5 Artists Who Remind Us Why Gouache Is Timeless

If you’ve ever painted with gouache, you probably know it’s full of contradictions. One moment it feels bold and heavy, the next it feels soft and glowing. It doesn’t slip quietly across the paper the way watercolour does instead, it shows up with presence, with weight, with a velvet-like finish that makes every mark matter. A single stroke can feel fleeting, like a thought you’ve just caught, yet it stays on the page with permanence. That’s the strange magic of gouache: it can whisper in gentle pastels or burst out in loud, saturated colours always somewhere between intimacy and strength.

At Arts to Hearts Project, we love gouache because it feels like more than just paint. It’s a way of holding onto memories, of turning atmosphere into story, of giving imagination a visible shape. Artists have been reaching for it for centuries from the jewel-like manuscripts of the past to the fresh experiments happening right now and each time, it proves how versatile and alive this medium really is.

This week, we’re not just looking at gouache, we’re looking at the artists who are pushing it further. Through their hands, pigment and water become more than materials. They become a mirror reflecting light, texture, and the fleeting beauty of the world as they experience it.

Clo Louise @clolouiseart

Clo Louise is a celebrated gouache artist from London, known for turning everyday moments into dreamlike worlds. Inspired by anime, Ghibli films, and the quiet beauty of everyday life, her art brings to life gentle forests, glowing skies, and whimsical scenes filled with warmth. Each piece feels like a story waiting to be told, sometimes playful, sometimes serene, but always full of heart. Though she is self-taught, Clo has built a world of colour and imagination entirely her own. Gouache is her favourite medium because of its velvety richness, and she uses it to create works that are both bold and delicate. Whether it’s a shrine under starlight, a cat perched on a rooftop, or a meadow bursting with flowers, her paintings carry a sense of comfort and wonder.

Her Etsy shop is where fans can bring a piece of that magic home. From originals and prints to stickers, every package arrives with the same care and thought she puts into her art often with little extras tucked inside. Customers love not only the paintings themselves but the joy and kindness that come with them. Clo also shares her love of gouache through Patreon, teaching others how to paint dreamy anime-inspired landscapes. With step-by-step tutorials and weekly lessons, she makes the process approachable and fun, building a community of people who paint along with her. Clo Louise’s work is a simple belief: art can be both enchanting and comforting. Her paintings remind us of the magic in small moments: the glow of a sunset, the quiet of a forest, the charm of an imagined world. Through gouache, she invites us to slow down, step inside her vision, and find a little piece of joy.

Hannah Beimborn @hannahbeimborn

Hannah Beimborn is a brilliant gouache artist based in Sylva, North Carolina, whose landscapes radiate calm and quiet wonder. Her work captures the spirit of the mountains, rolling hills, forest trails, and open skies, each scene brushed in soft layers of gouache that feel both timeless and tender. Her love for landscapes began in childhood, wandering the Appalachian woods near her home. Later, she lived in Colorado’s Front Range, where the rugged peaks and wide plains deepened her connection to nature. Today, these two worlds, the Blue Ridge and the Rockies meet in her gouache paintings, creating landscapes that are rooted in memory yet alive with imagination.

What makes Hannah’s art so evocative is her use of gouache itself. She builds rich layers of matte colour, creating depth and atmosphere that watercolour alone cannot hold. Her paintings are never just about what a place looks like, but about how it feels the hush of a mountain morning, the glow of late afternoon light, or the stillness of a forest clearing. Her work has reached audiences through collaborations with platforms like The Crafted Prints and has been highlighted by The Bascom, where her pieces speak of both artistry and reverence for nature. Whether on paper or panel, her gouache landscapes invite viewers into moments of reflection, reminding us that beauty lives in simplicity, silence, and the steady rhythms of the earth. Through gouache, Hannah Beimborn has created more than landscapes; she has built spaces of stillness and memory. Her art is a gentle call to pause, breathe, and find joy in the quiet strength of the natural world.

Davi-Ann @sunfairystudio

Davi-Ann, the artist behind Sunfairy Studio, is a delightful gouache artist whose work transforms everyday moments into scenes of magic and delight. Her illustrations often feature glowing mushrooms, fairytale cottages, woodland creatures, and enchanting botanicals. Each piece reflects her ability to blend imagination with detail, creating art that feels both playful and comforting. Working mainly with gouache, she has developed a style that is vibrant, matte, and full of character. Her paintings capture the charm of storybook worlds while offering viewers a sense of joy and familiarity. Beyond her artwork, she has built an inspiring presence on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube, where she shares her process, sketchbook pages, and painting tutorials with a growing community of followers.

