Archive for the ‘Abstract and Just Plain Weird’ Category
Orange Paisley
Monday, December 5th, 2011
Orange Paisley by Amy Crook
I was experimenting twice over with this piece, first by using different paints in each set of 7 paisleys (for 21 total), and then by drawing the salt pools out into shapes. Finally the background seemed to need a good, strong orange, giving the whole thing a wacky ’70s feel.
Orange Paisley, 7″x5″ watercolor and salt on paper.
Orange Paisley, detail 1, by Amy Crook
In the above detail, you can see the sparkle of the subtle duochrome paint and the way it interacts with the salt. Below, a simpler gold color that’s densest where the salt, too, gathered as they dried together.
Orange Paisley, detail 2, by Amy Crook
And finally you can see the piece in a simple black frame, letting the pattern really shine through.
Orange Paisley, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art
Tags: for sale, orange, paisley, salt, watercolor
7 Spirals
Thursday, December 1st, 2011
7 Spirals by Amy Crook
I’ve noticed that the dye-based inks I use on some of the salt pieces will fade in strong sunlight, so I’ve been experimenting with using watercolors to dye the salt instead, with mixed results. The color I used in this painting came out clear and strong, making sparkling fuchsia salt crystals.
Even though there’s 15 salt pools, I chose to name it after the purple spirals that fill the white space in loose, haphazard shapes. The spirals are actually made by mixing the pink pigment in the inner ring with the teal pigment in the outer rings, giving surprising violets with unusual tones and highlights where the pigments separated.
7 Spirals, 5″x7″ pen & ink, salt, and watercolor on paper.
7 Spirals, detail, by Amy Crook
You can really see the rich colors in this detail shot, above, and the subtle sparkle of the salt in the waning autumn light in my apartment. Below, the paint seems almost to glow in its matte black frame.
7 Spirals, framed, by Amy Crook
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art
Tags: for sale, pink, purple, salt, teal, watercolor
Genuine Pink
Monday, November 28th, 2011
Genuine Pink by Amy Crook, $222
It’s quite hard to capture the rich mineral color of the Rhodonite Pink watercolor, which isn’t quite as bright as it shows in the detail image below, but has a dusky quality that’s overly pronounced in the scan above. The salt is fancy pink Himalayan salt, and the orange-pink minerals in it tended to sink and gather at the center of each pool.
Pink isn’t my favorite color, but I have to admit I’m fascinated by all of the genuine mineral paints from this company, which have complex and subtle undertones, and I think this one goes well with the unusual tint from the pink salt.
Genuine Pink, 5″x7″ mixed media on paper, $222, framed, with free shipping.
Genuine Pink, detail, by Amy Crook
I think the framed image gets the best feel for the paint colour, but the salt looks quite like it does in the detail photo, above.
Genuine Pink, framed, by Amy Crook, $222
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art
Tags: pink, salt, watercolor
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
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