March 20, 2019

Hiking & Painting in Montana


It was a warm-ish day in Montana earlier this week, so I put gouache paint into my backpack and did a short hike to the South Fork of the West Fork of the Gallatin River, where I knew a bench would be waiting for me.  I attracted a fair amount of attention from other hikers, and had a gorgeous day painting the snow and water and trees.

I'm pretty new to gouache painting and was using the gouache that's based in gum arabic.  I'd be warned that, like watercolor, the paint would lift as additional layers were applied.  I definitely experienced that, particularly when I was painting the trees and trying to deepen the green where it was in shade and almost silhouetted against the bright sky.  I'm going to try "acryla" gouache in the future, as that's got a different base and performs (apparently) more like acrylic paint and doesn't lift once it's dry.