Tuesday, November 3, 2015

What Have I Got to Lose?

How is it that absence can have such pervasive presence?

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I just recently became aware—at a rudimentary level—of a technique called negative painting. I know next to nothing about it. But I have my sunny little bedroom-turned-studio, and I have my paints, and I have a canvas board that I found in a pile of supplies.

What the heck—why not experiment with negative painting? What have I got to lose?

I use a plastic palette knife to get a bunch of colors onto my canvas. I work fast, go with my gut. I spritz water over the canvas and scrape with the tip of the palette knife to create some thin twig-like lines of absence.

Instead of painting trees and branches and leaves, I take a brush and paint the negative space that might exist around trees and branches and leaves.

The experience and the painting itself don't quite match what I had in mind when I started.

But what does!

Screw Auger Falls Birches
14x11", acrylic on canvas board
landscape
2015
$154

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Sneak peek at Screw Auger Falls Birches in process:










4 comments:

Sheila said...

Beautiful!

dotty seiter: now playing said...

Thanks, Sheila. Have you been painting lately??? I thought of you last week when one of my tutorial students brought me a sunflower : )

Laurie Mueller said...

Hi Dotty,
Your bookmarks are great.....I used to laminate the bookmarks I made from negative paintings (or pieces of) and give them as gifts.One of my friends used to call me Laurie the Laminator. ha! I love negative painting, and in fact have focused in on it (for teaching) as a great technique on it's own, or as parts of paintings. Lots of my florals have negative painting in the leaves, etc. So much fun! Keep painting and writing!!

dotty seiter: now playing said...

Hi Laurie, bookmarks are great fun! I give them as gifts, too. By the by, it was your discussion of negative painting on your blog that got me to experiment with it, though I confess I know just about nothing about it. Thanks for popping in with comments; they've been welcome embraces in this upended time I'm going through. I continue to visit your blog, continue to love love love your paintings.

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