Archive for the ‘Abstract and Just Plain Weird’ Category
Blue Square
Saturday, February 5th, 2011
Blue Square by Amy Crook
I have never managed to successfully take a photograph that captures the color and texture of this painting. It’s a sad sort of blue-grey, but with a gentle glow of hope in the upper left that keeps it from being depressing. There’s a lot of subtle color changes and textures, and I’ve finished the edges with Payne’s Gray, which has helped to set off the small details and changes in colour.
This painting’s story isn’t so much the story of it being painted one day in a fit of melancholy and creatitivty, as it is the way it’s travelled with me through the years. Right now it’s hanging on the wall above my antique secretary, with smudges on the wall from where I painted the sides last month (my poor landlords, I console myself that I don’t plan to move for several years yet). It’s lived in many apartments, sometimes hanging, sometimes not, but it’s always held a special place for me as an abstract that, while having no discernible figures or features, still manages to convey something to the viewer.
Blue Square, 20″x20″ oil on canvas, $699 with free shipping.
The edges of this canvas have been finished in deep blue-grey, making it suitable for hanging as is. I’m always happy to help you by framing it for a wee little fee, if that’s your preference.
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art
Tags: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, blue, for sale, oil painting
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In and In and In
Monday, January 17th, 2011
In and In and In by Amy Crook
I’m so pleased to finally be back painting again, after a long winter of no sunlight, no energy, and no time. This is a tiny painting, mostly in shades of blue, and it looks to me like some sort of well or tunnel with a light beckoning at the end, luring one to explore what’s beyond the buff frame.
I’m actually very happy with this painting, as well. I love doing abstracts like this, I always have, but I’ve been drowning in weebles lately trying to get my Valentine’s Day projects done for my Etsy shop. I love doing the weebles, but like anything, sometimes variety is better.
I have a sort of a show next month! The Book Shop in Hayward, CA, has artists in their shop window every month, and I’m to be Miss February. This piece is among the ones slated to go in the window, provided it dries in time. Like all the other tiny paintings, this one comes with a wooden easel for display, which can tuck into a bookcase, sit on top of a computer monitor or mantelpiece, and bring a bit of mystery into your space.
In and In and In, 2.75″x2.75″ oil paint on canvas with 5″ wooden easel.
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art
Tags: for sale, oil painting, tiny painting
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Dancer Shard
Thursday, December 2nd, 2010
Dancer Shard by Amy Crook
Another piece that shows my fascination with dancers! This one is also long lost to the mists of time, or possibly in that one box on that shelf I can’t actually get to right now. There was a local shop that made stained glass windows and would let me come raid the stuff that was broken for interesting pieces. The background is painted in pearlescent white on a thick shard of semi-opaque buff stained glass, and the foreground daubed in wetly with a fat brush and barely-mixed colours for a rough, abstract effect.
From what I recall this piece is about 3″x5″ or a little smaller, heavy in the hand.
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art, People, Figures and Faces
Tags: acrylic, glass, nfs
Remember, Forget
Tuesday, November 23rd, 2010
Remember, Forget by Amy Crook
Once again I was struck with a phrase in the middle of insomnia though this one isn’t a quote that I know of. I wrote it up on my white board and it lurked there for a few weeks until I had a chance to try it out with the same pen-and-watercolor technique as I used for A Circle in Time. I deliberately let the watercolor pool down at the bottom of the page so that it was still damp when I wrote the second line, but dry up top so the first line is clear.
“i teach myself to remember
i teach myself to forget”
As a child, I was often faced with a dire lack of new books to read, so I taught myself to forget the details and endings of books so there was still a sense of adventure when I read them over again later. I often keep whole worlds of detail in my head about other things, however, though the older I get, the less I’m able to stuff new information in without losing track of some of what was already there.
Remember, Forget, 5″x5″ watercolor with pen and ink, $99 with free shipping.
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art
Tags: for sale, pen and ink, watercolor
Marbled Eye
Monday, November 8th, 2010
Marbled Eye by Amy Crook
Years ago and miles away I learned a little bit about making marbled papers, the kind used in the endpapers of wonderful old books. While dropping in colour to try to make a pattern, something interesting formed, and I captured it before it could be disrupted — a perfect eye in the middle of all the random swirls.
Sometimes, art is about knowing when to stop at accidental beauty.
Marbled Eye, 8.5″x11″ marbling on paper, not for sale.
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art
Tags: marbling, nfs, paper
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