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| "Vernal Equinox II" the negative sky shapes holds space for the trees |
Recently I attended a meeting of a local critique group. One of the participating artists had some
very nice pieces with good use of clear color against neutrals and large
negative spaces. The paintings were of children in various poses. In my opinion the artist had a nice sense of
placement of the figures on the page, both in size and location, creating lovely
“negative” spaces that contributed to the “story” the piece was suggesting. Many
of the critique group suggested that the pieces cropped, tighter and tighter,
in towards the figures. I
disagreed. I felt the artist did a great
job of creating more interest in the subject through her use of generous negative space. For instance, one painting was of a very young child
seated feet out as toddlers do, finger drawing on the ground. The figure was in the bottom part of a
vertical sheet of paper leaving the top half empty. To me that space told the story of the child
growing and standing and filling that space. Cutting
that space out lost that part of the story and reduced my interest in the painting.
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| "Wishes On The Wind V" lots of negative space at play here |
Later I was thinking
about the value and contribution negative spaces can make in a painting. A simple definition of “negative space” might
be the areas around a subject. Not all paintings have a “subject”. Not all have a “focus” either. For
those works that do, the negative space is what is left if you cut out the
subject. It can be very little or a lot.
There are artists whose work is as much
a work in the negative spaces as in the positive, or subject matter. A few I can quickly name are Will Barnet, Milton Avery, Modigliani and
Mary Carlton. Is negative space a component of design?
Yes! It’s part of “shape”. Composition is simply an arrangement of
shapes. Shapes themselves can be busy,
quiet, light, dark, soft, hard, small, large, simple, complex, organic,
geometric, singular, repetitious, etc.
As an artist I LOVE shapes. They are spaces that can be empty or be filled with color or texture or to contain line or
to be defined by line. They can blend
smoothly into one another or contrast sharply. After the experience at the critique I am more aware of the positive value of
a negative space, that space I'm creating with all my other shapes. I will use them, create them, more thoughtfully in the future.
