Positively negative

As part of my trench work I have been thinking negatively.

That's so fun to say. It invokes an immediate response of "Oh, think positive"!

I'm talking again about negative painting. Rather than painting the shapes themselves, the artist creates designs by painting around shapes - not painting the shapes directly - in a series of washes. The result is loose and somewhat unplanned. To some degree, all paintings involve some negative painting. Negative sounds so, well, negative but it is actually a wonderful way to think and paint.


I've shared before that I feel weak in this area. It is a flabby, out of shape muscle, so I've been exercising it. I guess I'm a direct person and I like control. You have to be willing to let go of that control and see the possibilities. These examples are all painted using the same photograph. I just played around with technique and color.




I'll keep exercising this muscle. I like that idea of letting go and seeing possibilities. I don't really have as much control of things as I like to think so I may as well embrace it.