Slush coloured
Posted: February 29, 2020 Filed under: Uncategorized 27 CommentsThis yellow wall in Pointe Claire Village always looks great on a sunny winter morning. I’ve painted it many times before in watercolour, but never in gouache (or in a mix of gouache and watercolour like I did here). Working with gouache is a bit of a learning curve for me, but I am starting to figure out a method for this. Instead of working from light to dark, I have figured out that the best direction to take is to move from clean to dirty. I start with the light, bright colours like sky, yellow wall, snow (while the white paint is still white), and then I move to snow shadows and wall shadows. By the time I get to the colours on the road I have all kinds of gooey neutral colours on the palette which are perfect for the slush on the road.
Shari Blaukopf's Sketchbook 
I’ve never thought about how an artist would paint slush, I only picture white snow, but that is why you are a painter and I am not )
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Beth, that’s funny. I paint a lot of slush because the snow only stays white on the roads for a very short time. As the days get warmer, the roads get messier and messier. So slush colour seems to be very important on my winter palette. It’s definitely a warm brown.
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You’ve beautifully captured the clear joyful light today. Great composition. That roof colour really makes the yellow pop! Love it.
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Thanks Alison. That’s a good description of the light of the day. Love it.
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Clean to dirty could be applied to lots of things. I did get a laugh out of that. Bt it is so good to see your work in gouache. Just lovely. The road doesn’t look like the dirty part. Love your colors. and the blue shadows.
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I’m glad I gave you a laugh Judy. I’ll take a photo of my palette after I finish painting with gouache. It’s quite a mess.
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Hi Shari, looking forward to May in CA! Can’t wait. Can you share with us your travel gouache palette. I use gouache with WC at home, but haven’t tried making up a small palette for the on site sketching. Thanks, Lynn
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Hi Lynn, I do have a small range of gouache colours, but recently I picked up Nathan Fowkes’s book on painting landscapes. He mixes white gouache with watercolour, and I’ve been using his method. I have so many tubes of watercolour pigment, that this makes sense to me. I have a pocket painter portable palette which I fill with 12 watercolour pigments, the basics mostly, and then I have a little well that I add white gouache too. Look for the book. It’s really great.
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Thanks Shari. I’ll look for his book now! I have also mixed WC with white gouache. Lynn
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Thank you for featuring the gouache! I’m learning so much from each of your sketches and your comments too!
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I’m glad you like it Christina. I’m having fun with this too.
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Great Sketch.Thanks for the Gouache tip, clean-to-dirty.
I’ve been struggling to try to keep Gouache clean and bright, but it’s hard to manage, so I’ll try your approach.
Jim
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Hi Jim. It seems like a somewhat silly tip but it really works for me. Hope it will for you too.
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Great slushy road reflections! Lovely colors, nice combo of blue and muted yellows. Well done-as always.
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Thanks so much Bernadette.
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I love this! The reflections in the puddles are great. I like your process.
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Thanks Joan!
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Good Afternoon dear friend Shari,
I love the choice of yellow color giving sunlight effect and those power cables and posts.
giving a very realistic and natural look, quite laudable.
Blessings,
Uma
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Thanks for writing Uma. That yellow is a mix of Naples Yellow watercolour and white gouache. Worked well for that stucco wall.
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Beautiful painting. My eye keeps going to that bright sunlit wall. I’m sure you’ve seen it but by chance James Gurney posted a video last night about painting snow with gouache and watercolor.
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Of course I saw that Jeff. Great video, as always. He is such a pro!
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Hi, Shari: what is the size of this painting, and is it your usual size for capturing outdoor scenes? Also, what is the paper you used here? Thanks so much.
Lee
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HI Lee,
This one is 9″ x 12″. That is about the usual size I work on in the car, or sometimes a little bigger. The paper is Strathmore 400 Series, toned tan mixed media paper, vellum surface, Best quality.
https://www.strathmoreartist.com/toned-paper/id-400_series_toned_mixed_media.html
There is a thinner version but I prefer this one because it doesn’t warp. Do you work in gouache?
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Are you known for your prime color signature? I just love it 🙂 Beautiful work
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Ashley, I am not sure what that means. Please explain so I can understand. Thanks!
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Hi Shari, sure thing, I’ve noticed in the paintings that I have seen, you introduce the colors red, yellow and blue in some fashion, usually very subtly and in a less noticeable way. I was wondering if you do this intentionally and if it is a sort of signature of yours which you incorporate into your work.
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Hi again Ashley. Thanks so much for the clarification. That’s a very good observation. I often use a limited palette, sometimes intentionally but often unintentionally. It’s often a version of a primary triad, like you mention. I think most often it is unintentional because I have been working like this for so many years, and I paint so quickly, that I don’t really notice what I am dipping into. But for this one, I did use lots of yellow, a bit of blue and just a touch of red.
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