This gouache painting is of the river Nene near Castor, Cambridgeshire, UK. The Nene is a lovely river, popular with boaters and it lies mainly in the flat lands of the northern part of the county, passing through a generally rural green landscape. This was one of my early attempts with Gouache and in case you don't know that medium, it is water-based but opaque, the opacity varying slightly with the hue. This means that unlike watercolor, its near relative, it can be painted in an impasto manner if desired, allowing much variation in texture and in covering capacity. It also means that the artist can work from dark to light, unlike watercolor where only from light to dark is possible. So the finished effect has some of the outward appearance of an oil painting, but brushes are easily cleaned and there's no odor from the water-based paint.