Archive for the ‘Abstract and Just Plain Weird’ Category

Reflect

Friday, June 18th, 2010

Reflect, detail, by Amy Crook

Reflect, 3″x3″ monoprint on 9″x9″ watercolor paper

This monoprint has always made me think of giant, ancient trees growing right at the edge of a pond, reflected such that it’s hard to tell where the trees end and the water begins. You might see something totally different, of course, since this is a very abstract image. I did a couple of prints with this color scheme, I’ll try to post the other one tomorrow or next week. Actually, I used to dye my hair both of those colors at one point, though these days I don’t like to bleach it out in order to go blue or green, so mostly I stick to red or purple.

A monoprint is created by using thick, fingerpaint-like water-based inks to paint onto a blank acrylic printing plate, and then running the result through a press with wet paper just like an etching. It creates a single one-of-a-kind print that’s a merger of painting and randomness, the image flipped and often changed by the pressure and the way the ink interacts with the water-soaked paper. I would often print half a dozen in the course of a session and only keep the ones I really liked.

Reflect by Amy Crook

Reflect by Amy Crook

Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes
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Whorls and Turns

Friday, June 11th, 2010

Whorls and Turns by Amy Crook

Whorls and Turns by Amy Crook, $499

For once, I thought I’d post something brightly colored for Friday. This is a great example of the way monoprint inks feel a lot like high-quality finger paints, and the playfulness that it gave to the process. Also an example of me not wearing gloves in the printing studio like I should have, but I won’t tell if you don’t.

When I really got into monoprinting, one of the things I did was make a number of small etching plates that I could use interchangeably along with the monoprints and special papers to create one-of-a-kind pieces of art. Here you can see three of those small plates, which were printed onto the page in a single run.

Whorls and Turns, detail, by Amy Crook

Whorls and Turns, detail, by Amy Crook

These small plates were about 1-1.5″ each, and could be inked a number of different ways to get different effects. You can see these three were all initially inked with a deep blue, and then the bottom one was wiped almost clean of blue and inked again with the red to give it the effect of blue veins in red rock. Once those plates had been run, the rest was done on a blank monoprinting plate, which would be printed right over the images that were already there. It’s interesting bit of approximation, since the image prints backwards onto the page.

This one-of-a-kind print is on thick watercolor paper suitable for framing, but not ready to hang by itself. I’m happy to matte or frame pieces before shipping for the cost of the materials.

Whorls and Turns, 12.5″x11″ etching and monoprint on watercolor paper, $499 with free shipping.

Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art
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Broken Rainbow

Thursday, June 10th, 2010

Broken Rainbow by Amy Crook

Broken Rainbow by Amy Crook

I went through a phase many years ago of painting on glass — I even made friends with a stained glass artisan who would sell me their broken scraps, which I hauled around for many years before realizing I was pretty much over a painting base you can cut yourself with.

This piece uses both thinned acrylic paints and liquid food coloring to get the different color effects, each piece painted individually and then re-assembled from 3 broken sheets into one big panel. I took the photos by putting the piece on a light table so you can see the transparency of the colors. I’ve always meant to built a light box to house this so it can be displayed, but I’ve never had the tools and motivation at the same time.

Broken Rainbow, 15″x5″ acrylic paints and liquid food coloring on broken glass, not for sale.

Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art
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Pigeonholed

Saturday, May 29th, 2010

Pigeonholed by Amy Crook

Pigeonholed by Amy Crook

I painted this around the same time as some of my other abstract and semi-abstract pieces, and you can see some technical similarity with Precious and Untitled Experiment 1. The jewel-tone colors sneak through the black texture, and contrast with the frame around the sad, pigeonholed head. It’s hard to capture the subtle colors in a photograph, but the piece has a lot of depth in real life.

I actually sold this painting years ago to a friend who was moving at the time, and although it’s long paid for, he never did manage to pick it up and take it home, so I hold it in trust for him. Hey, Josh, come get your art!

Pigeonholed, 16″x20″ oil on canvas, sold.

Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art, Zombies, Skulls, and Other Morbid Things
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Ouroboros

Monday, May 24th, 2010

Ouroboros by Amy Crook

Ouroboros by Amy Crook

The touches of copper paint glow brightly in the photograph, as though the camera picked up the particles of shimmery metal in the paint.

Ouroboros was painted as another experiment, and is one of the abstracts I’m the most pleased with. The copper swirl of the snakes eating tails concludes with one escaping the endless spiral. The rough white shape on its periwinkle background calls to my mind a giant wing against a twilit sky, Quetzalcoatl overseeing his little cousins perhaps. The metallic paint highlights here and there throughout the painting in subtle and unsubtle ways to add dimension that goes well with the textured brush strokes.

Ouroboros, 16″x20″ oil on canvas.

Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird
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Sins of the Heart

Friday, May 21st, 2010

Sins of the Heart, detail, by Amy Crook

Sins of the Heart, detail, by Amy Crook

The third in the series of 3 related monoprints, this one moved entirely away from the flower metaphor and in a different direction. The shape is not quite a heart, not quite a pink triangle, and not quite a political statement. The watery blue background intrudes on all sides, blurring the edges and the metaphor alike.

This image is floating in the middle of a larger sheet of paper, slightly off-center and off-kilter like everything about this print.

Sins of the Heart by Amy Crook

Sins of the Heart by Amy Crook

Sins of the Heart, 3″x3″ monoprint on 7″x11.5″ watercolor paper.

The other two monoprints in the series are here and here.

Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art
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Lotus

Thursday, May 20th, 2010

Lotus, detail, by Amy Crook

Lotus, detail, by Amy Crook

The second monoprint in this series of 3, this one looks more like its namesake with the watery background and individual petals visible. You can even still see some of the brush strokes in the print, though other areas took on a soft, watery texture when run through the printing press. This single pink lotus flower floats in the center of a square sheet of paper with an equal amount of white space on all sides.

Lotus by Amy Crook

Lotus by Amy Crook

Lotus, 3″x3″ monoprint on 9″x9″ watercolor paper.

The other two monoprints in the series are here and here.

Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes
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