Flowers, Trees and Landscapes « Antemortem Arts

Archive for the ‘Flowers, Trees and Landscapes’ Category

Sunset Postcard

Monday, October 3rd, 2011

Sunset Postcard by Amy Crook, $222

This watercolor is actually from five years ago. It managed to escape the general posting of old art last year, but I decided to frame and scan it when I ran across it the other day when I was framing some other art.

When I was younger I swear I must have painted dozens of sunsets, usually with skeletal winter trees in front, the black branches framed by colored light. I don’t have many of those left, so this one is very nostalgic for me. My favorite part is along the line of the sun itself, where some of the red has bled onto the sun the way sometimes the sky seems to waver around the edges as the sun sinks below the horizon.

Sunset Postcard, approx. 6″x4″ watercolor on handmade postcard, $222, framed, with free shipping.

I floated the postcard on a black mat within a larger frame, which makes the vivid sunset colors glow out from the darkness.

Sunset Postcard, framed watercolor by Amy Crook, $222

Tags: for sale, handmade postcard, watercolor
Posted in Daily Art, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, Shop - Flowers, Trees and Landscapes | No Comments »

Violet Midnight 2

Monday, September 19th, 2011

Violet Midnight 2 by Amy Crook, $242

I’ve been thinking about making prints lately, and that’s led me to think about the way that the salt paintings are really unprintable — while a print of a normal piece is maybe half as cool as the real piece, but printing the salt pieces loses 90% of their awesomeness. So, with that in mind, I mixed up a slightly different mix of the violet-black from Violet Midnight and made a piece that only used the salt for visual texture rather than physical structure. There’s no shiny paint, no sparkly salt, just simple ink and watercolor.

I actually started it the same way I do any salt piece, with spirals in ink on paper, but this time I went straight to painting the background (which has little salt-made stars, done the traditional way by scattering salt onto the damp paint), then used plain water to pick up the ink and create haloes of golden orange around the sun and larger stars.

And so, I bring you my very first available art print!

Violet Midnight 2, 7″x5″ watercolor, pen and ink on paper.
Original: $242, framed, with free shipping.
Print: $32, unframed, with free shipping.

Here’s how it looks in a frame, with my iPhone for scale:

Violet Midnight 2, framed art by Amy Crook

Violet Midnight 2, framed, by Amy Crook, $242

Tags: for sale, moon, orange, pen and ink, salt, spirals, violet, watercolor
Posted in Daily Art, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, Series and Books, Shop - Flowers, Trees and Landscapes | No Comments »

Violet Midnight

Thursday, September 8th, 2011

Violet Midnight by Amy Crook, $333

Another image I keep revisiting, the moon glowing in the night sky. I went for a simple duochrome effect, the stars and moon drawn in orange ink, then the stars turned warm and golden when the salt and water were added. I used a dark blue-violet paint, which was making such fascinating shapes and shadows on its own as it pooled and flowed that I decided not to try to add any more stars and let the velvety paint stand on its own. Then I used a metallic copper watercolor to create the haloes around the moon and stars, the color an excellent match to the orange ink.

Violet Midnight, 7″x5″ mixed media on paper, $333, framed, with free shipping.

This piece has a great contrast between the matte violet paint and shimmery, iridescent copper paint; between the flat ink and three-dimensional salt crystals; between the meticulous spiral pattern in the moon and the random, cloudy shapes in the sky.

Violet Midnight, detail 1, by Amy Crook

Here you can really see how the interplay of colors and textures up close.

Violet Midnight, detail 2, by Amy Crook

A simple black frame protects the salt, and makes the vivid colors really glow.

Violet Midnight, framed art by Amy Crook

Violet Midnight, framed, by Amy Crook, $333

Tags: for sale, moon, orange, pen and ink, salt, stars, violet, watercolor
Posted in Daily Art, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, Shop - Flowers, Trees and Landscapes | 4 Comments »

Mud Puddle

Friday, September 2nd, 2011

Mud Puddle by Amy Crook, $444

This is one of the last of my tea experiments from a few months ago. I had the piece sitting around for weeks and weeks not really being anything, until one day I was in a crosshatching mood and suddenly I saw it as a mud puddle just needing a grassy lawn all around it. The puddle itself was made of strong black tea, and the spots of texture were big crystals of salt, some of which had a bit of watercolor left on them to add a touch of color to the tea.

