Random Recipe: Minted Lemonade
Posted on August 18th, 2022
A recipe made of 4 ingredients, and to your own taste!
You will need:
- a pitcher
- boiling water
- fresh mint
- fresh lemons
- sugar
Make mint tea! Pour boiling water over washed fresh mint and steep for 5-7 minutes. Longer goes stronger, but much over 7 minutes and you’re adding flavors you probably don’t want.
Filter out the mint and then pour the tea into your pitcher.
Add the sugar to taste, keeping in mind that you’ll be adding a lot of lemon juice later. You want very sweet, minty tea. Cool it down.
Add lemon juice to taste and drink up!
For reference, I added 1/4 cup of sugar to 4 cups of tea, and the juice of 3 lemons. It could maybe have used a fourth for real tartness. I used a bundle of mint from our farmshare, and everything else was just guesswork and experimentation.
It’s pretty tasty, though.
PS – Please enjoy my new hobby, 8-bit pixel art!
Categories: Whimsical and Strange, Words Words Words
Tags: 8-bit art, digital art, recipe
Phosphorescence
Posted on June 14th, 2022
Phosphorescence, 12″x24″ mixed media on paper
In the same vein as Time is Escaping, this larger-scale painting uses shimmering, textured paint to create a feeling of water and movement.
The spiral structure suggests a deep whirlpool or concentric waves, with something brightly phosphorescent bursting out, escaping with its darker-hued cousins. Despite the feeling of depth, the paint in the center is thickly layered in textural swashes, though some peeks of the first layer, an iridescent fluorite green wash, still show through.
The palette of black, purple, blue, and green is reminiscent of a peacock feather, as is the sheen of sparkle that covers the entire painting.
Phosphorescence, detail, by Amy Crook
Above, you can see sunlight picking up the flecks of tourmaline in the black, and the varying shades of purple floating atop the central vortex. Below, the same purples drift down into the shimmering metallic greens at the bottom of the painting.
Phosphorescence, detail, by Amy Crook
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Floating Gallery, Series and Books
Tags: interference, iridescent, nfs, primatek, soft body acrylic, sold, vortices, watercolor
The Reaching Tree
Posted on June 8th, 2022
The Reaching Tree, 5″x7″ watercolor on paper
It’s a tree of a different color! Deep violet-black and slightly glittery, this amethyst paint uses real minerals to create gorgeous textures. The moon has a little extra shine of its own, as it should, but the painting is otherwise entirely monochrome.
The tree reaches into the sky, always seeking something in the way of trees. Below it, the figure has more hands than seems strictly warranted, reaching just as the tree is, though possibly not for the same thing.
Just in case, perhaps stay out of arms’ reach. If you can figure out how long that is, anyway.
The Reaching Tree, detail, by Amy Crook
Above, you can see the way the figure’s ghostly arms reach and reach. Is one of them reaching for you? Well, you can keep it safely behind glass in a frame, should you wish to.
The Reaching Tree, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Floating Gallery, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, People, Figures and Faces, Zombies, Skulls, and Other Morbid Things
Tags: amethyst, crow, for sale, ghost, primatek, tree, watercolor
District of the Small Gods
Posted on June 7th, 2022
District of the Small Gods, 7″x5″ watercolor on paper
This thickly textured paper is porous and absorbent, but brushed tend to skip over the deep valleys in the page and leave fascinating voids in the wash.
A cat-shaped temple holds center court in this strange alien district, with other small gods represented by their own odd architectures. Is the building made of pointy things a god of war or merely one of pointy things? Does the the shape on top of the spire represent a blind eye, or an all-seeing one?
What small gods do you think reside here, waiting for their small offerings?
District of the Small Gods, detail, by Amy Crook
Above, you can see thee way the light glows over and through the Temple of the Cat. Below, the art is properly encased in a frame, ready to bring strange delight to a shelf or wall.
District of the Small Gods, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Floating Gallery, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, Series and Books, Whimsical and Strange
Tags: city, for sale, horizons, metallic, sunset, watercolor
Concentric 15
Posted on June 6th, 2022
Concentric 15, 7″x5″ watercolor on paper
The joy of experimenting with chaos in art is that sometimes you get happy accidents, and sometimes you get gibbous moons that stare at you like a creeper.
Despite that, the matte black makes a beautiful backdrop for these shimmering bursts of color, each one fading from one thing to another as it echoes out onto the page. Gold and violet, lavender and blue-green, each one is a unique combination that changes as you look at it.
Which is your favorite part of this painting, the spooky, the pretty, or the contrast between the two?
Concentric 15, detail, by Amy Crook
Above, the dots sparkle with tiny flecks of iridescent paint. Below, you can see this moody, colorful piece in a frame, waiting to add some strangeness to your life.
Concentric 15, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Floating Gallery, Series and Books
Tags: concentric, duochrome, for sale, iridescent, metallic, watercolor, yupo
Storm Crow
Posted on June 4th, 2022
Storm Crow, 8″x8″ watercolor on paper
A blooming tree takes up most of the paper, black branches holding up blue-green puffs of foliage and deep fuchsia blossoms.
Despite that, the crow with rain falling from beneath its wings is the first thing to draw the eye, caught in fluid motion as it brings a storm with it. A glowing full moon ducks behind the tree, but it can’t hide from the clouds forever.
Despite the darkness of the color palette, this painting has a lovely whimsy to it that belongs in someone’s home, adding some dark delight to their decor.
Storm Crow, detail, by Amy Crook
Above, you can see the crowd raining droplets down from its wings onto the swirling tree. Below, this larger painting fills its frame beautifully.
Storm Crow, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Floating Gallery, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, Sea Creatures and Other Animals, Whimsical and Strange
Tags: crow, for sale, moon, more cowbell, watercolor
Concentric 14
Posted on June 3rd, 2022
Concentric 14, 7″x5″ watercolor on yupo
The Floating Gallery is open and ready for you, my darlings!
A change of pace for the Concentric series, this painting has a shimmering blue background with opaque, matte designs atop.
The translucent yupo paper lets the light glow through, but also makes it hard to photograph with any kind of color accuracy. Although the palette is all blues and purples and shining silver, it’s hard to tell which shade of which is there when they shift with the light.
These feel more like flowers than fireworks to me, like bursts of color atop a shimmering pond or strange flocks against a cloud-flocked sky. What do you see?
Concentric 14, detail, by Amy Crook
Above, you can see up close the way the paint sparkles and shifts in the light, and the way the yupo seems to glow with its own translucency. Below, it’s sequestered in a frame, waiting for its new home.
Concentric 14, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Floating Gallery, Series and Books
Tags: concentric, for sale, japanese watercolor, metallic, watercolor, yupo
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