Archive for the ‘Abstract and Just Plain Weird’ Category
New Growth
Wednesday, April 2nd, 2014
New Growth by Amy Crook
Spring is creeping out into the US despite the weather, with daffodils here and brave buds there. Here in California we’ve got lots of flowers and new leaves, though there’s a yellow edge to some of them with the drought.
This painting echoes those delicate new leaves and water-drenched old growth, unfurling after a life-giving rain shower.
Art can symbolize something you want in life, and be a talisman for your own movement in that direction. Is there somewhere you could use a breath of spring and a burst of new growth?
New Growth, 7″5″ Japanese watercolor on Arches cover black paper.
New Growth, detail, by Amy Crook
Above, you can see how there’s a ghost of yellow even beyond the spray of new growth, like the mists of pollen floating on the page. Below, you can see the painting in a frame, washed bright in the spring sunshine.
New Growth, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Floating Gallery, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes
Tags: black paper, for sale, green, japanese watercolor, watercolor
Deepest R’lyeh
Saturday, March 8th, 2014
Deepest R’lyeh, abstract art by Amy Crook
“Ph’nglui mglw’nafh Cthulhu R’lyeh wgah’nagl fhtagn”
(“In his house at R’lyeh, dead Cthulhu waits dreaming.”)-HP Lovecraft
Strange, tentacled things grow in the depths, with the horrible spheres of the ancient city of R’lyeh shining dim and strange through the murky waters. Colors shift and change, and objects seem to flow into one another in ways that the mind can’t quite comprehend. What strange horrors lie just out of sight, waiting for the stars to be right?
Deepest R’lyeh, 5″x5″ watercolor and duochrome watercolor on Arches cover white paper.
Deepest R’lyeh, detail, by Amy Crook
Above, you can see a close-up of one of the strange, multicolored tentacle creatures. Below, you can see the piece in a frame, a window into a world of madness.
Deepest R’lyeh, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Floating Gallery, Sea Creatures and Other Animals, Series and Books, Tentacles
Tags: duochrome, for sale, iridescent, more cowbell, watercolor
Night Blooming
Friday, March 7th, 2014
Night Blooming by Amy Crook
Three flowers shine under the midnight sky full of silver stars or, as one person suggested, floating fireflies. The flowers change colors depending on the angle, pink to purple for the thistle, gold to green for the amaranth and gold to a richer orange-gold for the little wildflower down at the bottom, with the greenery going softly blue like moonlit leaves at some angles.
Gorgeous and ethereal, this painting makes the flowers seem ghostly as the bloom out of their normal cycle, bright against the blackness of the paper.
Night Blooming, 7″x5″ duochrome watercolor on Arches cover black paper.
Night Blooming, detail, by Amy Crook
Above, you can see the thistle from two angles, purple-blue as it catches the sunlight on the left, and pink and green on the right under more normal lighting. Below, you can see the piece in a frame, with a few more eternally blooming flowers from my bookshelf for company.
Night Blooming, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Floating Gallery, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes
Tags: black paper, duochrome, iridescent, nfs, sold, watercolor
Red Wedding Decoration
Thursday, March 6th, 2014
Red Wedding Decoration by Amy Crook
Some of the time when I’m working on abstract art, I’m just thinking about the visuals. Sometimes, like with this piece, I tell myself a little story while I’m working, so there’s this weird little mental narrative behind the art.
In this case, despite having never seen or read Game of Thrones, I’ve been made aware of the whole Red Wedding thing. When the garnet paint (made with real garnets!) looked so much like blood dripped onto the paper, it made me think of that show, which in turn gave me this idea of some poor scribe, tasked with turning the ruined parchment into a decoration. And he had better do a good job, since he obviously knows what happened to the last people that crossed Lord Frey.
Red Wedding Decoration, 7″x5″ watercolor on watercolor paper.
Red Wedding Decoration, detail, by Amy Crook
Above, you can see a close-up of the painstakingly detailed filigree pattern radiating out from each splatter of paint. Below, you can see the piece in a frame, with the white circle emphasized by the way it intersects with the edge.
Red Wedding Decoration, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Floating Gallery, Series and Books, Zombies, Skulls, and Other Morbid Things
Tags: filigree, for sale, game of thrones, red, spirals, watercolor
Maleficent
Monday, March 3rd, 2014
Maleficent, abstract art by Amy Crook
Maleficent has a texture like layers of scales carved by the pen into the painted surface. The painstaking detail invites closer examination, especially in the different ways in which the paint mixed with the red ink to add an extra layer of color along with the surface finish.
This painting is named after the villain’s dragon form in the original Disney Sleeping Beauty, majestic and powerful but still, in her heart, flawed. You can see that flaw under the scales, almost the exact shape of the crack in the universe from Doctor Who.
Some of you followed along on Instagram during the week I spent working on this piece (hi!), so now you can see it in all its strange, obsessive glory. I keep wanting to run my finger over it, but I resist, because I don’t want to turn my fingers purple, or ruin the painting by accident.
Maleficent, 6″x4″ pen & ink and Japanese watercolor on Arches cover black paper.
Maleficent, detail, by Amy Crook
Above, you can see a close-up of the texture, and the furrows the pen made as it pressed into the painted surface. I had to re-draw some of the arcs half a dozen times to get the effect I wanted, because the pen was constantly getting clogged with paint it picked up from the paper. Below, you can see it in a frame with my phone. It’s wee! So wee, and so painstakingly detailed.
Maleficent, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Floating Gallery, Things I'm a Fan Of
Tags: black paper, japanese watercolor, nfs, pen and ink, purple, sold, watercolor
Traverse
Friday, February 7th, 2014
Traverse, watercolor by Amy Crook
For such a small painting there is a sense of vast space and infinite possibility in this little slice of time. The moment it captures feels like a cusp, a step into some unknown future. It’s a visual reminder to take risks, step out, to choose a direction and see what lies over the next bit of horizon.
Traverse, 6″x4″ watercolor on Arches cover white paper.
Traverse, detail, by Amy Crook
Above, you can see a close-up of the figure, her details washed away by the brightness she’s facing into. Below, you can see the painting in a frame, with the figure reflected in the shiny surface of my phone.
Traverse, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Floating Gallery, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, People, Figures and Faces
Tags: nfs, sold, watercolor
Island
Thursday, February 6th, 2014
Island, abstract watercolor by Amy Crook
I think paintings are hardest to talk about when I really adore them. This one is such an exquisite combination of tiny details and subtle colors created both by deliberate artistic choice and by random chance that I’m ridiculously in love with it.
The paper is soft, both in texture and its creamy color, and the paints are all matte shades of real minerals, except for the places where there’s unexpected bursts of red or even sun-catching bits of green iridescence. The shape suggests an island without being any specific one, with its noodling coastlines and the surf creeping up all around it. The green is rich and deep and mysterious, inviting the viewer to look for hidden detail.
Island, 10″x8″ watercolor and duochrome watercolor on Arches cover white paper.
Island, detail, by Amy Crook
Above, you can see a very close look at some of the detail, in an area with a subtle wash of red hiding under the green, and a tiny patch of shimmering brightness that only shows itself in sunlight, like a lake hidden in deep jungles. Below, the painting’s in a frame, looking even more like some forgotten map.
Island, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Floating Gallery, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes
Tags: blue, duochrome, for sale, green, map, watercolor
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