Posts Tagged ‘blue moon’
Blue Moon Murder
Wednesday, September 2nd, 2020
Blue Moon Murder, 8″x8″ watercolor on paper
This piece is in a category I call “more cowbell.” I took an older Blue Moon painting and put a bird on it. Or three, to be accurate.
It’s a small murder, but it checks out.
There’s a rich texture both on the paper and in the paint here, with the black sky and haloed moon both highlighting and concealing the crows. They’ve got some gorgeous blue and violet in their feathers, especially the two in the shadows, and their eyes contain a tiny glint of iridescent paint.
Doesn’t your life need a little murder?
Blue Moon Murder, detail, by Amy Crook
Above, you can see the crows, shadow on shadow, their purple-blue plumage fading into the textured black night sky. Below, they’re trapped in a frame like a view out a window that doesn’t exist.
Blue Moon Murder, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Floating Gallery, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, Sea Creatures and Other Animals, Series and Books
Tags: blue moon, crow, iridescent, more cowbell, murder of crows, nfs, sold, watercolor
Stirring Up the Sky
Friday, September 6th, 2019
Stirring Up the Sky, 8″x8″ watercolor on paper
More skies, more sparkles, more moon, more bird!
This one’s got a lovely shimmery background, both moon and sky, which the wings of our crow pick up beautifully. There is some matte black in its head and body and along the arches of its bones, but mostly this crow is like a dream of motion, stirring up the sky. The crow blots out the shine of the moon like the only solid piece of reality in a shining, swirling night.
Where would this beauty fit into your reality?
Stirring Up the Sky, detail, by Amy Crook
Above, you can see the deep black of the crow going blurred and sparkly against the turquoise glitter of the moon. Below, the painting is shining out of a frame, waiting to go home with you. Yes, you.
Stirring Up the Sky, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Floating Gallery, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, People, Figures and Faces, Series and Books, Whimsical and Strange
Tags: altered skies, blue moon, crow, duochrome, iridescent, moon, nfs, sold, watercolor
Blue Moon 6
Monday, March 4th, 2019
Blue Moon 6, 6″x4″ gouache and watercolor on paper
A blue moon hangs gibbous in the dark of night, mysterious colors peeking out through the mist around it. Three birds make their way across, neither entirely silhouetted nor completely illuminated.
This was almost “three for a death” after a different version of the counting crows rhyme, though these feel more like ravens to me. An unkindness of three, though who knows how many more are lurking among the swirling shadows.
Whether waxing or waning, the moon floats serenely in a halo of its own light, secure that the time will bring its cycle back to full soon enough.
Blue Moon 6, detail, by Amy Crook
Above, you can see the moon glowing, the spirals of darkness reaching, and the ravens soaring. Below, you can see this small art in its frame, perfect for tucking a piece of once upon a time into your own space.
Blue Moon 6, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Floating Gallery, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, Sea Creatures and Other Animals, Series and Books
Tags: blue moon, crow, gouache, moon, nfs, watercolor
Blue Moon 5
Saturday, July 8th, 2017
Blue Moon 5, 6″x6″ ink wash and watercolor on Fluid watercolor paper
Every painting in the Blue Moon series is vastly different, and in that much this one remains consistent with its predecessors.
Photos can’t do justice to the deep, rich teal and turquoise of the moon and sky here, the ink bringing a glowing clarity to the colors that just doesn’t come through on a monitor. Shining silver stars dot the sky around our big blue moon, and an osprey dives through the light on its way to get its unfortunate prey.
What are you saving for a blue moon?
Blue Moon 5, detail, by Amy Crook
Above, you can see the diving raptor close up, all the detail of beak and feather against the blue moon. Below, the painting is in a frame, resting up for its long journey home.
