Originally, this was a post celebrating the final days of this 100 painting gouache challenge. But life stepped in and crushed me with the loss of my dogs. I did continue to paint, but it was sporadic and difficult. It was an attempt to add structure and routine back in my life with only marginally successful results. I’m still struggling.
I did in fact complete 100 gouache paintings. This isn’t the end. I’m still really enjoying the medium and have a third sketchbook to finish. I think it may be nice to do a walkthrough of what remains of my sketchbooks at some point. I’ve sold a lot of the paintings though so my first two sketchbooks have been fragmented.
These continued paintings will be coming slower than they have in the past. I’ve been struggling with depression and anxiety which leaves me mentally and physically exhausted most days and interferes with creating. Fall is also a very busy family time. There are parties nearly every weekend to celebrate birthdays or holidays. This lasts right through to the new year.
Since I really enjoyed participating in Inktober last year, I will be participating again this year. The ink sketches will again likely be quick, small sketches that I can finish in under an hour. I doubt I’ll have the time to work on gouache paintings in addition to the ink sketches. I plan on continuing to paint with gouache afterwards though.
Don’t worry. I haven’t given up on oil painting. I plan to start back up with oil painting in the new year for the January Strada Easel Challenge. It typically takes me at least 2 hours of concentrated work to complete an oil painting each day and that time has been scarce this summer. I think that is part of the reason why gouache has been so great. I can work on it in snippets and come back to it again and again throughout the day. The ease in which it can be picked up or put down makes it great for when I’m busy.
Shortly before the dogs passed, we added two new additions to the family. The little fella pictured in painting #92 is Nibbler and his brother Dobby is in painting #100. They’re both male ferrets that are about two years old. I don’t know much about them, but they’re funny.
They happened to come into our lives on a whim. I was over at a friend’s house and she let my kids hold these guys. And that was it. My kids were in love. They began talking constantly about getting our own ferrets. Lucky me, my friend was looking at rehoming them. I took the plunge with a promise that she would take them back if they didn’t work out. So far, so good.
Their crazy antics have been a welcome bit of comic relief. Although, I’ve discovered that they live up to their reputation as escape artists. They figured out the dog door and how to open the screen door all on their own. Now the house goes on lockdown whenever they’re out to play.
Thank you all for reading and supporting me in this difficult time. I’ll be back next week with another gouache painting or two.
Your work is lovely and it’s nice to see your versatility with gouache. What size are all these paintings and how long are you spending on them? I have been working with oil on 9”x12” linen sheets, but those still take me a few days to finish! Hang is there and paint and post when you can. Take care
Thank you Yolande. I really enjoy gouache. It was an easy transition from oils. They are all 6×9” and I spend roughly an hour or so of actual painting but it’s spread out over several hours. I wait for each layer to dry before moving on so it’s a pretty slow process. I could probably speed up the process with a hairdryer, but I like being forced to slow down and think about my next move. Working on multiple paintings also speeds up my workflow but I don’t do it very often.