Hot Pressed (Satin) papers of 300gsm weight or above are ideal for laying down flat blocks of colour, whereas NOT (Cold-Pressed) or Rough papers 300gsm weight or above allow thinned layers of Gouache to behave more or less like watercolour paint – try diluting extensively with water to create modulated washes that will show some degree of granulation (with earth colours). We are especially fond of Cassel Earth – a natural brown lignite, that shows granulation upon dilution and is a good alternative to black, being a dense brown-black shade, with excellent transparency when expressed as a wash.
In thin applications it is also suitable for use on high quality gesso-primed canvas, for example, as underpainting for subsequent oil paint layers. The matt and slightly absorbent dried surface of our gouache allows subsequent layers of oil colour to be applied, where the oil colour gently absorbs into the gouache underpaint.
Many artists use our gouache for outdoor colour sketches but also for life painting – working from the model. The quick drying time and deep colour saturation (akin to oil colour in appearance) makes a viable alternative to oil colours – and is especially superior to so-called ‘water-mixable’ oil colours. No solvents need be used for dilution. Water is used to thin the gouache colours – but artists can also use our Gum Arabic Medium to dilute/extend gouache colour. For example, adding 10-20% Gum Arabic Medium to Gouache colour will extend the colour without losing the satin-matt dried sheen, even when further diluted with water.
