Charles Sheeler, Bucks County Barn, 1918, gouache and conté crayon, Columbus Museum of Art, Ohio: Gift of Ferdinand Howald
Of all the mediums for painting, gouache (pronounced “gwash”) is most often puzzling to people.
I mispronounced it for years, and it has been called other names – including designer color, poster color and tempera – just to add to the confusion.
Basically, gouache is an opaque watercolor. It has the ability to cover over dry layers without any bleed-through. Changes can be made swiftly. From the 1910s onward, this swift-drying paint was much favored in the commercial field.
However, many painters have used gouache as a fine art medium as well. The Columbus Museum of Art has a very fine American Modernist collection, and is where this Charles Sheeler (1883-1965) piece was found for this month’s selection.
Sheeler’s work is noted for his clean lines and precise compositional strategy – so much so that he is considered a leader in the group of American painters called the Precisionists. Here, gouache is used sparingly, primarily for the interlocking reds near the center. Some other painters who used gouache include Alice Schille (1869-1955), Charles Burchfield (1893-1967) and Edmund Kuehn (1916-2011).
Christopher Burk is a young painter, a Columbus College of Art and Design graduate with stints working in New York, who now has a studio in the new BrickBox Studios. Burk also loves the light and architectural forms, and pulls them together with a sense of mystery and perhaps a bittersweet nostalgia. Working in oils and gouache, his next exhibition is at the Brandt-Roberts Galleries. It opens Sept. 1.
Burk earned a residency at the Vermont Studio Center, where he developed the works for this forthcoming show, titled Stillness: Nocturnes by Christopher Burk. Burk will also exhibit at the George Billis Gallery in New York in November.
Michael McEwan teaches oil painting classes in his Summit Street studio. His paintings are available exclusively from Keny Galleries. Learn more at www.michaelmcewan.com.
