Archive for the ‘Abstract and Just Plain Weird’ Category
Battle Scarred
Wednesday, June 18th, 2014
Battle Scarred, abstract art by Amy Crook
There are two distinct layers to this painting, both filled with shining metallics. The copper in the back is marked and scarred like armor that survived a great battle, with blue glittery enamel filigree over the top, decoration that either came after the battle, or survived unmarked by whatever damaged the surface below. Or perhaps it’s a tracery of some magic used to preserve this artifact of past battles, won or lost.
Battle Scarred, 5″x7″ watercolor, salt, metallic watercolor, and glitter gel pen on paper.
Battle Scarred, detail, by Amy Crook
Above, you can see the copper paint catching the light, the sparkle of the glitter pen and the salt interacting. The blue pen has picked up a slight green tinge in places from the color beneath it, and the metal ranges from a blushing copper to more golden to the green of tarnish in places. Below, you can see the piece in a frame, sunlight giving it a brilliant sheen.
Battle Scarred, framed art by Amy Crook
This one-of-a-kind piece will be available in the Floating Gallery for July; you can join my list to get an early chance to buy.
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Floating Gallery
Tags: blue, copper, for sale, glitter gel pen, metallic, more cowbell, salt, spiral, watercolor
Frost Ghosts
Thursday, June 5th, 2014
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
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
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Floating Gallery, Zombies, Skulls, and Other Morbid Things
Tags: black paper, for sale, japanese watercolor, periwinkle, spooky
Verdigris
Wednesday, June 4th, 2014
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
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
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Floating Gallery
Tags: japanese watercolor, more cowbell, nfs, salt, sold, watercolor
Blood Moon 5
Tuesday, May 6th, 2014
Blood Moon 5 by Amy Crook
Another Blood Moon made its way into my work queue this month, this time by adding some very subtle tentacles to an older painting in lieu of the previous image. This one is much more eerie than the last one, the bloody color leeching from the shadow to the white parts of the moon, and a second, smaller moon waiting off to one side, ruddy and strange. This sky is not our sky, or perhaps it is our sky many millennia hence, when the stars have become right and Great Cthulhu will rise up from R’lyeh to reclaim the planet for himself.
Blood Moon 5, 5″x7″ Japanese watercolor on Arches cover black paper.
Blood Moon 5, detail, by Amy Crook
Above, you can more clearly see the subtle mist and dark black tentacles rising up from the bottom of the painting, reaching toward the bloody moons. Below, the piece rests in a frame, a little window to some awful future*, or perhaps somewhere very far away indeed.
Blood Moon 5, framed art by Amy Crook
*Perhaps it’s Thundarr the Barbarian’s future, instead of Cthulhu’s. I always did like Ookla.
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Floating Gallery, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, Tentacles
Tags: black paper, blood moon, for sale, japanese watercolor, moon, more cowbell, tentacles, watercolor
Blue Violet
Monday, May 5th, 2014
Blue Violet, abstract art by Amy Crook
Beautiful, richly layered color and shine make this painting live up to its name. There’s really only 2 colors each of normal watercolor, shiny watercolor, and glitter gel pen, but their interactions create an amazing level of fractal detail and variety of shades from blue to violet.
This painting would bring a gorgeous pop of color to an otherwise drab office or wall.
Blue Violet, 8″x8″ watercolor, iridescent watercolor, and glitter gel pen on Fluid watercolor paper.
Blue Violet, detail, by Amy Crook
Above, you can see a hint of the glitter pen hiding in the paint, blue lines and purple spirals floating atop the color. Below, you can see the piece in a frame, bright and beautiful against the black.
Blue Violet, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Floating Gallery
Tags: blue, duochrome, glitter gel pen, iridescent, nfs, purple, sold, violet, watercolor
Blood Moon 4
Sunday, May 4th, 2014
Blood Moon 4 by Amy Crook
May the Fourth be with you! I chose a swirly, spiraled abstraction of a real-life space phenomenon today to go with the long time ago and far, far away that today brings to mind.
It’s a bright, warm afternoon when I’m writing this, and the cold hour standing outside when I saw the Blood Moon eclipse does seem rather long ago and far away. I spent almost an hour staring up at the sky, eyes fixed on the sliver of moon above through the haze of clouds that waxed and waned. I could only see Spica and Mars of all the bright objects, because I’m in the middle of a city in the middle of a lot of other cities, but I could see enough to be worth the chilled feet.
Blood Moon 4, 5″x5″ Japanese watercolor, duochrome watercolor, and glitter gel pen on Arches cover black paper.
Blood Moon 4, detail, by Amy Crook
Above, you can see the bright red and gold glitter shining atop the much more muted red-brown and white eclipsed moon. Below, you can see the piece in a frame with its shining mist.
Blood Moon 4, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Floating Gallery, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes
Tags: black paper, blood moon, duochrome, for sale, glitter gel pen, iridescent, iridescent watercolor, japanese watercolor, moon, watercolor
Splash 2
Tuesday, April 8th, 2014
Splash 2, abstract watercolor by Amy Crook
You may be wondering what happened to the first Splash, and the answer to that is that the artist didn’t take off the masking tape in time, oops. Still, I really love this second version — it’s got a lot of delightfully layered texture reminiscent of waves breaking over and over, plus if you turn it on its side you can kind of see Godzilla.
I was playing with implied boundaries here, and also testing the color gamut on my printer — I’m sad to say that this doesn’t reprint well at all, because the delicate shadings of blue and turquoise turn to cyan mush.
Splash 2, 8″x8″ watercolor on Fluid watercolor paper.
Splash 2, detail, by Amy Crook
Above, you can see a close-up that shows the layers of color and texture that give this work its depth and beauty. Below, you can see it in a frame, brightly lit by the spring sunshine.
Splash 2, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Floating Gallery, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes
Tags: blue, for sale, godzilla, splash, turquoise, watercolor
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