Blue Moon 5, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Floating Gallery, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, Sea Creatures and Other Animals, Series and Books
Tags: blue moon, ink wash, metallic watercolor, moon, nfs, primatek, raptor, sold, watercolor
Blue Moon 4
Friday, August 24th, 2012
Blue Moon 4 by Amy Crook
This piece took forever! Twelve weeks of little spirals in the interstices of my day, fifteen minutes here and an hour there, until finally, finally it’s done.
I really liked the texture pattern on the couch in B is for Baker Street, interior, and so I thought, wouldn’t that make a cool pattern for the night sky around this mysterious blue moon? I really need to learn to think before I start spiraling sometimes, though, because the difference between that wee couch and this big piece of paper was a lot of hours. So many hours. @_@
I actually really love the result, though, and I’ve got the piece on display in my studio until someone takes it home to decorate their own life.
Blue Moon 4, 8″x8″ pen & ink and watercolor on Fluid watercolor paper.
Blue Moon 4, framed art by Amy Crook
I’ve framed this beautiful piece and hung it on the wall above my writing desk.
Why yes, that is a Jack in the Box holiday-themed antenna ball, why do you ask?
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, Series and Books
Tags: all the spirals, blue moon, crosshatching, for sale, moon, pen and ink, spirals, watercolor
Blue Moon 2
Monday, April 2nd, 2012
Blue Moon 2, abstract art by Amy Crook
Even though this piece shares a name and some materials with my first Blue Moon, that’s about all they have in common. The blues in this are all muted except for the vivid French Ultramarine moon itself, and even the little halos of iridescent paint became quite subtle painted wet-in-wet.
I made the 7 stars the usual way with paint and salt and water, but the moon was part of my newest experiment where I put paint into some water I had already saturated with as much salt as I could boil into it. Pretty much all of this week’s art was made with this technique, for some fascinating results. Sparkly ones!
Blue Moon 2, 5″x5.25″ salt and watercolor on watercolor paper.
Blue Moon 2, detail 1, by Amy Crook
You can see little particles of the iridescent paint around the borders of the halo, and I thought the shot of the moon itself came out so well I made a wallpaper for you. Yes, you.
Below, you can see the lightning-like formations around the edges of some of the pools, and the way I brushed the outer rim of the salt pools with the blue-black paint, which sinks into the crevices and gives it deep shadows.
Blue Moon 2, detail 2, by Amy Crook
Since this one isn’t quite square, I haven’t framed it yet, but it’ll get its lovely black frame before it goes to live in its new home.
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, Free Wallpapers, Series and Books
Tags: black, blue, blue moon, for sale, moon, salt, watercolor
Blue Moon
Thursday, February 2nd, 2012
Blue Moon by Amy Crook
I chose soft blue pen and ink to pair with a rich, deep blue background, and then added salt in two different ways for texture. The brightest stars are the now-familiar salt pools, and there’s a scattering of dimmer ones formed by salt sprinkled onto the damp watercolor paint and brushed off once it dried. It was still too stark for me, so I went and found my tiny dot-card sample of interference blue and added haloes of half-there light around each salt pool and the moon, too, which you can barely see in the above scan, and better down in the detail shots below.
Blue Moon, 7″x5″ salt, pen & ink, watercolor and iridescent watercolor on paper, nfs (sold).
Blue Moon, detail 1, by Amy Crook
Above you can see three of the salt pools up close and personal, light glinting off their facets and a faint shadow of the interference blue. Below, the shimmer’s caught the light and you can see the brushed haloes around each large object, as well as the little starbursts of texture in the background of the deep blue sky.
Blue Moon, detail 2, by Amy Crook
And of course I took a photo of it framed, once I had it all ready for the show. In the sunlight, the background looks less black, though it’s still velvety-matte against the shimmering, sparkling stars and moon.
Blue Moon, framed watercolor by Amy Crook
Categories: Daily Art, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, Series and Books
Tags: blue, blue moon, iridescent, moon, nfs, pen and ink, salt, sold, spirals, watercolor
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