4 Gouache Artists You Should Know If You Love Calm, Poetic Painting!

Gouache has always lived in the spaces between worlds, between watercolour and acrylic, opacity and translucence, delicacy and boldness. It’s a medium that resists singular definition, shifting effortlessly between softness and strength, whisper and statement. Rather than settling into one identity, gouache leans into its fluid nature. It bends, blends, layers, and lifts, offering artists a place where rules loosen and imagination widens.

In gouache, possibility feels endless. Colours land with a velvety weight yet can dissolve into tenderness. Edges hold clarity, then melt into the atmosphere. A single layer can suggest a moment; a dozen can build an entire story. This duality, this willingness to be both controlled and free, makes gouache a medium that invites curiosity as much as mastery.

For many contemporary artists, gouache becomes not just a material but a mindset: a way of exploring nuance, embracing imperfection, and finding beauty in the quiet transitions between tones, emotions, and ideas. It encourages a slower gaze, a deeper breath, a more intimate connection with colour and form.

At the Arts to Hearts Project, we’re drawn to artists who understand this language instinctively, those who use gouache to create work that feels both grounded and ethereal, bold yet tender. Their paintings capture the poetry of everyday life, the pulse of memory, the warmth of presence. They reveal how powerful a medium can be when it’s allowed to exist in its own in-between.

In this article, we’ll introduce you to gouache artists who are redefining what this versatile medium can hold artists who turn matte surfaces into portals, who transform small moments into luminous narratives, and who remind us that the most compelling art often emerges from the spaces where boundaries blur. Their work shows that gouache, with all its softness and strength, still has endless room to grow. Endless room to say something new. And endless room to reflect the world, piece by thoughtful piece, with heart.

Rachel Dowd @racheldowdfineart

Rachel Dowd lives and paints in Northern Indiana, and through her oil and gouache work she captures the quiet beauty of everyday moments, the way light hits a garden, the soft glow of early morning, the calm rhythm of nature and home. Her gouache and oil paintings don’t chase grandiosity; they seek truth in light, atmosphere, and emotion inviting us to see the ordinary with reverence, to breathe in the world’s subtle pulses, and to pause in moments often overlooked. In her hands, a quick sketch under a changing sky becomes a quiet hymn to nature’s transience; a small 5×7″ gouache evokes a moment before sunrise, the hush after rain, the quiet breath between seasons. Her work starts with feeling. She doesn’t always aim for perfection; she seeks authenticity. In her own words, she explores “the beauty of God’s Creation through my brushstrokes.” That intention shows. In her paintings, light becomes sacred: soft washes of color catch on leaves, water reflects sky in gentle tones, shadows deepen without harshness, and earth whether a field, a path, a tree-line feels alive under subtle layers of pigment.

What makes Rachel’s work resonate is the emotional honesty beneath the brushstrokes. There’s no longing to dramatize; instead there’s acceptance, humility, presence. Her paintings aren’t about perfection they’re about reality, as felt. A simple barn in a snow-dusted field becomes more than landscape; it becomes memory, atmosphere, a space to rest. A rolling meadow under soft sunlight becomes a breath, a quiet solace. Through her art, Rachel shows us that even the most familiar places hold subtle poetry, waiting to be seen. Her process also feels generous. She shares glimpses of her journey: the light that drew her outside, the small panel she chose, the brush she loaded with pigment. She reminds us that painting is not always grand or polished: sometimes it’s humble, immediate, responsive. In doing so, she invites us into the act of creation, to witness and maybe even feel the world as she does. Rachel’s evolving practice is a testament to the power of staying open to nature, to light, to change, to patience. Her gouache and oil works remind us that art doesn’t always need to shout; sometimes it just needs to listen. To the wind, the leaves, the earth, the quiet spaces between moments. And if we lean in close, we might hear it too.

Jui @juiartserenity

Jui paints as if inviting us into a breath a moment where colour softens the world’s noise and serenity becomes something you can hold. Through her gouache work, she creates a visual quietude, a space where gentle hues settle like morning light and emotions have room to unfurl. Based in India, Jui approaches gouache with a tenderness that feels almost meditative. Her paintings often revolve around still lifes, florals, and everyday corners of life, yet each holds an emotional resonance far greater than its simplicity suggests. Whether it’s a vase of blossoms, a sunlit window, or a peaceful corner of a home, her work celebrates the soft beauty woven into ordinary moments, the kind we feel deeply even when we overlook them. What shapes her style is the harmony she cultivates between clarity and calm. Gouache, with its velvety finish and grounded pigments, becomes her way of layering presence.

She leans into the medium’s quick-drying rhythm, staying close to instinct and allowing each stroke to land where it feels most true. Colours bloom gently, forms stay poised yet delicate, and shadows hold a lived-in warmth. Nothing feels forced; everything arrives with the ease of a memory unfolding. Her compositions often feel like intimate sanctuary scenes built with quiet care, rooted in stillness. There’s a soothing balance in her lines, a subtle dialogue between muted tones and soft highlights. Even in the simplest subjects, she evokes comfort, gratitude, and pause. It’s as if her paintings whisper that peace is rarely loud; it lives in the moments we choose to notice. Jui’s work is anchored in presence. It doesn’t seek spectacle, it offers sincerity. She reveals how gouache can carry emotion through gentle gradients, thoughtful colour pairings, and the closeness of small-scale compositions. Each piece becomes a soft invitation to slow down, breathe, and reconnect with yourself. Through her evolving practice, Jui reminds us that serenity is not an escape but a way of seeing. Her paintings offer refuge a quiet place for the heart to rest. In her hands, gouache becomes a vessel for tender wonder, capturing the beauty of stillness one thoughtful stroke at a time.

