Posts Tagged ‘black paper’
City of Lights
Monday, April 6th, 2015
City of Lights by Amy Crook
I found this bigger-than-a-bookmark scrap of paper among my things and I immediately knew what I wanted to do with it.
This fantastical city glows with periwinkle starlight, the buildings limned in white from an unseen moon. The stars floating above have just the tiniest bit of shimmer to them, enhancing the buildings below rather than stealing their spotlight.
It’s a perfect little slice of urban night life, if you love cities, dark skies, and tiny things.
City of Lights, 8.5″x2.5″ Japanese and interference watercolor on Arches cover black paper.
City of Lights, detail, by Amy Crook
Above, you can see a close-up of the tiny buildings along this strange skyline, some of them echoing real places and some of them far more alien. Below, you can see the piece tucked into a temporary frame, small but quite the wide panoramic view.
City of Lights, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Floating Gallery, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, Series and Books
Tags: black paper, city, for sale, interference, japanese watercolor, stars, watercolor
Atmosphere
Tuesday, November 4th, 2014
Atmosphere by Amy Crook
This makes me think of a strange, swirling planet flinging its atmosphere off into the void, or perhaps stealing the blue-violet outer ring of gases from somewhere else. The thin middle ring of blue is hard to spot in the scan, but you can see it in the detail photo quite well, and it’s very obvious in person. The color reminded me very distinctly of photos of the earth’s atmosphere, that thin layer that keeps us all alive, which is where the piece gets its title. The spiralling planet itself is a color-changing paint that goes from reddish copper to a warm golden bronze, while the outside runs through blues and purples depending on the angle of the light.
Atmosphere, 5″x5″ duochrome watercolor on Arches cover black paper.
Atmosphere, detail, by Amy Crook
Above, you can see the thin blue shining out from between lavender and copper. Below, it’s in a frame, hanging out with my old glasses for scale.
Atmosphere, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Floating Gallery
Tags: black paper, duochrome, for sale, iridescent watercolor, watercolor
Fairytale Sky 9
Tuesday, October 7th, 2014
Fairytale Sky 9 by Amy Crook
A lovely, shadowed full moon hangs in a sky full of stars, but the real shine is from the mysterious spiraling clouds. They gleam subtly in blues and purples, stately shapes with just a hint of soft brushwork about the edges. This addition to the Fairytale Sky series is very reminiscent of the first, but refined by the iterations in between.
Sometimes I think it’s good to treat life like you’re in your very own fairytale. Do good deeds when you can, and you’ll find them returned when you least expect it. Don’t cause harm through inattention or ignorance. And always wear good walking shoes.
Fairytale Sky 9, 7″x5″ Japanese watercolor and duochrome watercolor on Arches cover black paper.
Fairytale Sky 9, detail, by Amy Crook
Above, you can see the subtle shimmer of the paint together with the soft shine of the stars and the bright gleam of the moon. Below, I’ve put this sky in a frame, like a window to another world, one full of magic and fairytale logic.
Fairytale Sky 9, 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, moon, periwinkle, spirals, watercolor
Midnight
Saturday, September 6th, 2014
Midnight by Amy Crook
This piece is a sequel of sorts to Winter, but it’s black instead of white, iridescent and shiny instead of softly matte, complexly layered instead of simple. This painting holds the layered mystery of the midnight hour, velvety darkness cradling the shining blues, reminding us that there’s always another layer, another path, another point of view.
Midnight, 5″x7″ iridescent, interference, and traditional watercolor on Arches cover black paper.
Midnight, detail, by Amy Crook
Above, you can see the shine of blue partially obscured by the black that runs over and through it, but can’t completely obscure the bright metallics. Below, you can see the piece in a frame, sun lighting up the highlights and shadows drawing you into the depths.
Midnight, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Floating Gallery
Tags: black paper, blue, for sale, interference, iridescent, iridescent watercolor, pathways, watercolor
Murder Plaid
Tuesday, June 24th, 2014
Murder Plaid, abstract art by Amy Crook
Even though Hannibal and I are on a break that will, I suspect, last beyond the actual hiatus of the show, I couldn’t resist making a reference in the title of this painting. There’s layers of semi-opaque Japanese watercolor in four shades of red, mixing and blurring until you get a very creepy not-quite-face staring out at you from something resembling a murder scene. The broken gold lines run through the whole thing like gold thread through one of Dr. Lecter’s murder ties, not to mention the understated plaids that make up most of his wardrobe.
Murder Plaid, 5″x7″ Japanese and metallic watercolor on Arches cover black paper.
Murder Plaid, detail, by Amy Crook
Above, you can see a close-up of the textured pinks and reds and oranges layered together, with light glinting off the ‘threads’ of gold. Below, you can see the piece in a frame, staring at you, daring you to take it home.
Murder Plaid, framed art by Amy Crook
It really is that creepy in person. Also, now in a drawer.
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Floating Gallery, Series and Books, Zombies, Skulls, and Other Morbid Things
Tags: black paper, for sale, gold, hannibal, japanese watercolor, meta, watercolor
Frost Ghosts
Thursday, June 5th, 2014
Frost Ghosts, watercolor by Amy Crook
This painting, too, is hard to convey online. There’s no shiny paint or other special effects, but the way the paint seems to have depth is somewhat lost, and the subtle shadings and chilly colors get warmed and muddied.
I let the paint on this one mostly do its own thing with only a little direction from me to tease out the handprints on the right and the strange, creepy face in the upper left. The frostlike bloom of lighter paint happens when the dark purple and pale, opaque periwinkle interact in a pool of color, and are allowed to dry as they will.
The ghosts put their mark on this painting just for you.
Frost Ghosts, 5″x5″ Japanese watercolor on Arches cover black paper.
Frost Ghosts, detail, by Amy Crook
Above, you can see one of the handprints that bloomed above the surface of the dark paper and darker paint like frost traced on a window at night by a ghostly hand. Below, the painting sits in a frame in the incongruous sunshine, showing off more of its depths.
Frost Ghosts, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Floating Gallery, Zombies, Skulls, and Other Morbid Things
Tags: black paper, for sale, japanese watercolor, periwinkle, spooky
Blood Moon 5
Tuesday, May 6th, 2014
Blood Moon 5 by Amy Crook
Another Blood Moon made its way into my work queue this month, this time by adding some very subtle tentacles to an older painting in lieu of the previous image. This one is much more eerie than the last one, the bloody color leeching from the shadow to the white parts of the moon, and a second, smaller moon waiting off to one side, ruddy and strange. This sky is not our sky, or perhaps it is our sky many millennia hence, when the stars have become right and Great Cthulhu will rise up from R’lyeh to reclaim the planet for himself.
Blood Moon 5, 5″x7″ Japanese watercolor on Arches cover black paper.
Blood Moon 5, detail, by Amy Crook
Above, you can more clearly see the subtle mist and dark black tentacles rising up from the bottom of the painting, reaching toward the bloody moons. Below, the piece rests in a frame, a little window to some awful future*, or perhaps somewhere very far away indeed.
Blood Moon 5, framed art by Amy Crook
*Perhaps it’s Thundarr the Barbarian’s future, instead of Cthulhu’s. I always did like Ookla.
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Floating Gallery, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, Tentacles
Tags: black paper, blood moon, for sale, japanese watercolor, moon, more cowbell, tentacles, watercolor
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