Archive for the ‘Flowers, Trees and Landscapes’ Category
Night Blooming
Friday, March 7th, 2014
Night Blooming by Amy Crook
Three flowers shine under the midnight sky full of silver stars or, as one person suggested, floating fireflies. The flowers change colors depending on the angle, pink to purple for the thistle, gold to green for the amaranth and gold to a richer orange-gold for the little wildflower down at the bottom, with the greenery going softly blue like moonlit leaves at some angles.
Gorgeous and ethereal, this painting makes the flowers seem ghostly as the bloom out of their normal cycle, bright against the blackness of the paper.
Night Blooming, 7″x5″ duochrome watercolor on Arches cover black paper.
Night Blooming, detail, by Amy Crook
Above, you can see the thistle from two angles, purple-blue as it catches the sunlight on the left, and pink and green on the right under more normal lighting. Below, you can see the piece in a frame, with a few more eternally blooming flowers from my bookshelf for company.
Night Blooming, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Floating Gallery, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes
Tags: black paper, duochrome, iridescent, nfs, sold, watercolor
Traverse
Friday, February 7th, 2014
Traverse, watercolor by Amy Crook
For such a small painting there is a sense of vast space and infinite possibility in this little slice of time. The moment it captures feels like a cusp, a step into some unknown future. It’s a visual reminder to take risks, step out, to choose a direction and see what lies over the next bit of horizon.
Traverse, 6″x4″ watercolor on Arches cover white paper.
Traverse, detail, by Amy Crook
Above, you can see a close-up of the figure, her details washed away by the brightness she’s facing into. Below, you can see the painting in a frame, with the figure reflected in the shiny surface of my phone.
Traverse, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Floating Gallery, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, People, Figures and Faces
Tags: nfs, sold, watercolor
Island
Thursday, February 6th, 2014
Island, abstract watercolor by Amy Crook
I think paintings are hardest to talk about when I really adore them. This one is such an exquisite combination of tiny details and subtle colors created both by deliberate artistic choice and by random chance that I’m ridiculously in love with it.
The paper is soft, both in texture and its creamy color, and the paints are all matte shades of real minerals, except for the places where there’s unexpected bursts of red or even sun-catching bits of green iridescence. The shape suggests an island without being any specific one, with its noodling coastlines and the surf creeping up all around it. The green is rich and deep and mysterious, inviting the viewer to look for hidden detail.
Island, 10″x8″ watercolor and duochrome watercolor on Arches cover white paper.
Island, detail, by Amy Crook
Above, you can see a very close look at some of the detail, in an area with a subtle wash of red hiding under the green, and a tiny patch of shimmering brightness that only shows itself in sunlight, like a lake hidden in deep jungles. Below, the painting’s in a frame, looking even more like some forgotten map.
Island, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Floating Gallery, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes
Tags: blue, duochrome, for sale, green, map, watercolor
Deadly Nightshade
Tuesday, February 4th, 2014
Deadly Nightshade, watercolor by Amy Crook
With a cat named Belladonna, it was inevitable that I’d eventually decide to paint her namesake plant.
The leaves are bright green and vibrant, while the berries have their own subtle inner glow of poisonous red-black. White gel pen gives three names for the plant, floating ghostly on the matte watercolor background. The blue-black night holds subtle textures, overlapping the plant in some spots and leaving white gaps in others, and you can see the soft pencil sketch beneath the art in places, giving the piece a loose, painterly feel.
Deadly Nightshade, 5″x7″ watercolor on paper.
Deadly Nightshade, detail, by Amy Crook
Above, you can see a detail of one unripe berry and two blooming flowers, along with the word “Belladonna” crawling along the leaves. Below, you can see the piece in a frame with the sunlight bringing out the blue in the background.
Deadly Nightshade, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Floating Gallery, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes
Tags: for sale, japanese watercolor, watercolor
Butterfly
Monday, February 3rd, 2014
Butterfly, watercolor by Amy Crook
Pink! Bright colors! Happy little hearts! What is the world coming to?
I was working on something on the other side of this that was just not going well, and when I flipped the paper over there was this Rorschach-like butterfly just waiting for me in the white space. I decided to let go of perfectionism and use a peacock feather and bold, painterly lines to flesh out the whimsical butterfly.
Bright, bold, and flying free. Isn’t that a lovely thing to aspire to?
Butterfly, 7″x5″ watercolor on watercolor paper.
Butterfly, detail, by Amy Crook
Above, you can see some of the whimsical details, from the textured background to the bold spirals and delightful little heart. Below, you can see the butterfly flying in a frame, as though you’re looking through a window out onto a field of brilliant flowers.
Butterfly, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Floating Gallery, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, Whimsical and Strange
Tags: for sale, watercolor
Fairytale Sky 8
Monday, January 13th, 2014
Fairytale Sky 8 by Amy Crook
It’s the last day of the Floating Gallery, and I’m rounding up a week of art with another Fairytale Sky.
I used a different palette this time, a rich orange harvest moon that lights up the mist below in swirls of the same color. There’s a soft silvery green shimmer in and around those orange spirals, and a few little silver stars manage to peek out above the thick fog.
Everything about this painting is better in person, of course, from the shimmer of paint that changes color when the light hits to the soft texture of the black paper.
Fairytale Sky 8, 6″x4″ duochrome watercolor and Japanese watercolor on Arches cover black paper.
Fairytale Sky 8, detail, by Amy Crook
Above, you can see the mist lit up with golden sparkles by the last rays of a sunset. Below, you can see the painting in a frame, with the phone that took the picture above. It’s quite a small piece, and could go on a desk, cubicle wall, or tucked into an odd corner of architecture to bring a smile whenever you glance into that little hidden place.
Fairytale Sky 8, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Floating Gallery, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, Series and Books, Whimsical and Strange
Tags: black paper, duochrome, fairytale sky, for sale, iridescent, japanese watercolor, moon, orange, spirals, watercolor
Fairy Flower
Saturday, December 7th, 2013
Fairy Flower by Amy Crook
Our week of the Floating Gallery is almost over! It closes Sunday night, and all the art floats away, leaving me to relax and enjoy my holiday season.
As part of my long month of working on the sequel to The Courtship of Julian St. Albans, I decided to do an illustration for the cover. There’s a lot of plants in the second book, but the fairy flowers feature in both of them, and I wanted to give a visual to them.
They’re described as a common flower, so I wanted something that reminded me of the wildflowers I picked as a kid, but that had a bit of magical whimsy to them. You can just imagine the butterfly fairies that are attracted to these little blossoms, giving luck to your home as a reward for letting them grow.
Fairy Flowers, 5″x7″ pen & ink and Copic marker on paper.
Fairy Flower, detail, by Amy Crook
Above, you can see a close-up of the flower’s five fat little petals, and the way the purple ink wanted to bleed out past the lines. Tricksy blending. Below, you can see the piece in a frame with Horace, the bird from the cover of the first book.
Fairy Flower & Horace, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Floating Gallery, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, Series and Books
Tags: apprenticeship, consulting magic, copic marker, for sale, i made this, julian st albans, pen and ink
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