As mentioned earlier, in Cuba we painted mostly with gouache for portability. In broad terms, gouache is a type of watercolor paint that makes heavy, strong opaque colors and whites, due to the use of ground chalk or other opaque filler with the color pigments.

I found it a challenge to handle. To gain some experience before the trip, I worked only in gouache at each Yellow Barn class for the semester preceding departure. My first challenge was to paint a lovely Japanese woman dressed as a geisha. Here are photos of her poses, as well as my two paintings.