Negative Space Painting

I’ve been enjoying my exploration of different acrylic painting techniques over the past year or so. Most recently, I’ve been practicing negative space painting. 

I stumbled upon it while watching one of my favorite painting channels on YouTube, BobBlast, which is hosted by painter Robert Burridge. For what it’s worth, Burridge is a wonderful teacher. He’s enthusiastic, embraces mistakes, and encourages his students to make a mess when painting. What’s not to love about that?

Burridge did a couple of videos on negative space painting and they inspired me to give it a try. Basically, I selected several different colors and splotched them all over a piece of watercolor practice canvas. The key is to splotch, not swipe. Once the canvas is covered in a mess of colors, I let it dry, then come back with some additional paint and paint over the negative space. This leaves an interesting image behind. 

Here are a few before and after images to give you an idea of how it works. 

My first attempts have been with still life, the obligatory flowers in a vase. While they aren’t fine art, I’m happy with how they turned out. Of course, it doesn’t always have to be flowers in a vase. It could be a landscape, a butterfly, or even an animal or person. It depends on what I see hidden in that mess of paint. 

In a way, it’s sort of like sculpture where the artist sees the figure hidden in a block of granite. They chip away at the negative space to reveal their vision. I like that.

If you’re interested in painting, or want to get into painting, please check out the Bob Blast channel on YouTube. And if you enjoy my acrylic experiments, let me know either here or on social media.

RB