Positively Negative  Just think of any negativity that comes at you as a raindrop falling into the ocean of your bliss.     ~  Maharishi Mahesh Yogi   There is something about negative painting that is positively intriguing. An exercise in shifting perspective and training the brain to process visual information differently. To focus on the negative space rather than the subject itself. Like life, it demands a profound balance between the positive and the negative.  Here I glazed the negative space with a dark color.  What if the positive space was dark, and I painted the negative space white? All of that white demanded some other sort of embellishment.  And leftover paint on my palette can never be wasted . . . so some positive & negative dots from scrap paper await their fate in some other wild creative experiment. 

Another Marathon  Just completed a watercolor marathon with yet another Russian artist and instructor. This time, I learned from Ivan Kryokuv. I gotta say, Ivan is a character with a sense of humor. Some of the phrases used by the AI translator were pretty bizarre and hilarious; I really wish I knew what they really meant in Russian.  Bee This one was tricky, but it’ll do. Interesting addition of colored pencils and markers.  Lilac Wicked difficult to paint in this loose style. Maybe I’ll try again with cotton paper and get a better result.  Mushrooms I quite enjoyed doing this one. Using Saran wrap on wet watercolor gave the texture seen in the (blue!) grass. I used masking fluid to create the spots on the mushroom caps. Again, a colored pencil and marker provided the final details.  Leaf  Negative painting technique was tricky on this one. Will definitely try this one again now that I get the concept; cotton paper may work better. Using Higgins black ink ...