Archive for the ‘Flowers, Trees and Landscapes’ Category
Moon Valley
Monday, January 23rd, 2012
Moon Valley watercolor by Amy Crook
I’ve been working for many months now on the re-launch of Moon Valley Astrologer, and it’s finally up, huzzah!
I used watercolors to create both the Moon Valley header art and the background of stars, though as you can see there was some Photoshop tomfoolery on her final header to make the moon more like a proper orange harvest moon. Not to mention the cropping and text!
Moon Valley Astrologer header by Amy Crook
This site was a huge undertaking, but I’m really happy that it’s all come together in time, and I look forward to continuing to work with Celeste as the site continues to grow. And of course Michael, who does the heavy lifting of implementing my designs with best practices.
The painting itself went through several practice versions, including the very creepy-sky study Mountains of Madness. This final has a peaceful, luminous quality that I think really goes well with her site and personality. Although it’s not really a portrait of the actual Moon Valley where she lives, it conveys the feeling we were hoping for in subtle, inviting colors that we then echoed into the rest of the site.
Moon Valley, 14″x8.5″ watercolor on paper.
Categories: Daily Art, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes
Tags: for sale, moon, moon valley astrologer, mountains, stars, watercolor
Drifting Down
Monday, January 9th, 2012
Drifting Down by Amy Crook
Another salt experiment, this time using pen and ink in a different way. The spirals inside the salt pools are actually watercolor, which the water didn’t really pick up at all this time, and then the grass and vines are both pen-and-ink that’s been brushed with water to give it a different texture.
I really like the peaceful, floating quality of this piece. The little salt pools seem weightless as they rest like the barest fluff on the upright grass. Actually it reminds me a bit of Horton Hears a Who — I wonder if there’s any Whos hiding there?
Drifting Down, 5″x7″ ink, salt, and watercolor on paper.
Drifting Down, detail, by Amy Crook
The meagre winter sunlight this time of year doesn’t catch the sparkle on the salt very well, but you can really see the texture of the paper and the watercolor-like quality of the curling ink vines. Below you can see it in a frame (with my iPhone for scale – not included, heh). It would fit nicely on a desk at work, for anytime you needed a moment of peace and weightlessness, growth from above and below and the effortless connection between them.
Drifting Down, framed art by Amy Crook
If you think you’d like to bring this piece into your life, or are just too shy to comment, feel free to email me! I’m always happy to help find the right home for my art, or just chat.
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes
Tags: brush and ink, for sale, pen and ink, salt, vines, watercolor
Mountains of Madness
Thursday, October 27th, 2011
Mountains of Madness by Amy Crook
This piece started out as an experiment in painting mountains for a client, and turned into a bewitchingly creepy landscape once I put in the sky. I used salt to create the ghostly texture in the sky, which one person described as a crowd of people staring down. Spooky!
I named it after a classic HP Lovecraft story that I haven’t even read (I know! Bad artist! No biscuit!), but the name just seemed to fit with the looming sky and lunatic moon.
Mountains of Madness, 7″x5″ watercolor on paper, nfs (sold).
Here you can see it tucked into a frame, which can be included for an additional fee.
Mountains of Madness, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Daily Art, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, Series and Books
Tags: lovecraft, mountains, nfs, sold, watercolor
1 Comment »
Summer Reading
Monday, October 24th, 2011
Summer Reading by Amy Crook
I started this piece during the recent Playshop call with Melissa Dinwiddie, then went back and finished it up later. The tree and figure are painted with just two colors, quinacridone gold and amazonite genuine, and then I added in a bit of soft cadmium yellow when I went back and did the sky, and added in the fuller foliage. I especially like the way some of the leaves have little haloes of gold, and the rich greens and browns that came out of just those two colors mixed in different proportions.
Summer Reading, 5″x7″ watercolor on paper.
I think this would make a great piece to put in a bookshelf, nestled between books to remind you of the joy of reading.
Summer Reading, framed, by Amy Crook
Categories: Daily Art, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, People, Figures and Faces
Tags: nfs, playshop, reading, sold, tree, watercolor
Sunset Postcard
Monday, October 3rd, 2011
Sunset Postcard by Amy Crook, $222
This watercolor is actually from five years ago. It managed to escape the general posting of old art last year, but I decided to frame and scan it when I ran across it the other day when I was framing some other art.
When I was younger I swear I must have painted dozens of sunsets, usually with skeletal winter trees in front, the black branches framed by colored light. I don’t have many of those left, so this one is very nostalgic for me. My favorite part is along the line of the sun itself, where some of the red has bled onto the sun the way sometimes the sky seems to waver around the edges as the sun sinks below the horizon.
Sunset Postcard, approx. 6″x4″ watercolor on handmade postcard, $222, framed, with free shipping.
I floated the postcard on a black mat within a larger frame, which makes the vivid sunset colors glow out from the darkness.
Sunset Postcard, framed watercolor by Amy Crook, $222
Categories: Daily Art, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes
Tags: for sale, handmade postcard, watercolor
Violet Midnight 2
Monday, September 19th, 2011
Violet Midnight 2 by Amy Crook
I’ve been thinking about making prints lately, and that’s led me to think about the way that the salt paintings are really unprintable — while a print of a normal piece is maybe half as cool as the real piece, but printing the salt pieces loses 90% of their awesomeness. So, with that in mind, I mixed up a slightly different mix of the violet-black from Violet Midnight and made a piece that only used the salt for visual texture rather than physical structure. There’s no shiny paint, no sparkly salt, just simple ink and watercolor.
I actually started it the same way I do any salt piece, with spirals in ink on paper, but this time I went straight to painting the background (which has little salt-made stars, done the traditional way by scattering salt onto the damp paint), then used plain water to pick up the ink and create halos of golden orange around the sun and larger stars.
Violet Midnight 2, 7″x5″ watercolor, pen and ink on paper.
Here’s how it looks in a frame, with my iPhone for scale:
Violet Midnight 2, framed, by Amy Crook
Categories: Daily Art, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, Series and Books
Tags: for sale, moon, orange, pen and ink, salt, spirals, violet, watercolor
1 Comment »
Violet Midnight
Thursday, September 8th, 2011
Violet Midnight by Amy Crook
Another image I keep revisiting, the moon glowing in the night sky. I went for a simple duochrome effect, the stars and moon drawn in orange ink, then the stars turned warm and golden when the salt and water were added. I used a dark blue-violet paint, which was making such fascinating shapes and shadows on its own as it pooled and flowed that I decided not to try to add any more stars and let the velvety paint stand on its own. Then I used a metallic copper watercolor to create the haloes around the moon and stars, the color an excellent match to the orange ink.
Violet Midnight, 7″x5″ mixed media on paper, nfs.
This piece has a great contrast between the matte violet paint and shimmery, iridescent copper paint; between the flat ink and three-dimensional salt crystals; between the meticulous spiral pattern in the moon and the random, cloudy shapes in the sky.
Violet Midnight, detail 1, by Amy Crook
Here you can really see how the interplay of colors and textures up close.
Violet Midnight, detail 2, by Amy Crook
A simple black frame protects the salt, and makes the vivid colors really glow.
Violet Midnight, framed, by Amy Crook
Categories: Daily Art, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes
Tags: moon, nfs, orange, pen and ink, salt, sold, stars, violet, watercolor
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