Mud Puddle, 5″x5″ mixed media on paper, $444, framed, with free shipping.

I spent a couple of hours putting in the green pen-and-ink grass around the tea puddle, and I took photos with my iPhone as it progressed (though I forgot to take a before shot, oops).

Mud Puddle, work in progress, by Amy Crook

When I’m working on a piece like this, I often spin it this way and that while I’m working to get a better angle for whatever I’m doing. Then, if it’s an abstract piece, I look at it in all four directions before I decide on which way is really up and sign it.

Mud Puddle, detail, by Amy Crook

There’s a bit of subtle sparkle in the area where some of the salt sat, but the chunks remained mostly intact instead of dissolving into the tea, so there’s no crystal formations beyond the tiny ones you can see above.

The frame I’ve got it in is a little lighter than it shows in the photo, though I’m considering one even a shade lighter to go better with the delicate tea-dyed puddle.

Mud Puddle, framed, by Amy Crook, $444

Tags: crosshatching, for sale, pen and ink, salt, tea, watercolor
Posted in Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, Shop - Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Shop - Flowers, Trees and Landscapes | No Comments »

Autumn Winds

Wednesday, August 24th, 2011

Autumn Winds by Amy Crook, $299

I’m saving the Weeble this week for Friday, so instead you get a windy Wednesday. This piece uses tea, salt, watercolor, and pen and ink to create a whirlwind of color and shapes that reminded me of leaves tumbling around and around in a little eddy of breeze. I added in the rust-red Japanese maple leaves to add color and strengthen that impression.

Autumn Winds, 7″x5″ mixed media on paper, $299, framed, with free shipping.

Here you can see a close-up of the spot where leaf and salt pool collide; I used my brown pen and very little color leeched out into the salt, making the pools a subtle addition of texture and sparkle rather than a focal color point.

Autumn Winds, detail, by Amy Crook

This piece looks great in its brown wooden frame, the colors really go well together. It will arrive at your door framed and in upcycled gift wrap, safely packaged for transit.

Autumn Winds, framed, by Amy Crook, $299

Tags: brown, for sale, leaves, orange, pen and ink, salt, tea, watercolor
Posted in Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, Shop - Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Shop - Flowers, Trees and Landscapes | 1 Comment »

Man in the Moon

Monday, August 22nd, 2011

Man in the Moon by Amy Crook, $199

This is one of those pieces that I painted in several stages, weeks and weeks apart from each other. It took me ages to decide what I wanted to do with the central circle, and then a bit more to see the hints of a face in the random bits of color suspended in the grey face of the moon. I like the misty halo around the moon and stars, the way the moon looks when it shines down through the thinnest of cloud covers.

Man in the Moon, 7″x5″ watercolor on paper, $199 framed, with free shipping.

The rich texture of the paper gives this piece a lot of depth, adding to the sense that there’s color lurking just beneath the grey.

Man in the Moon, detail, by Amy Crook

A black frame sets off the image nicely. It’s always amazing to me how much better most pieces look when they’re put in a simple frame.

Man in the Moon, framed art by Amy Crook

Man in the Moon, framed, by Amy Crook, $199

Tags: for sale, moon, planet, stars, watercolor
Posted in Daily Art, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, Shop - Flowers, Trees and Landscapes | No Comments »

Glow Fruit

Tuesday, August 16th, 2011

Glow Fruit by Amy Crook, $199

This cheerful little painting is another tree using salt, this time to make fruit instead of leaves like the Mod Tree. I added a happy little blue bird at the top of the tree to balance out the image. I used pencil to put texture down on the paper and outline where the branches would be before adding any paint, so the tree has a bark-like look. Each little glow is like a Zen circle of its own, surrounding a glittering pool of salt.

Glow Fruit, 5″x7″ mixed media on paper, $199, framed, with free shipping.

Each salt piece I make is completely unique, the salt crystals forming based on dozens of factors from the weather to the texture of the paper, how much ink is in each little spiral and how much salt and water go into each pool.

Glow Fruit, detail, by Amy Crook

I have to admit, something about this reminds me of the creepy trees in Beast Master, which just goes to show that I’m old and had terrible taste in movies as a kid. I may have to do another one with a midnight look in homage.