Cruising with Gouache

Our spring-break this year was a wonderful, southern caribbean cruise. I knew there would be lots of subjects I’d like painting, but not a lot of time and bringing oil paints was not practical for going on and off a cruise ship. I don’t have much experience with gouache, so I thought this was a good opportunity. An opaque form of watercolor, it allows you to rework and paint over areas.

Here’s some of what I did. I used a 7" x 10" watercolor pad. Each of these took about a half hour.

Palm studies and a view from the deck of Fort de France bay on Martinique.