Negative Space Painting
Discover the creative technique of negative space painting, where the subject is revealed by painting the background and surrounding space rather than the subject itself. By focusing on shapes around an object, students will develop a stronger sense of composition, proportion, and observation while creating bold, visually striking artwork.
You will learn:
- How to create colourful and meaningful background for your painting using collaging, stamping, stencilling, painting.
- How to create masks to use for negative space painting.
- How to create works of art using gained knowledge.
You will create:
A few smaller studies and one bigger work will be created by the end of this term
What to bring:
- Acrylic paints in a various colours and brushes of different sizes.
- Acrylic paper pad or canvas boards (not smaller than A3 size)
- White flat palette
- Old rags
- Water spray bottle
Artworks below by Natalie
Tutor Profile
Natalie was born in Moscow, Russia. Having grown up in the atmosphere of the rich Russian visual arts tradition, she developed her love and passion for art. She completed a limited number of lessons in drawing and watercolour painting after finishing high school and later made a different career choice in a non-art related field.
Natalie came to Australia in 1992 with her family and Melbourne became her home. Due to changing priorities Natalie had no opportunity to pursue her interest in painting until 2009, when she started her art journey. She became a member of different art societies and attended different evening classes led by experienced tutors. Her education also included going to art workshops, artist demonstrations and watching YouTube art videos where she could practice and apply various new skills.
Learning different techniques, experimenting with variety of media, Natalie finds her inspiration in her surrounding environment with her special interest being portraiture, architecture and figure drawing and painting. Natalie is skilled in using all media but her special love is for drawing, acrylic and mixed media.
Natalie has been exhibiting her works since 2011. She participated in numerous group exhibitions receiving various awards and prizes. She also had two solo exhibitions. Many of her works were purchased and are in private collections in Australia, USA, Estonia, and the Russian Federation.
The desire to share her skills and love for art led Natalie to start teaching art privately in her studio first in 2018. She then was invited to run evening classes at Whitehorse Arts Association and Box Hill Art Group from 2022 where she has been a popular tutor. She also runs private painting and life drawing workshops in Melbourne and on the Mornington Peninsula.
Natalie delights in the development of her students, she teaches skills as essential building blocks. Her students then learn to create artworks of individual, freer expression.