Wow!  If a motivational speaker ever heard me say this, he/she would be all over me.  However, I’m talking about art.  No, I’m not negative about art, but very positive.  I’m talking about negative spaces…the spaces that surround a solid.

Assume that you see a table and are angled where you see the front legs and the back legs.  Is there something in the space between the two legs?  Perhaps, they are set on a patterned carpet.  There is something in the   negative space and very important to your final work of art.  Do not ignore it.

Consider this:  You notice a neighbor lady stooping over in her garden cleaning out the weeds with a hoe.  It’s in the twilight of the evening and an aura of mauve blankets the scene.  Her arm stretches out as she chops the weeds.   There is a space between her body and her arm.  Did you notice it?  Did you see what’s in the space?

The negative space creates dimension.  If you leave something out of your composition, make sure it’s on purpose.

An artist friend of mine paints the negative spaces first in her watercolor compositions, working her way to the solid spaces.  I tried this but have yet to master it.  However, I’m not going to give up.  It’s not my style. That would be too negative…I think I can!…I think I can!

There will be future posts discussing spaces in art and how to use them.  If this is important to you, let me know.