Seashore is a great, free, program!

Seashore features:

• gradients,
• textures and
• anti-aliasing for both text and brush strokes.

It supports multiple layers and alpha channel editing. It is based around the GIMP’s technology and uses the same native file format.

However, unlike the GIMP, Seashore only aims to serve the basic image editing needs of most computer users, not to provide a replacement for professional image editing products.

Seashore was created by Mark Pazolli who led the project until the end of 2009.

You can learn more or download it at: http://seashore.sourceforge.net.