During the residency at H.J. Andrews Experimental Forest I worked on one gouache painting. The last time I used gouache was about 20 years ago. I don’t have fond memories of the medium. Recently, something in the deep recesses of my memory nagged me to try it again. I felt that my first foray into the medium was nothing but a struggle. I was trying to paint like I was using oil paints. Gouache, however, is nothing like oil paints.

Not ready to give up entirely, I tried another once I returned home to my own studio. This time I went into it as if I were making more of a drawing than a painting. I decided to isolate the lines of the bark beetle galleries, and include nothing more to my image. This time I felt like I was using gouache in a more gouachy manner.