Marianne Gagnon @mgagnon_atelier

Marianne Gagnon, the artist behind MGagnon Atelier, paints from a place of deep quiet, rooted in the landscapes that shaped her. Born and raised on Île d’Orléans that serene island embraced by the Saint-Lawrence River, she grew up watching the open skies, shifting tides, and the slow poetry of rural life. That early proximity to land and light continues to anchor her paintings: each brushstroke feels like a return to stillness, to observation, to the subtle breath of the natural world. Her art doesn’t reach for spectacle. Instead, Marianne paints the moments that flicker past most of us unnoticed — the hush of early morning light filtering across fields, the muted blues that settle just before dusk, the way fog clings to the river’s edge, softening everything it touches. In her hands, a loose wash of watercolor becomes a meditation on atmosphere; a gouache study transforms into a quiet reflection on place and memory. She doesn’t chase precision; she seeks presence. Her compositions hold space for imperfection, for intuition, for the feeling of a moment rather than its technical exactness.

Marianne’s practice also carries a sense of generosity. She openly shares glimpses of her process: the sketchbook pages filled during riverside walks, the small studies made en plein air, the brush dipped into pigment as she follows the changing light outside her window. Through these moments, Marianne invites us not just to witness her work, but to step into her way of seeing: attentive, patient, openhearted. She reminds us that art doesn’t have to be grand or elaborate to be meaningful; sometimes it’s the simplest scenes that carry the most truth. A single tree leaning into the wind. A horizon softened by evening mist. A quiet path disappearing into snow. Marianne’s evolving body of work is a testament to the beauty found in slowing down, in listening to the land, in honoring what is subtle and enduring. Her watercolors and gouache pieces speak in whispers rather than declarations, offering solace in their calm and honesty. Through her art, Marianne teaches us that we don’t need grand vistas to feel awe. Sometimes the most ordinary landscapes are the ones that hold the deepest stories. And if we pause long enough, as she does, we might begin to see them too.

Vidhi Bhatt @vidhi.bhatt_

Growing up between the lands of Bhuj and Rajkot, and later Vadodara, Vidhi carries with her a quiet childhood intimacy with India’s varied colors, textures, and rhythms. Those early landscapes, dry winds humming across open fields, bursts of bright florals against sun-baked walls, monsoon shadows slipping across courtyards, shaped not just her eye, but her way of sensing the world. From those early experiences emerged a sensibility that sees beauty not only in grand landscapes, but in the everyday a loose petal drifting in the light, a blossom weighed by rain, a flicker of shade beneath leaves. Vidhi has always been drawn to the soft in-between moments, the ones most of us rush past without noticing. For her, they’re not small. They’re essential subtle reminders of how alive and layered the world truly is. 

She observes before she paints. She listens before she chooses a color. She lets her subjects often the simplest flowers and leaves guide the mood of a piece rather than forcing them into structure. In her studio or by a window, she studies how morning light skims across petals, how shadows shift with passing clouds, how a bloom begins to open or close depending on the hour. These observations seep into her work, giving it a living, breathing quality. If you look closely at her gallery  at the soft washes of color, the gentle outlines, the floral forms you may find yourself slowing down too. Maybe you’ll notice a petal you hadn’t seen before, or the curve of a leaf you’d never paused to observe. Maybe her sketchbook studies nudge you toward moments of your own life that deserve a second glance. That’s Vidhi’s gift: her art doesn’t just depict it teaches us to look again. Her evolving body of work is a reminder that beauty isn’t something we have to chase. It’s already here, tucked into the folds of everyday life in a handful of flowers, in the soft fade of watercolor, in the quiet attention of an artist who truly sees.

Gouache, with its matte glow, delicate layering, and quiet flexibility, is a medium that rewards patience and presence. In the hands of the artists we’ve explored, it becomes something even more: a way of noticing, of remembering, of returning to ourselves through gentle acts of creation. Their work reminds us that art doesn’t always live in grand gestures or sweeping statements. Sometimes it lives in the hush of a landscape, the curve of a blossom, the warmth of muted tones layered with care. Sometimes it’s in the way light settles on a page or in the tenderness of a moment captured before it slips away. Gouache, with its honest matte finish and humble presence, becomes a vessel for these small truths. It teaches us that softness can hold depth, that subtlety can carry meaning, that quiet can be profoundly expressive.

Each artist in this feature brings a distinct voice to the medium, some grounded in nature, some rooted in story, all guided by feeling. They show us that gouache is not a limitation but a world of possibility: a space where emotion can unfold slowly, where colour can whisper instead of shout, where the smallest details become invitations to pause.

At the Arts to Hearts Project, we celebrate this kind of art, art that is present, thoughtful, human. Art that cares enough to look closely. Art that reminds us of the beauty tucked within the everyday. These artists demonstrate that gouache is not simply pigment and water; it is a way of seeing, a way of feeling, a way of holding space for the quiet parts of life. Through their work, these gouache artists offer us more than images. They offer connections. They offer reflection. They offer a gentle return to the heart. And perhaps that is what art, at its best, has always been: a place where softness is allowed to speak, where colour becomes emotion, and where we learn again and again, that beauty often lives in the smallest, most tender moments.