Gouache
Gouache is an opaque, water-soluble paint that differs from watercolour, meaning it stops the white paper surface showing through.
Gouache is essentially watercolour paint with added white pigment, giving it an opaque quality. This opaque nature means it dries to a flat, matte finish and reproduces exceptionally well, making it particularly suitable for commercial art, illustration, and posters. White gouache is also commonly used to add strong highlights to watercolour paintings.
Designer's or artist's gouache uses high-quality pigments to achieve vibrant, lightfast colours that are smooth and solid. It dries quickly, delivers bold results, and doesn't require any additional mediums. It's popular among students and commercial artists and is often a required material in art colleges. Gouache can be used directly from the tube or thinned with water for washes, but it doesn't allow for building up multiple layers like pure watercolour. Unlike acrylic, gouache isn’t waterproof when dry.
12 results found for "Gouache"
Tomás Sánchez: En el paisaje interior
In conversation, Cuban painter Tomás Sánchez illuminates the spiritual underpinnings and sustainable production of his debut timed release.
Sarah Morris
Sarah Morris was born in London, England in 1967, and raised in Rhode Island, USA. She’s now based in New York, working from her studio in Long Island City.
Rafa Macarrón
Rafa Macarrón (he him) was born in 1981 in Madrid, Spain where he continues to live and work.
Tomoo Gokita
Tomoo Gokita (he/him) is a Japanese artist born in Tokyo in 1969, where he continues to live and work.
Out of the Dark
Anish Kapoor opens an ultramarine fissure with his first silkscreen print.While painting has become a central focus for Kapoor over the last decade, drawing has been an integral part of his practice from the very beginning – offering a tactile counterpart to his more seamless sculptures.Out of the Dark immerses the viewer in a mountain-like form that opens into a deep blue cavernous void. The print is based on a gouache work from 2016, taken from a group of drawings which evoke ‘sites of origin’ as mounds, mountains and voids in deeply saturated colours.The artist has described blue as “a colour that reveals darkness in a deep and mysterious way.” It was used by Kapoor in his earliest explorations of the void as a sculptural form. Like the dichotomy between his sculptures and paintings, it exists in balance with its perceived opposite. While red calls to mind blood and bodies, blue is transcendent and empty. Earthly, yet cosmic. Working closely with Kapoor, printmakers at Make-Ready in London paid close attention to chromatic accuracy. Spot colours including pure ultramarine were added to a CMYK separation to maximise depth and intensity in a 24 layer silkscreen print.“I am thrilled to share my first silkscreen print and to collaborate with Avant Arte on this new edition, and look forward to participating in a project that takes artwork to a wider audience.”
Untitled (Hand-finished)
Hand-finished, 28-layer silkscreens from a Bay Area legend.Our first collaboration with Barry McGee is a greatest hits style montage of his life in San Francisco. From disgruntled looking Everyman heads – an allegory for the city’s ‘invisible’ homeless population – to acronyms for the graffiti crews he tags with, the untitled print rewards those familiar with the artist's expansive and experimental practice. Abstract geometries fill the gaps, providing “areas to rest the eye” and loading the print with McGee's distinct aesthetic code.Once printed, McGee will add unique details to each print with spray paint and gouache. Illustrative additions introduce familiar faces from his esoteric library of references and symbols, while unplanned dots and lines in grey nod to the graffiti he still sprays today. Testing the process at Brothers Marshall in Malibu, faces, animals and acronyms were added to the right hand side of the print. For the edition itself, expect more of the same and (knowing Barry) a few surprises too. “I will be interacting with each print in a different way. I try to keep that element of unpredictability when composing work.”The underlying artworks – 14 colour silkscreens printed in 28 sharp-edged layers – have been created in close collaboration with expert printmakers at Make-Ready in London.
