Use Of Gouache

After my last post, Mick Carney asked me why I use gouache  and what prompted my approach to the work I am doing at the moment (excluding the experimental stuff!).
Like so many things that we do, it can be difficult to pin point the moment when you make a decision to follow a  certain path. However, I do remember having tubes of Chinese White in my box of tricks, just in case I forgot to leave the highlights where they should be, etc. I always found the paint in the tube to be hard and dry, presumably because I did not use it enough! If I added a drop of water, it seemed to lose its covering power.
A friend had been on a course or to an art sale and had acquired a tube of acrylic gouache white. It did a grand job, was nicely fluid and had good covering power for highlights etc. The only problem was that the manufacturer (whose name eludes me at the moment ) had stopped producing it.

Following that, I did a day course with Sorya French (apologies if her first name is spelled wrongly ) using acrylic inks and I bought several bottles of white Daler Rowney FW acrylic ink. It did a reasonable job and I used it for quite some time.

I was making an effort to really loosen my figurative floral work, and Peter Ward  (http://watercolourfanatic.blogspot.com) was king enough to send me an email containing some amazing work by far eastern artists that he had come across on Wet Canvas or Facebook. They were amazing!

The two that really started me off are printed below, and I apologise for not accrediting their work with their names but these are not always readable.

I studied the images closely and decided that the white areas could not be white paper and came to the conclusion that it was either white acrylic or white gouache. It seemed to be laid on quite thickly, so I did not think it was ink.
Wanting to have a go, I needed to order some more white paint and came across in Jackson's catalogue some acrylic gouache by Acrylicos Vallejo or AV.........just what I thought I needed, and the rest is history!

Another painting sent by Peter kept my nose to the grindstone!

In case any of you missed them, I have included a couple of the works that I did following this 'Damascus' moment.

Still a long way to go, but I am really enjoying painting with this combination of watercolour and acrylic gouache, and I am sure it will keep me busy for some time to come.
Hope that answers your questions' Mick!