Posts Tagged ‘bloodstone’

Six for Gold

Friday, September 8th, 2017

Six for Gold, small watercolor painting by Amy Crook

Six for Gold, 6″x6″ watercolor on Fluid watercolor paper

Six paintings in this series now, amazing! All of the previous ones are in their new homes, but there’s a print set that will bring them all to you. Or, of course, you can take this one home and start your own collection of crows.

The figure in this one is particularly eerie, and the tree is beautifully bent by a wind you can’t see but can only imagine. The crows are weathering the mist with equanimity, waiting to ride the breezes off to wherever they roost.

Six for Gold, detail, by Amy Crook

Six for Gold, detail, by Amy Crook

Above, you can see the eerie little figure waiting beneath the wind-twisted tree. Below, this painting lurks in its frame, a moody little scene just waiting for a wall.

Six for Gold, framed art by Amy Crook

Six for Gold, framed art by Amy Crook

Categories: Floating Gallery, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, People, Figures and Faces, Sea Creatures and Other Animals, Series and Books, Zombies, Skulls, and Other Morbid Things
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Five for Silver 2

Wednesday, June 7th, 2017

Five for Silver 2, a Counting Crows painting by Amy Crook

Five for Silver 2, 6″x6″ Primatek watercolor on Fluid watercolor paper

Part five of the eerily monochrome Counting Crows series, we’ve moved along in the rhyme to a whole roost of crows and a bit of silver.

Our ghostly figure this time has a distinctly skeletal appearance, and the crows are all arrayed above her in a perfect murder. The lightning-split tree reaches up through the mist toward what little light has filtered down on this foggy day.

It’s fascinating how fog can reduce the entire world to just you and things you can barely see, isn’t it?

Five for Silver 2, detail, by Amy Crook

Five for Silver 2, detail, by Amy Crook

Above, you can see the titular crows arrayed above the faded figure in all her eerie glory. Below, this painting roosts in a frame, waiting to fly to its new home.

Five for Silver 2, framed art by Amy Crook

Five for Silver 2, framed art by Amy Crook

Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Floating Gallery, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, People, Figures and Faces, Sea Creatures and Other Animals, Series and Books, Zombies, Skulls, and Other Morbid Things
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Four for a Boy

Monday, February 6th, 2017

Four for a Boy, atmospheric art by Amy Crook

Four for a Boy, 6″x6″ Primatek watercolor on Fluid watercolor paper

Mist obscures everything in this painting but the outline of a gnarled, drooping tree, branches bare in winter with just the tiniest hint of buds at their ends. Four black birds approach through the fog, and a figure all but dissolves into mist himself.

Is it foggier than it looks, or is the figure merely a trick of the eye?

This fourth installment of Counting Crows would make a lovely, creepy addition to your home, something to contemplate when the sun has burned away the mists of the day.

Four for a Boy, detail, by Amy Crook

Four for a Boy, detail, by Amy Crook

Above, you can see the eerie figure staring out from the mists, surrounded by the tree’s bare branches. Below, the piece is safely in a frame, just waiting to find the right house to haunt.

Four for a Boy, detail, by Amy Crook

Four for a Boy, detail, by Amy Crook

Categories: Floating Gallery, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, People, Figures and Faces, Sea Creatures and Other Animals, Series and Books, Zombies, Skulls, and Other Morbid Things
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Bloodstone Falls

Saturday, April 2nd, 2016

Bloodstone Falls, abstract art by Amy Crook

Bloodstone Falls, 12″x9″ Primatek and iridescent watercolor on Bristol

Beautiful bloodstone mineral pigment is mixed in with iridescent scarab red to create an earthy blend with a secret shimmer. The green sparkle shows up in strong light, like emeralds caught in the flow of river silt.

Even though the Bristol is a very smooth surface, the bloodstone still granulated gorgeously, adding a subtle texture to the image.

This Pathways painting would be perfect for an earth witch, with its half-seen shapes and magical secrets hiding in the abstract neutral tones.

