Archive for the ‘Abstract and Just Plain Weird’ Category

Harvest Moon 2

Tuesday, June 28th, 2011

Harvest Moon 2 by Amy Crook

Even as I’m really developing the salt work into a proper technique, I still learn something new with each piece. This painting began with a lot of painstaking drawing that became nearly obliterated by the process, and ended up with a deceptively simple image with a lot of texture and detail just waiting to be found by the careful viewer.

Harvest Moon 2, 7″x5″ salt, pen and ink and watercolor on watercolor paper.

The central shape actually started as a dense circle of pen-and-ink spirals, but you can only see a tiny shadow of the original ink if you look very closely.

Harvest Moon 2, detail 1, by Amy Crook

When I added the salt and water to it, the golden-orange ink turned into a vividly orange puddle, which then dried to the softer peach color you see in the final product.

Harvest Moon 2, work in progress by Amy Crook

Harvest Moon 2, in progress, by Amy Crook

There’s a dense layer of sparkling salt crystals overlaying the entire surface of the ‘moon,’ adding a physical texture on top of the visual texture.

Harvest Moon 2, detail 2, by Amy Crook

The salt layer, like the ink beneath it, formed unevenly based on where the paper warped and the water pooled. Here you can really see the line of dense crystals that runs vertically through the image.

Harvest Moon 2, detail 3, by Amy Crook

And here it is tucked into a frame, ready to find its new home.

Harvest Moon 2, framed, by Amy Crook

Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes
Tags: harvest moon, moon, pen and ink, salt, watercolor

Treasures

Friday, June 24th, 2011

Treasures by Amy Crook, $199

I only added a few minimal details to the original tea wash on this piece. I took brown pen and gave the face I saw dark eyes, so it looks like a mysterious veiled creature curled possessively around the lighter space in the center. Then I gave it something to be possessive of — I used the same brown ink to make spirals for the salt crystals to rest on, and then went through the process to make salt pools.

I took some photos of the process so you can see it below.

Treasures, 7″x5″ mixed media on paper, $199, framed, with free shipping.

First we have the dried tea wash, ink, and carefully chosen crystals of salt. There’s a lot of size variation in the bottle of coarse sea salt I bought, so I make sure to choose appropriately for the effect I want. In this case, I went for small to medium crystals so the pools would stay discrete and relatively flat.

Treasures, work in progress part 1, by Amy Crook

Second, I drop on the water with an eyedropper. The water washes the dust and scratches off the salt right away, leaving clear crystals that are hard to see, and the ink immediately starts to curl up into the water as well.

Treasures, work in progress part 2, by Amy Crook

Here the salt and ink have dissolved as much as they’re going to, making a fluid made of brown ink, salt, whatever tea dissolves back in, and of course tap water.

Treasures, work in progress part 3, by Amy Crook

And finally the water evaporates overnight, taking sometimes as much as a full day and leaving behind salt crystals imbued with the ink and tea. These crystals grow onto the paper, and so they’re quite well-attached. The tea gave the salt a very subtle bluish tint for some reason, though the brown ink really covers that up.

Treasures, work in progress part 4, by Amy Crook

I found a lovely wood frame that matches wonderfully with the warm browns of the tea wash. Below you can see the final piece in its frame, with the mysterious figure looming protectively over the 7 sparkling piles of salt.

Treasures, framed, by Amy Crook, $199

Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art, People, Figures and Faces
Tags: for sale, salt, tea

Aglow

Thursday, June 23rd, 2011

Aglow by Amy Crook, $699

Something about this piece just makes me happy every time I look at it, the 13 glowing circles reminding me of stars, or fireflies, or even lamps through a dark mist. The dark blue-black background perfectly offsets the magical snowflake-like rosettes that formed when I tried my salt trick on this softer, more porous paper.

Aglow, in progress, by Amy Crook

The other interesting difference with this paper was that the water droplets formed little wells that actually sunk into the paper, making dimples on the back.

Aglow, back, by Amy Crook

When I painted in the background afterward, the paint was drawn straight into the circle by the salt crystals whenever the brush touched the edge of one of the little branches.

Aglow, detail 1, by Amy Crook

This is a really good close-up of a pair of the crystalline structure, so you can see all the detail that gets softened into a simple warm glow when you back up and see it from a distance.

Aglow, detail 2, by Amy Crook

I put it into a wide black frame, which sets off the warmth of the paper and the not-quite-black of the paint really nicely.

Aglow, framed, by Amy Crook

Aglow, 7″x5″ mixed media on paper, $699, framed, with free shipping.

Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art, Series and Books
Tags: fireflies, for sale, salt, sky, stars, watercolor
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Mist

Tuesday, June 21st, 2011

Mist by Amy Crook, $169

This simple piece puts me in mind of a magical fog rolling in, wrapping the world in a muffling mist, turning everything into texture and dim shape. The detailed texture in the watercolor fascinates me, the subtle gradations in color and density that make it so much more than a simple blob of color.

I’m still on the lookout for good frames in this size, but I do love the way the embossing on the archival cardstock forms a mat that interacts with the image inside when the paint bumps up and sometimes over the edges of its artificial border.

I’ve made a computer wallpaper and iPhone wallpaper of this piece to help showcase the subtle textures that get lost in the tiny version above.

Mist, 8.5″x5.5″ watercolor on embossed paper, $169 with free shipping.

Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art, Free Wallpapers
Tags: for sale, watercolor
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Untitled Jar 1

Monday, June 20th, 2011

Untitled Jar 1, interior, by Amy Crook

I’ve finally given in to my six-month admiration of Kirsty M Hall’s 365 Jars project and made a jar of my own!

It started out as yet another salt experiment, but for whatever reason the water soaked through the paper, making a fascinating layered piece of art. There’s even salt crystals formed inside the paper itself, pushing their shape up under the matte inked spirals. The back of the paper is subtly sparkly, though, which forms the inner curve of the piece. This purple ink tends to separate out into the water, making the salt circles a pinkish lavender and the spirals themselves a darker blue-violet.

I wanted a way to display the piece that invited the viewer to look at both sides, and the idea of curling it up into a jar seemed obvious after nearly half a year of seeing Kirsty’s daily posts. I first tried it out in a smaller corked bottle I have, but the paper was curled too tight to see inside, defeating the whole point.

In order to make it fit properly in the jar, I tore the paper into an organic shape, including liberating one of the swirls onto its own little piece of paper that sits against the glass in the gap between edges. Then I filled the bottom with the same rock salt I use to make these art pieces, including a few chunks that had been stained with pink and blue ink hiding amongst all the white.

Below you can see all six faces of the jar, and at the bottom I’ve made a silly gif of the jar rotating endlessly.

Untitled Jar 1, mixed media in a jar, not for sale.

The obvious first panel, with my signature on it in the original purple color.