Although I paint primarily in gouache, I’ve been enjoying working in oils again this summer. Looking at these two paintings side by side reminds me that the medium isn’t just a technical choice, but it does influence what I choose to emphasize.
The oil painting is built around value rather than color. Using just four pigments, I simplify the landscape into broad masses of light and dark, letting atmosphere do much of the storytelling. Details disappear. Individual trees become a single shape, and color is intentionally subdued.
Rather than describing a specific place, the painting is meant to evoke the experience of standing there. The quiet light, the still air, and the feeling of distance are the point.
The gouache painting begins with the same landscape, but heads in a different direction.
The color is brighter, the brushwork is more visible, and the forms are described with greater specificity. Instead of dissolving the landscape into atmosphere, the painting celebrates its character. The roadside greens, the rhythm of the trees, and the long stretch of pavement are all part of what makes this place feel familiar.
One painting is about atmosphere.
The other is about place.
Both paintings are simplified. Neither tries to record every leaf or every blade of grass. I’m interested in editing the landscape down to what matters most. The difference is simply where the emphasis falls. In oil, I find I’m searching for mood through value and shape. In gouache, I’m more inclined to let color and brushwork describe the personality of the landscape.
Even so, I don’t see these paintings as opposites.
They come from the same roads, the same fields, and the same habit of scrutinizing places that most of us pass every day without a second thought.
Mark Alan Anderson 
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