Bloodstone Falls, detail, by Amy Crook

Bloodstone Falls, detail, by Amy Crook

Above, you can see the iridescent green pigment catching the light, surrounded by the reddish brown of the bloodstone mineral. Below, the piece is in a frame, all ready to find its place on a wall, desk, or in a secret niche.

Bloodstone Falls, framed art by Amy Crook

Bloodstone Falls, framed art by Amy Crook

Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Floating Gallery, Series and Books
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Three for a Girl

Friday, February 5th, 2016

Three for a Girl, watercolor by Amy Crook

Three for a Girl, 6″x6″ watercolor on Fluid watercolor paper

A third installment to one of my favorite series of last year, Three for a Girl continues the Counting Crows theme with another eerie tree and ghostly figure.

The titular girl is almost lost in the mists, fog drifting through and obscuring everything but the tree and its trio of visitors.

Three for a Girl, detail, by Amy Crook

Three for a Girl, detail, by Amy Crook

Above, you can see how the off-black paint granulates into beautifully textured mist, pigment pooling in the hollows of the watercolor paper. Below, the painting is waiting in a frame, a season and a mood in one small, eerie package.

Three for a Girl, framed art by Amy Crook

Three for a Girl, framed art by Amy Crook

Categories: Floating Gallery, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, People, Figures and Faces, Sea Creatures and Other Animals, Series and Books, Zombies, Skulls, and Other Morbid Things
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Two for Joy

Friday, June 5th, 2015

Two for Joy by Amy Crook

Two for Joy by Amy Crook

If this painting feels familiar, that’s because it’s a relative of last month’s One for Sorrow 2. The figure this time is more androgynous, and their clothing seems to be blowing against the prevailing winds that bend the trees to their will.

Just like its predecessor, this piece has a lot of soft, pale fog that gets lost when it’s reproduced, but adds a lot of rich texture to the original. You can see it in the trees in the detail photo, a delicate sweep of wind moving across the paper grain.

Two crows sit low on a branch in the lee of the wind, harbingers of some unnamed joy. Whose joy and about what is left up to the imagination of the viewer, or perhaps it belongs to the apparition staring blankly back out of the page.

Two for Joy, 6″x6″ watercolor on Fluid watercolor paper.

Two for Joy, detail, by Amy Crook

Two for Joy, detail, by Amy Crook

Above, you can see the staticky figure staring back at you, his clothing seemingly blown by an opposing wind. Below, I’ve displayed the painting in a temporary frame, where it awaits its new home.

Two for Joy, framed art by Amy Crook

Two for Joy, framed art by Amy Crook

Categories: Floating Gallery, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, People, Figures and Faces, Sea Creatures and Other Animals, Series and Books, Zombies, Skulls, and Other Morbid Things
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One for Sorrow 2

Friday, May 8th, 2015

One for Sorrow 2 by Amy Crook

One for Sorrow 2 by Amy Crook

I’m not entirely happy with the title One for Sorrow 2, but this painting definitely needed that name, prior use notwithstanding. The single baleful crow sits high in the branches of the windswept tree, its image smeared out into the fog like an apparition, as though the bird is more of a ghost than the figure below.

There is a lot of very pale detail in the trees and sky which is hard to photograph, but shows up beautifully in person and adds another layer to the sense of windswept, foggy unreality. The detail photo shows a little of the sky, but it’s hard to spot on the sun-drenched page.

The lovely, textured greys are also not entirely black, but have a mix of reddish brown bloodstone in them to give the whole piece a more organic, grounded atmosphere.

One for Sorrow 2, 6″x6″ watercolor on Fluid watercolor paper.

One for Sorrow 2, detail, by Amy Crook

One for Sorrow 2, detail, by Amy Crook

Above, you can just barely see the texture in the fog, a hint of wind and motion and shapes looming large and distant. Below, you can see the piece in a temporary frame, just waiting to haunt your house.

One for Sorrow 2, framed art by Amy Crook

One for Sorrow 2, framed art by Amy Crook

Categories: Floating Gallery, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, People, Figures and Faces, Sea Creatures and Other Animals, Series and Books, Zombies, Skulls, and Other Morbid Things
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