This is the under-painting with the exception of the rocks. I went over the rocks with additional paint and a palette knife. As a negative painter, I try to have an idea in my mind, or a photo reference to use as a guide when i loosely lay down the shapes and color. This is what I call my road map. 
I usually work from an established drawing before I lay down the under-painting in most of my work. In these two watercolors I did a dry on wet under-painting and then let my intuitive side see a scene and create it. The under-painting will lead you in a particular direction. It looks easy but it is very hard to get the perfect first layer. It helps to use paint right out of the tube and make sure both sides of the paper are thoroughly wet. This is really the most sophisticated level of negative painting and if you want to give the right brain a work-out try it! 
This is a fun way to paint but takes a little practice I covered the surface of my paper with the three primary colors - Red, Yellow and Blue. I let the colors blend together. Once the under painting was dry I used a template in the shape of the roses and lifted up the color to reveal the white flower. After lifting color off the surface of the paper, I added the shadows to define the petals. It was a technique demonstrated at the Annapolis Watercolor Club by Susan Herron. Take a look at her work to see a professional rendition of the technique. 
This painting is called Connemara. This is one of my favorite places in County Mayo, Ireland. Sometimes I refer to this painting style as a collage because different images are woven into a cohesive single painting. It is not easy. Color, shape, and negative painting are the glue that holds it together. In May I will be including this type of design in workshop at Maryland Hall For the Arts in Annapolis . The workshop is in May and is all about design and negative painting. 
I actually had as much fun with the bulb as the flowers! This is not a plant that is painted very often. Give it a try!