Fan (Hand-finished)
In a series of hand-finished prints, Hideaki Kawashima reflects on becoming who you once looked up to.The Japanese term ‘ojisan’ – used by younger generations in reference to characteristically stubborn middle aged men – is equal parts affectionate, mocking and deferential. With Fan, Kawashima returns to his adolescent view of such figures, staging relationships between a youthful sitter and portraits looking on from behind. “When I was younger, I often couldn’t understand what Ojisan were saying, but now that I have become an Ojisan myself, It seems reasonable that I did not understand them. This series is a tribute to my predecessors, who guided me in this way.”The framed portraits are individually painted by the artist in gouache, making every print unique. Most feature archetypal Ojisan, while some reprise the artwork’s subject – shifting the notion of being a ‘fan’ to one of self love. The nondescript book she is engrossed by absorbs this subtext – a novel filled with wisdom from the past, or a diary penned moments ago? Because of the time consuming nature of the hand-finishing process, only ten prints will be ready to dispatch at launch on Wednesday 15 November. The remaining ten will be completed in early 2024.
Fan (Hand-finished) is accompanied by an edition of 30 prints featuring a portrait of renowned Japanese writer Yukio Mishima.
BLOOM
With a blossoming symbol of growth and renewal, Marcela Flórido explores the beauty of self discovery. Playful, sensitive, bold – Flórido’s first print edition, BLOOM, embodies her intentions as an artist. The edition is based on a large-scale painting from 2022, an experiment in symmetry. Flórido foregrounds her cartoonish pseudo-self, a recurring subject for her recent artworks. She draws from a wealth of art historical references, from Modernism to Baroque, Hilma Af Klimt to Tarsal do Amaral, culminating in a vibrant exploration of selfhood. Each print has been uniquely hand-finished by the artist with flowers in a variety of colours, patterns and mediums, inviting collectors to connect with their print on a deeper level.
Ourselves Scattered Parts Of Earth
Haloed by the setting sun, Caleb Hahne Quintana’s subject emerges from lithographic waves.Each print has been uniquely hand-finished by the artist in gouache – adding washes of texture to the figure’s dappled T-shirt. Hahne Quintana finds the sublime in the mundane. He transforms everyday scenes into moments of reverence filled with deep hues and soft light.
Yummy!
Reality and fiction collide in Lin Yen-Liang's dream worlds. Playful blends of drawing and painting spill onto the page in Yummy!The charming boy rendered in coloured pencil shyly presents the gummy-style bear with a flower. The miniature pastel-hued sketches and written word invites us into the surrounding world of the characters.Yummy! is part of Studio Works, a series of original artworks by emerging global artists.
You are my sweetheart candy
Reality and fiction collide in Lin Yen-Liang's dream worlds. Playful blends of drawing and painting spill onto the page in You are my sweetheart candy. The lively scene of hybrid animals leaping across the page brings the artist’s joyful imagination to the mixed media work. Sunshine yellow spraypaint is offset by the pastel turquoise of the creatures, accompanied by pencil sketches and written word.You are my sweetheart candy is part of Studio Works, a series of original artworks by emerging global artists.
Oranges
Nikki Maloof injects vibrating visual patterns into her charming yet macabre domestic scene, Oranges. The artist has a tongue in cheek approach to memento mori – a traditional motif in still life that symbolises mortality.The original large scale artwork has been reprised as a multi layered print. Each unique edition is finished with hand collaged fish, gouache and coloured pencil to blend her collaging language with the print."I never go overboard on being precise. I think it's what makes my form of patterning feel like my own."
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Your questions, answered
We collaborate with artists to create both limited editions and works on paper.
A limited edition is a set number of similar or identical artworks. The size of the edition denotes the total number of artworks that will ever be made, underscoring their value.
Framing options vary for each piece and are listed on the individual artwork pages. Our standard glazing offer is a minimum 90% UV acrylic plexiglass, or you can upgrade to an anti reflective Optium museum plexiglass.
Yes, 100%. We work directly with our artists to create editions that accurately represent their body of work. Additionally, every artist personally reviews and approves their final editions.
Every artwork is signed or stamped, and individually numbered. You will also receive a stamped and numbered certificate of authenticity.
No—the copyright is not transferred to the purchaser of the edition.
All the ins and outs can be found on our orders and shipping page.
