Archive for the ‘Floating Gallery’ Category

Three for a Girl

Friday, February 5th, 2016

Three for a Girl, watercolor by Amy Crook

Three for a Girl, 6″x6″ watercolor on Fluid watercolor paper

A third installment to one of my favorite series of last year, Three for a Girl continues the Counting Crows theme with another eerie tree and ghostly figure.

The titular girl is almost lost in the mists, fog drifting through and obscuring everything but the tree and its trio of visitors.

Three for a Girl, detail, by Amy Crook

Three for a Girl, detail, by Amy Crook

Above, you can see how the off-black paint granulates into beautifully textured mist, pigment pooling in the hollows of the watercolor paper. Below, the painting is waiting in a frame, a season and a mood in one small, eerie package.

Three for a Girl, framed art by Amy Crook

Three for a Girl, framed art by Amy Crook

Categories: Floating Gallery, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, People, Figures and Faces, Sea Creatures and Other Animals, Series and Books, Zombies, Skulls, and Other Morbid Things
Tags: , , , , , ,


Purple Pathways

Thursday, February 4th, 2016

Purple Pathways, abstract art by Amy Crook

Purple Pathways, 6″x4″ duochrome watercolor and interference watercolor on Arches cover black paper

Silvery blue becomes iridescent lavender, a trick of the light, a visual mirage. The black is an endless sky behind it, a void, a road not taken as the paint makes its own pathways and claims its space with sparkle and color.

It’s always hard to capture the qualities of metallic and duochrome paints with a still photo, but you can see two of the angles and imagine the rest, the changes that happen in daylight or lamplight, at this vantage or that.

It would fit perfectly on a desk or a bit of wall that you pass often, somewhere where it can catch the light, and your eye, and bring a smile to your face and some beauty to your day.

Purple Pathways, detail, by Amy Crook

Purple Pathways, detail, by Amy Crook

Above, you can see the sunlight picking out a plethora of glittery colors against the velvety black paper. Below, the piece is in a frame, showcasing its small size.

Purple Pathways, framed art by Amy Crook

Purple Pathways, framed art by Amy Crook

Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Floating Gallery, Series and Books
Tags: , , , , ,


Bees 2

Wednesday, February 3rd, 2016

Bees 2, ink art by Amy Crook

Bees 2, 7″x5″ pen & ink and ink wash on paper

More bees!

The rich amber ink is the same, but there’s smaller honeycomb and smaller bees. More and busier bees, buzzing about making honey or whatever it is that bees do when they’re not out getting pollen.

Bees 2, detail, by Amy Crook

Bees 2, detail, by Amy Crook

Above, you can see the lovely texture of brush strokes, art paper, and ink wash all together in rich, honeyed detail. Below, the bees are in a frame, just as honeycomb should be!

Bees 2, framed art by Amy Crook

Bees 2, framed art by Amy Crook

Categories: Floating Gallery, Sea Creatures and Other Animals, Series and Books, Whimsical and Strange
Tags: , , , ,


Rainy City

Tuesday, February 2nd, 2016

Rainy City, watercolor skyline by Amy Crook

Rainy City, 10″x8″ Japanese watercolor and iridescent watercolor on Arches cover black paper

This painting has been months in the making, from the first fall of rain to the test city bookmark to the painstaking buildings themselves. A dark, nighttime echo of the Jade City, more than one person has described the cloud-shapes above as looming figures.

Intricately detailed buildings of jade seem almost translucent beneath the color-shifting sky. The rainy grey becomes blue and violet at certain angles, adding to the mysterious, otherworldly feel.

Rainy City, detail, by Amy Crook

Rainy City, detail, by Amy Crook

Above, you can see the wash of violet in the shining rain, above the gorgeous jade green city. Below, it’s been trapped in a frame like a view out an alien window, just waiting to grace your walls.

Rainy City, framed art by Amy Crook

Rainy City, framed art by Amy Crook

Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Floating Gallery, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, Series and Books, Whimsical and Strange
Tags: , , , , , ,


Jack Frost

Friday, January 8th, 2016

Jack Frost by Amy Crook

Jack Frost, 10″x8″ watercolor and interference watercolor on Arches cover black paper

Most of the paint on this lovely black paper is white, but mixed in there’s just a little bit of interference blue. When it’s in normal light, the blue just looks white like the rest, but in sunlight or strong indoor light it adds a sparkle to this piece that makes it really magical.

Just like winter, it’s something lovely and stark that holds hidden depths of color and light.

And with the weather we’ve got out here in SF, Jack Frost might even pay me a visit this year — brr!

Jack Frost, detail, by Amy Crook

Jack Frost, detail, by Amy Crook

Above, you can see a little bit of the sparkle peeking out of the chilly frost. Below, you can see the painting in a temporary frame, like a window on a cold winter’s night.

Jack frost, framed art by Amy Crook

Jack frost, framed art by Amy Crook

Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Floating Gallery, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, Series and Books
Tags: , , , , ,


Ghost Trees

Thursday, January 7th, 2016

Ghost Tree by Amy Crook

Ghost Tree, 6″x4″ ink wash on Fluid watercolor paper

Everything about this ink wash is understated, soft, and ghostly. The pale sky just as the sunset fades into the gloaming. The shadowy tree like a ghost against the ink-streaked clouds. The birds flitting past like memories, barely there in the distance.

The first hints of night haunt the top of the page, washing away the color as the evening threatens to fall, dropping its curtain over those last washes of pink and violet and gold still lurking in the soft clouds.

Ghost Tree, detail, by Amy Crook

Ghost Tree, detail, by Amy Crook

Above, you can see the ghostly little ink wash birds swooping through the pale, fading daylight. Below, the tree sits in a frame, ready to haunt its new home.

Ghost Tree, framed art by Amy Crook

Ghost Tree, framed art by Amy Crook

Categories: Floating Gallery, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, Sea Creatures and Other Animals, Series and Books
Tags: , , , ,


Domed City

Wednesday, January 6th, 2016

Domed City by Amy Crook

Domed City, 4″x6″ iridescent watercolor and ink wash on Fluid watercolor paper

Another painting with some hidden sparkle, this one’s mostly done in ink washes. The background is an amazing rich teal that none of my electronics want to pick up, and the domes sparkle with golden highlights beneath the iridescent blue dragon.

This tiny piece would add a lovely bit of scifi-fantasy allure to a desk, bookshelf, or reading nook.

Here there be dragon!

Domed City, detail, by Amy Crook

Domed City, detail, by Amy Crook

Above, you can see the shining underbelly on the dragon that floats above the domed city. Below, a tiny window into this strange world as the painting is trapped behind glass in its frame.

Domed City, framed art by Amy Crook

Domed City, framed art by Amy Crook

Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Floating Gallery, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, Sea Creatures and Other Animals
Tags: , , , , , ,


« Or Head Back That Way Drip divider More Art This Way »