My latest toys - Gouache

"Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under trees on a summer's day, listening to the murmur of the water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is by no means a waste of time."
- John Lubbock

A daily practice of sketching and painting gives you a chance to exercise the big three P's - practice, practice, practice!


Landscape in Gouache - in Moleskine 200gsm Folio 12" x 8" - Maree©

In this invented scene I've experimented with a Gouache technique (pronounced "gwash" - it comes from the Italian aguazzo, for "mud"), using Opaque watercolours, starting with light transparent washes and smaller opaque passages down the slopes in the foreground, using colours like Light Red Permanent Opaque, Payne's Grey Permanent Opaque and Cadmium Yellow Permanent Opaque. For the sky I've mixed Cerulean with some Chinese White, using the same mix on the mountains with a darker variation.

I quite like the look one achieves with the opaques and I will be investing in some Gouache paints a.s.a.p.! This looks like an exciting new learning curve for me!

What is Gouache?
Gouache differs from watercolour in that the particles are larger, the ratio of pigment to water is much higher, and an additional, inert, white pigment such as chalk is also present. Like all water media, it is diluted with water. (Gum Arabic is also present as a binding agent, just as in watercolour.) This makes gouache heavier and more opaque, with greater reflective qualities.



Gouache paints come in many colors and are usually mixed with water to achieve the desired working properties and to control the opacity when dry.

On the Border of the Game Reserve

We need the tonic of wildness…We can never have enough of nature…We need to witness our own limits transgressed, and some life pasturing freely where we never wander.
- Henry David Thoreau


"Border of the Game Reserve" - watercolour on Ashrad hot-pressed 300gsm - 8" x 6"
- Maree©

Much of Tarlton in Gauteng, South Africa, is flat farm land and renowned for the many vegetable and flower farmers in the area. But we do have our fair share of hills and rocky outcrops, making it an artist's paradise for the variety of landscapes it offers. This scene is on the border of the Krugersdorp Game Reserve, where the landscape drops steeply into a little ravine with a stream and little waterfall at the bottom.

I had to access this area with my Land Rover as it's quite far off the road (hubby driving, I DON'T do off-road!) - we were actually on our way to the shopping mall that Monday morning and hubby said he just had to show me something - took a short detour and was it worth it! Unfortunately the stream was dry, hubby says it's spectacular when it tumbles down the little waterfall, but the rocks and shrubs provided a beautiful setting. We spent almost one and a half hours here while I did this sketch. When I can summon up the courage, I might take a drive to the area again for another sketch.

Daisies and weeds and crab spiders

"The Rose has but a Summer reign,
The daisy never dies."
Author: James Montgomery


Daisies and weeds - watercolour in Moleskine Watercolour sketch-book - 8" x 6" Maree©

My Shasta Daisies have now been over-taken by the weeds and I decided to do one last sketch before I trim them down for the winter. Come Spring, they will once again bloom in abundance, and be home to the white Crab Spider, which changes its colour depending on the colour of the flower it is sitting on.

Crab spiders are not active hunters. They make use of camouflage techniques and remain quite still until the prey arrives and then catch it. With a poisonous bite (not dangerous to humans) they kill their prey and suck it dry. Every season I love inspecting the daisies close-up, seeing how many I can find on a bush. I also refrain from watering the daisies with a hose pipe from the top in case I drown them!


A white crab spider on a daisy


Here's a crab spider in yellow form on a daisy


Here the crab spider is half green and half brown, blending perfectly with the flower it is sitting on

(Pics from Wikipedia)

Buy a Greeting Card, Postcard or Framed print of this image on "RedBubble"


Greeting card from my "Flower Series"

Daisies in my garden

Earth laughs in flowers.
~Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Hamatreya"


"Daisies in my garden" - watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm - 11" x 15" - Maree©

Inspiration taken from my garden - the Shasta daisies are still going strong, but are now long overdue on trimming and rather tall and lanky, but they made an ideal study for a quick sketch on a cold and windy day.

Daisies in the rain

There is a flower, a little flower
With silver crest and golden eye,
That welcomes every changing hour,
And weathers every sky.
Author: James Montgomery


Rudbeckia "Echinacea purpurea" - watercolour in Moleskine watercolour sketch-book 17/04/2010 - 8" x 5.5" - Maree©

When it's freezing outside and threatening to rain any minute, and I can't make a field trip to do some sketching, I always turn to my garden for inspiration. Even under the most dismal conditions there is always something to be found - some flower left-overs, a few Autumn leaves clinging to a branch or the birds and insects who seem to cheerily carry on, no matter what the weather.