Adventures in Negative Space

This morning as I was contemplating my next painting adventure, I recalled an art lesson many years ago in which the task of painting negative space was assigned. The task required painting only the negative space from which would eventually emerge the subject of the painting. The sky behind a rather large oak tree was the negative space that begin growing from the bristles of my brush. Then, a distant range of mountains grew in front of the sky. All the while, the subject of my painting, an oak tree, was supposed to be emerging as did the subject from my exercise years ago. Needless to say, as I continued to paint, that which began to appear looked more like a blurry mess than a tree. After much dabbing and mucking around, I finally abandoned my efforts, placed the experiment on the drying rack, and moved on to something a bit more positive. While putting the exercise out of my mind, this trio of lemons wandered forth. My strokes were quick and fluid, feeling a lot better than my exercise in negative space. This painting is 6x6 inches on a canvas panel and felt pretty positive. Thus, is how I concluded my morning in the studio. This little painting can be purchased for $36.00 plus $6.50 for shipping to US addresses by clicking this link and putting it in the shopping cart.

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American Oil Painting, canvas panel, Citrus Fruit Painting, Contemporary Still Life Painting, Fruit Painting, Lemon Painting, Original Lemon Still Life, Original small artwork, painterly, painting negative space, Painting of Citrus Fruit, Small Oil Painting, small still life, small study, Still Life Painting, Yellow