Her Etsy shop, Sunfairy Studio, is where you can find and collect pieces of wonder and magical whimsy ranging from original paintings and prints to stickers and custom paintings. This connection allows her audience to engage more deeply with both her process and her art. Her work has also reached beyond the studio through collaborations, such as the Expedition to the Glowing Forest tea collection with Bard’s Brews. For this project, she illustrated glowing landscapes filled with magical flora, capturing the sense of wonder that defines her style. Sunfairy Studio is Davi-Ann’s commitment to creating art that feels uplifting and imaginative. Her gouache paintings remind us of the magic in small details and the comfort of slowing down. Through her work, she offers not only beautiful imagery but also an invitation to reconnect with creativity, play, and a touch of wonder.

Allie Zeyer @alliezeyerfineart

Allie Zeyer is an award-winning landscape artist. Her gouache paintings, while acting as catalysts for larger works in oil, distill emotion, light and capture the beauty of our natural world. Her mentorship with renowned painters such as Scott Christensen shaped her approach to capturing light, nature’s colours, and the intimate beauty of rural America. Raised in Centerville, Utah, Allie grew up immersed in art. Childhood memories include watching her father paint beautiful renditions of the Teton Mountain range from Jackson, Wyoming. This gave her an early spark, setting her creative path and laying a strong foundation for her professional career as an artist. Her choice of landscapes are places many would overlook like cottonwood-lined valleys, red barns, and quiet pastures around the west. These humble scenes carry a timeless quality; each painting is a whisper of rural life’s enduring simplicity. 

Allie’s work in Gouache has gained recognition and prestige. In 2023 She received an award of excellence at the American Impressionist Society’s 24^th Annual National Juried Exhibition for a small, yet charming Gouache painting of a western barn.  Her exploration of gouache techniques, especially en plein air, has also made an impact through education. Allie is sharing her expertise by offering an online Gouache Course, helping artists enhance their skills into confident, expressive works of art. She’s appeared on Art School Live and podcasts, guiding creatives through Gouache’s unique properties and how it can sharpen both studio and outdoor painting. Allie continues to live and paint in Meridian, Idaho, balancing her creative life with family, finding in every layer of colour a reflection of joy, presence, and quiet beauty. Her gouache paintings are more than images; they are invitations to pause, remember, and notice the elegance of what’s often overlooked.

Luisa Preissler @luisapreissler

Luisa Preissler is a passionate gouache artist and illustrator based in Germany, who’s floral and landscape paintings bloom with vitality, light, and heartfelt presence. Gouache, for her, isn’t just a medium it’s a vessel of transformation, play, and rediscovery. Her creative path began in the world of pen-and-paper illustration, comic colouring, and concept art. Despite building a successful freelance career working with clients like Adobe, HarperCollins, Wizards of the Coast, and Random House she found herself feeling burnt out, chasing deadlines and channelling others’ visions. It wasn’t until she allowed herself to play that everything shifted. Painting with gouache vibrant, matte, endlessly expressive rekindled her spark. She started to paint vivid flowers, colourful Italian houses, and peaceful forests. With each brushstroke, painting became less about perfection and more about mindfulness, self-care, and joy.

The turning point came during a visit to Claude Monet’s Garden in Giverny. Those luminous floral landscapes awakened something new in her art gouache and became a way to anchor growth, blossoming, and personal transformation. Today, Luisa shares her passion for gouache not just through her own paintings, but as a mentor and guide. Her acclaimed 8‑Week Gouache Course invites both beginners and experienced artists to explore the magic of gouache. Her work and teaching come from a place of empathy. Luisa knows what it’s like to feel stuck, waiting for “the right moment” to create. But through practice, play, and presence, that moment isn’t found, it’s made. In her courses and her art, she invites others to discover that same freedom, to paint not for perfection, but for the joy in every layer. In Luisa Preissler’s gouache paintings, colour becomes a refuge, and every brushstroke whispers of renewal. Through her art, and her teaching, she reminds us that creativity lives when we embrace process, not performance and that beauty can bloom when we simply show up.

Gouache is a story of turning colour into something eternal of water, pigment, and care transformed into images that stay with us. These artists carry that legacy forward in ways both quiet and daring. Through layers of paint and strokes of imagination, they shape moments that hold memory and mood. Each wash and mark tell a story of its own, yet together they become something greater, a composition of vision and presence.

Gouache is more than paint, it is a way of thinking about expression, a place where delicacy and vibrancy live side by side, where play gives birth to permanence. These works are not simply to be seen but to be felt, filled with rhythm, stillness, and narrative.

At Arts to Hearts Project, we believe that gouache art is where patience meets courage, where color becomes voice, and where artists turn process into discovery. To work with gouache is to welcome imperfection and trust the beauty of every brush sweeps.

If art that fuses light, memory, and imagination speaks to you, these artists are worth your gaze. Their paintings turn the process into poetry and make pigment shine with something lasting and deeply human.