Blog « Antemortem Arts | Art & Writing by Amy Crook

I <3 Payment Plans

Posted on June 8th, 2014

Purple Mist, abstract art by Amy Crook

No, really, I do. Layaway, payment plans, installments agreements, whatever you want to call it, I love them to bits. They help buyers who want art but don’t have all the pennies in their budget today, and they help me.

As a working artist, money coming in at regular intervals is a really nice thing to have. It’s always good to know my boba tea budget is covered! Instant gratification aside, that commitment tells me you love my art enough to give it a good home. It’s like the extra little bit of love you show when you’re willing to wait for your new kitten to get fixed before it comes to its forever home.

Okay, really I just wanted you to think art = kittens for a minute.

You might be wondering, how does one set up a payment plan with an artist such as yourself? Well, it’s really simple: just ask me.

Answers, We Has ThemWood Elf by Amy Crook

  • I offer 3 payment plans, $25, $50 or $100/month. Even the lowest one is enough to get one piece of art paid off within a year.
  • I’ll keep track of it in a shared Google Spreadsheet, so you can always see where you are in your payments and how much there is to go.
  • I don’t charge any interest, but you won’t get your art until after you’ve sent the last payment.
  • Your painting or drawing will be marked sold as soon as we come to an agreement, so you don’t have to worry someone else will swipe it while you’re paying.
  • You can pay with Paypal, checks, or meeting up for coffee & handing me cash, whatever works. Well, okay, you can only do the last one if you’re local to the SF Bay Area (hi!). I can even set up a Paypal Subscription Payment that’ll charge you automagically.
  • You can always double up if you get a windfall and get your art faster, or rearrange if you come to a tight spot. If you have to miss a payment for whatever reason, it’s cool, we’ll just pick it back up next time.

Three Crows by Amy Crook
Agree With Me?

If you’ve fallen in love with something in the Floating Gallery and want to take it home with you, send me an email! We’ll work out an agreement to make that possible.

Got more questions? You can ask them here, or drop me a line. I’m always happy to chat.

Maleficent, abstract art by Amy Crook

Categories: Floating Gallery, Words Words Words
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Two Fish

Posted on June 7th, 2014

Two Fish, watercolor by Amy Crook

Two Fish, watercolor by Amy Crook

Two fish, different, but still swimming together in the vibrant purple depths. The bottom fish flashes between purple and blue, and the top fish has gold-to-green duochrome paint on one half, and gold-to-orange on the other.

To me, this painting is about support. The bottom fish is always there, just on the edge of awareness, ready to rise up when he’s needed.

Two Fish, 4″x8″ Japanese watercolor and duochrome watercolor on Fluid watercolor paper.

Two Fish, detail, by Amy Crook

Two Fish, detail, by Amy Crook

You can really see the blue, gold, and orange catching the sunlight above, turning the purple water to a muted, matte background for the fishes’ brilliance. Below, the fish are swimming in a temporary frame, bright in the middle of darkness.

Two Fish, framed art by Amy Crook

Two Fish, framed art by Amy Crook

Categories: Floating Gallery, Sea Creatures and Other Animals, Whimsical and Strange
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Distance

Posted on June 6th, 2014

Distance, art by Amy Crook

Distance, art by Amy Crook

Two paintings of crows this month, what is this world coming to? Obviously, I’ve had my blinds open to watch the birds outside my window. Pod appreciates this very much, though he doesn’t seem to understand that he’d be very sad if he actually could try to leap and catch one.

This time the crow and branches are sketched in with pen and ink, while the sunlit mist and distant castle are watercolor. It reminds me of the opening scene of some fairytale, an establishing shot waiting for us to swoop over the dead, misty forests and up to one of the towers to see who’s hiding in the castle.

Distance, 6″x4″ pen & ink and watercolor on Fluid watercolor paper.

Distance, detail, by Amy Crook

Distance, detail, by Amy Crook

Above, you can see the crow and the mist-shrouded, distant castle, bracketed by dark, dead branches. Below, you can see the painting, sun-washed and petite next to my phone.

Distance, framed art by Amy Crook

Distance, framed art by Amy Crook

Categories: Daily Art, Floating Gallery, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, Sea Creatures and Other Animals, Series and Books
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Frost Ghosts

Posted on June 5th, 2014

Frost Ghosts, spooky watercolor by Amy Crook

Frost Ghosts, watercolor by Amy Crook

This painting, too, is hard to convey online. There’s no shiny paint or other special effects, but the way the paint seems to have depth is somewhat lost, and the subtle shadings and chilly colors get warmed and muddied.

