Archive for the ‘Abstract and Just Plain Weird’ Category
Horizon bookmark
Monday, November 21st, 2011
Horizon bookmark by Amy Crook
This little bookmark is a relative of my larger piece, On the Horizon. I’ve been field-testing it and actually the salt crystals are really there to stay. The salt pools are just shallow enough that they don’t scratch up the page or overly stuff the book, and the paper it’s on is a nice sturdy watercolor paper.
Horizon Bookmark, 1.5″x7″ mixed media on paper.
Horizon bookmark, detail, by Amy Crook
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art
Tags: blue, bookmark, buy a bookmark, for sale, pen and ink, salt, stars, watercolor
2 Comments »
Raindrops Falling
Thursday, November 10th, 2011
Raindrops Falling by Amy Crook, $222
I made the irregular lines of salt pools with the intention of doing something with vertical lines of pen and ink, and then once I looked at the piece it just really wanted paint instead. I used pure Ultramarine Turquoise to create the streaky lines, and the whole thing reminds me of watching a really strong rain storm through a window, a few drops close enough to watch and the rest making the world a blur.
Raindrops Falling, 5″x7″ mixed media on paper, $222, framed, with free shipping.
I have been ridiculously busy this week and don’t have proper detail or framed photos, but by now I expect you know what sort of plain black frames I use. Here’s a close-up of the lower right corner, so you can see the salt crystals that have grown off the edge of the paper, and the way the paint caught on the bigger salt crystals.
Raindrops Falling, detail, by Amy Crook
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art
Tags: for sale, pen and ink, salt, teal, watercolor
Pond
Friday, November 4th, 2011
Pond by Amy Crook, $323
I decided that I wanted to go back to the original visual image that came to me with the salt pools and depict them in blue-green ink, with ripples going out, fading as they go from each pool. I imagine these like the frozen moment after the drop has hit, the ring of bigger crystasl around the edge like the splash, and each subsequent ring of paint a ripple growing fainter as it travels away from the center point. The whole piece has a very soothing, Zen-like quality to it that I quite enjoy.
Pond, 7″x5″ mixed media on paper, $323, framed, with free shipping.
The blue-green quality of this color is a bit hard to capture, the scanner wants to turn it blue and the camera wants to turn the white paper red, thus making the paint very green when the whites are corrected back.
Pond, detail, by Amy Crook
Of course, like all my three-dimensional salt paintings, it ships tucked safely into a simple frame.
Pond, framed, by Amy Crook, $323
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art
Tags: aqua, for sale, pen and ink, salt, water, watercolor
New Leaf
Thursday, November 3rd, 2011
New Leaf by Amy Crook
A lot of the time I resist the urge to make things pretty and decorative, so with this piece I let myself make smooth, lovely progressions of shapes and colors all I wanted. I was experimenting with salt on a new paper, which turned out to be a bit too absorbent to make formations, but still left sparkly pools of color. Then I got my awesome new Japanese gouache-like paints out (watercolors, but opaque!) and just noodled about with two shades of green and a series of shapes and patterns.
Although the scanner tends to shift it to yellow, the lighter parts of this painting are a vivid new-leaf green, and the whole thing has a lovely rough, hand-torn edge. I’m thinking of framing it with photo corners on black mat board to bring out the roughness around the edges of the otherwise smooth, decorative shapes.
New Leaf, 8″x8″ mixed media on paper, nfs (sold).
Even my camera didn’t really like the lighter green color, but here you can see just a touch of the salt sparkle nestling amongst the matte paint and finely textured paper.
New Leaf, detail, by Amy Crook
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art
Tags: decorative, gouache, green, nfs, pen and ink, salt, sold
2 Comments »
Radial Symmetry 2
Friday, October 21st, 2011
Radial Symmetry 2 by Amy Crook, $242
This time I mixed two different colors, a deep forest green and a lighter, seafoam green. The darker green hides in the black paper somewhat, but the raised texture is more pronounced there, too, since the paint was applied in thick beads. I keep thinking there’s a name for this sort of radial pattern, especially one created with beads, but I couldn’t find it by googling.
Radial Symmetry 2, 5″x5″ mixed media on paper, $242, framed, with free shipping.
My scanner had a really hard time with the subtle colors in this piece, but you can see a better representation of both the shiny green shapes and the soft, velvety black paper.
Radial Symmetry 2, detail, by Amy Crook
I’ve photographed the piece in its frame with my iPhone for scale. I think this piece would look great as part of a wall grouping, along with other art, prints and photos in similar simple black frames.
Radial Symmetry 2, framed, by Amy Crook, $222
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art, Series and Books
Tags: black paper, for sale, gouache, pen and ink, radial symmetry, salt
Radial Symmetry 1
Thursday, October 20th, 2011
Radial Symmetry 1 by Amy Crook, $222
I got some lovely new Japanese gouache paints for my birthday, and I decided to see how they’d work on the black paper. I used double spirals inside these salt circles to give the salt more pigment, which also left darker, warmer centers where the water distributed the pigment into the paper. I used a single color of paint on this, and I found that once it dried, the color stays very consistent no matter how thickly the paint was mixed, but that the thicker paint left rounded, bead-like shapes on the paper.
I think of these a bit like beaded decorations, or possibly flowers with their warm orange centers and pale periwinkle petals. I like to imagine the piece adding a little touch of unexpected loveliness to someone’s life, tucked into a bookshelf or sitting on someone’s desk at work.
Radial Symmetry 1, 5″x5″ mixed media on paper, $222, framed, with free shipping.
Radial Symmetry 1, detail, by Amy Crook
The salt on these isn’t as sparkly, probably because of the matte black behind them, but I love the way the paint makes soft, glossy swells on the paper. It looks great in a simple black frame, which makes the colors really pop. You can see them reflected in my iPhone for scale, below.
Radial Symmetry 1, framed, by Amy Crook, $222
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art, Series and Books
Tags: black paper, for sale, gouache, pen and ink, radial symmetry, salt
Five 5
Tuesday, October 18th, 2011
Five 5 by Amy Crook
This paper completely absorbed the water before any of the salt could even dissolve, making mysterious swirls of ink surrounding each spiral. I went back in and created the crosshatched figure, and once it was most of the way done, I turned it on the side and found that it looked rather like a creepy, Lovecraftian figure. I used water to blur the ink and add significant shape to the shoggoth, the pattern of dots turning the fifth spiral into a part of the figure like an eye on a stalk.
Five 5, 3.5″x2.5″ mixed media on paper, nfs (but available for trading!).
I find it interesting how all the ink on this piece, except for the signature, is blurred and softened, giving the whole piece has a creepy, surreal feeling. Happy Halloween season!
Five 5, detail, by Amy Crook
If you’re an artist who makes ATCs of your own, and are coveting this one, let me know!
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art, Series and Books
Tags: aceo, atc, five series, lovecraft, pen and ink, salt, shoggoth
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