I have been experimenting with negative space in my abstract paintings attempting to create a layered effect with different shapes and colors. The following are just a few of what I’ve been working on this week. I started by mark making on a colored background and moved to adding a solid color for negative space.
A 3d effect is created through the many layers with a window space into the original painted layer. I used mostly pallet knives to create these effects.
I find the mark making , as a creative process, so effective. No two marks are the same, yet they embellish the painting, each one, in unique ways. They create the composition with their thumbprint. The negative spaces is a solid color which breaks up and defines the boundaries of the painting.
Everything we do makes a mark in our lives, a thumbprint we leave behind that traces it’s roots back to us. The negative space is what we cannot control, that breaks up our markmaking with life and it’s arbitrary realities. Yet our marks are powerful and influential, inspite of the negative space dominance. We can leave a trail, a map, a message. God gives each one of us that opportunity.
Sarah Hopkins Art 