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Archive for the ‘Shop – Abstract and Just Plain Weird’ Category

Blue-Violet Spirals

Wednesday, February 22nd, 2012

Blue-Violet Spirals, abstract art by Amy Crook, $222

A companion to Monday’s piece, this one overlaps the one big purple spiral that’s barely visible in the background with a play of lighter ones in bluer tones. The lightest is a lovely periwinkle, and the three colors together (and really this whole series) reminds me forcefully of my crayon box from childhood. The pure tones of this paint scan horribly, though really the dark purple really does sink into the black paper to become barely visible the way it is here. You can see the play of shapes better in the bigger version of the scan.

Blue-Violet Spirals, 7″x5″ watercolor on paper, $222 with free shipping.

You can see the color better in its frame below despite the glare, especially the darker background spiral.

Spirals Trio, framed art by Amy Crook

Tags: black paper, blue, for sale, japanese watercolor, purple, spirals, spirals trio, triptych, violet
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Nebula

Friday, February 10th, 2012

Nebula, abstract watercolor painting by Amy Crook, $323

Despite being done in the same pair of sessions as yesterday’s art, this piece looks almost nothing like it. I used pink Himalayan sea salt instead of normal boring salt for the pools, and then two different kinds of iridescent paint that barely shows in the scan. The soft finger-smudged shapes in the background are what give this piece its name, plus my lifelong love of nerdy speculative fiction.

Nebula, 5″x5″ watercolor and salt on paper, $323 framed, with free shipping.

Nebula, detail 1, by Amy Crook

In the detail photos, you can really see the rich color that hides in the interference violet and duochrome cactus flower paint until the light strikes them just right. Above there’s a very geometric, sparse pool of salt surrounded by encroaching violet. Below, the biggest pool is almost liquid-looking still, with its more rock-like crystal formations.

Nebula, detail 2, by Amy Crook

This one, too, fit nicely in a simple black frame, where you can see a a bit more of the detail and the ghostly-pale lavender clouds like a far-away nebula against the blackness of space.

Nebula, framed art by Amy Crook, $323

Tags: black, for sale, iridescent, lavender, pink, salt, watercolor
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Mood Ring

Thursday, February 9th, 2012

Mood Ring, abstract watercolor painting by Amy Crook, $323

More experiments with the awesome black paper this week. This paper is actually colored by a chemical reaction in the paper pulp when they manufacture it, so the velvety black color is completely lightfast. Possibly more so than the paint and inks I use, actually.

The deep purple paint nearly disappears into the paper, but the opaque red pulls it into visibility, and both colors dye the salt here and there. I think I did tint this salt with ink as well, but I’m having a hard time remembering. The end result had a very ’70s feel to it to me, hence the title. Yeah, I said hence.

Mood Ring, 5″x5″ watercolor and salt on paper, $323 framed, with free shipping.

Something about the middle ring in the group of 3 catches the light much more than the other rings, which you can see in the detail below.

Mood Ring, detail 1, by Amy Crook

Below you can see the purple and red paint bleeding into the salt in the circles down in the lower right. I also made an iPhone wallpaper of the three central circles, and am sneaking it in here for those who read all the words.

Mood Ring, detail 2, by Amy Crook

And this one actually does fit into a frame, so you can see it next to my iPhone (for scale only, sorry) below.

Mood Ring, framed art by Amy Crook, $323

Tags: black, for sale, purple, red, salt, watercolor
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Brown Curls

Friday, January 27th, 2012

Brown Curls by Amy Crook, $199

Today’s piece uses the pink Himalayan sea salt on a wash of golden yellow. Then I made little curls around each salt pool in two shades of brown, which reminded me a bit of tumbling locks of curling brown hair in the sunshine, with gems or perhaps droplets of water caught in them.

Brown Curls, 4″x8″ salt and watercolor on paper, $199 framed, with free shipping.

Brown Curls, detail, by Amy Crook

Above you can see the way the minerals in the pink salt settle out and add their own pigment to the painting, as well as getting a sense of the subtle sparkle the salt adds to the painting. I ship the salt paintings safely framed so that the three-dimensional crystal structures arrive in place and ready to display.

Tags: brown, for sale, salt, watercolor, yellow
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Copper Beeches

Thursday, January 26th, 2012

Copper Beeches by Amy Crook, $323

This is one of those pieces that’s frustratingly difficult to color match or photograph in any reasonably representative way. The background is warm golds and orange-browns with layers of spirals in more browns and metallic copper. The salt pools are all centered over shiny copper spirals, though the salt itself didn’t pick up much color at all from either the background or the copper. There’s even a few golden leaves floating subtly through everything else, and that and the original Sherlock Holmes story are where the piece gets its name.

Copper Beeches, 8″x8″ salt and watercolor on paper, $323 framed with free shipping.

Copper Beeches, detail, by Amy Crook

Tags: brown, copper, for sale, gold, orange, salt, watercolor
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Ultramarine

Friday, January 20th, 2012

Ultramarine by Amy Crook, $299

I’ve been wanting something other than plain white for backgrounds on the salt pieces just for contrast, so this time I painted the paper with a very light yellow wash and added in some slightly darker spirals to the mix. This whole piece is really about spirals, from the little watercolor stick spirals that didn’t dissolve even a tiny bit into the salt, to the big ones around the pools. It gets its name from the shade of blue, of course, ultramarine both inside and outside the salt pools.

Ultramarine, 6″x6″ watercolor and salt on paper, $299 framed, with free shipping.

In the same way that my scanner likes to think white paper is really blue, my camera often splashes them with red, so I’d say the real color is somewhere in between the detail below and the scan above. Oh, technology.

Ultramarine, detail, by Amy Crook

Tags: blue, for sale, salt, watercolor, yellow
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Green Blue Violet

Thursday, January 12th, 2012

Green Blue Violet, abstract art by Amy Crook, $199

In contrast to the warm, cheerful harmony of Red Orange Yellow, today’s piece has the spiky green and swirly blue fighting over the tiny violet salt pools. Both of the paint colors were quite granulating, giving a rich texture to the large areas, and interesting color variation where the paint separated. The salt pools also had separating paint, the rich violet turning to pink salt and blue-violet spirals.

Green Blue Violet, 8″x8″ watercolor and salt on paper, $199 framed, with free shipping.

Here you can see the midnight blue swirling around one of the last salt pools it’s captured, with the earthy, grass-stain green just barely visible in the background.