I let the paint on this one mostly do its own thing with only a little direction from me to tease out the handprints on the right and the strange, creepy face in the upper left. The frostlike bloom of lighter paint happens when the dark purple and pale, opaque periwinkle interact in a pool of color, and are allowed to dry as they will.

The ghosts put their mark on this painting just for you.

Frost Ghosts, 5″x5″ Japanese watercolor on Arches cover black paper.

Frost Ghosts, detail, by Amy Crook

Frost Ghosts, detail, by Amy Crook

Above, you can see one of the handprints that bloomed above the surface of the dark paper and darker paint like frost traced on a window at night by a ghostly hand. Below, the painting sits in a frame in the incongruous sunshine, showing off more of its depths.

Frost Ghosts, framed art by Amy Crook

Frost Ghosts, framed art by Amy Crook

Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Floating Gallery, Zombies, Skulls, and Other Morbid Things
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Verdigris

Posted on June 4th, 2014

Verdigris, abstract art by Amy Crook

Verdigris, abstract art by Amy Crook

This is a month of paintings that don’t quite show online the same as they do in person. In this case, the deep teal of the swirls is out of gamut for my monitor, so it gets blued out strangely. I think the swirling spirals remind me of a wrought-iron fence with some sort of strange verdigris growing on it, turning it first a strange dark green and then lighter with age as the change deepened. There’s bright oranges and golds behind the screen of greens, which one person told me looked like sunshine chasing away the stormclouds. Either way, it’s a bright, colorful painting full of strange little details to spark the imagination.

Verdigris, 8″x4″ salt, watercolor, and Japanese watercolor on Fluid watercolor paper.

Verdigris, detail, by Amy Crook

Verdigris, detail, by Amy Crook

Above, you can almost see the real color of the spirals imposed on a bit of false color in the background, which has grown far too green on the right in an attempt to get the spirals to behave. Tehre’s even a little hint of some of the sneaky salt circles hiding in the painting. Below, you can see the painting in a temporary frame, with the closest to true color of all three images, I think.

Verdigris, framed art by Amy Crook

Verdigris, framed art by Amy Crook

Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Floating Gallery
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Wood Elf

Posted on June 3rd, 2014

Wood Elf, watercolor by Amy Crook

Wood Elf, watercolor by Amy Crook

This painting used to be a different painting, but I honestly never really liked that other painting, whereas this one has a great, fierce simplicity to it that I really enjoy. I found the face in the hair rather than the other way around, tight-lipped and androgynous and full of determination. I don’t really know if it’s a wood elf or some other creature of myth or fiction, but I love the auburn hair and muted green of the one eye you can see.

Wood Elf, 4″x8″ watercolor on Fluid watercolor paper.

Wood Elf, detail, by Amy Crook

Wood Elf, detail, by Amy Crook

Above, you can see the one fierce eye glaring green out of the red-brown hair, eyebrow an expressive slash of darker brown. Below, I’ve put the piece in a temporary frame while it waits patiently for you to take it home and discover its mysteries for yourself.

Wood Elf, framed art by Amy Crook

Wood Elf, framed art by Amy Crook

Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Floating Gallery, People, Figures and Faces
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Three Crows

Posted on June 2nd, 2014

Three Crows, watercolor by Amy Crook

Three Crows, watercolor by Amy Crook

Good things come in threes. One crow flapping, one crow diving, and the middle one gliding away on an updraft to avoid the swirling cloud. The sky has bright blue arching down and sunny yellow shining upward, but it’s the spiralling clouds in metallic silver that really make it beautiful. The silver paint shows up grey at some angles, shining white at others, and sometimes it blends right into the background so well it nearly vanishes.

Three Crows, 7″x5″ watercolor and metallic watercolor on paper.

Three Crows, detail, by Amy Crook

Three Crows, detail, by Amy Crook

Above, a close-up of shimmering clouds and two of the three crows. I’m especially fond of the shape of the upper right cloud. Below, the piece in a frame, with my iPhone for scale.

Three Crows, framed art by Amy Crook

Three Crows, framed art by Amy Crook

Categories: Floating Gallery, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, Sea Creatures and Other Animals, Series and Books
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