Posts Tagged ‘city’
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
Dreamlands 2
Wednesday, February 4th, 2015
Dreamlands 2 by Amy Crook
I’ve gone in a different, much more Seussian direction in my second Dreamlands painting. Bright colors and strange, off-kilter shapes give this painting a whimsy that feels like it’s straight out of a child’s dream of the big city.
There’s a tree full of apartments, a house made of houses, and a shining beacon atop a cross between a cactus and the Gherkin building. I can’t decide what I like best, the cheerful yellow windows, the shimmering stars above, or the overall feeling of warmth and welcome.
When I look at this painting, I think of Gonzo singing, “I’ve never been there, but I know the way. I’m going to go back there someday.”
Dreamlands 2, 7″X5″ Japanese and metallic watercolor on Arches cover black paper.
Dreamlands 2, detail, by Amy Crook
Above, you can see some of the buildings up close, including the tower of houses and the looming dome behind it. Below, you can see the piece in a frame, just waiting to bring its strange, whimsical dreams into your life.
Dreamlands 2, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Floating Gallery, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, Series and Books, Whimsical and Strange
Tags: city, Dr. Seuss, dreamlands, for sale, japanese watercolor, metallic, moon
Dreamlands
Monday, November 3rd, 2014
Dreamlands by Amy Crook
Pink jellyfish float serenely over a translucent city in shadowy greens, everything looking half-real against the sky of blue with hints of periwinkle and lavender. Deadly tendrils caress the tops of the buildings, or perhaps pass right through them, and the buildings tilt along with the horizon, like something in a dream.
I’m sure it surprises nobody that the Dreamlands are a Lovecraftian sort of thing, the alien worlds one travels to in the perilous hours of dreaming.
Dreamlands, 6″x6″ watercolor on Fluid watercolor paper.
Dreamlands, detail, by Amy Crook
Above, you can see the way the jellyfish float past the city, unaffected by its strange towers and spires. Below, you can see the painting in a temporary frame, like a window into a dream.
Dreamlands, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Floating Gallery, Sea Creatures and Other Animals, Series and Books, Tentacles, Things I'm a Fan Of
Tags: city, dreamlands, for sale, japanese watercolor, primatek, watercolor
After the Stars
Sunday, October 5th, 2014
After the Stars by Amy Crook
This piece has a lot of in common with both Insomnia City and Lost Arcadia, but the eerie city it depicts is slowly decaying after whatever cataclysm cracked the moon and erased the stars. As I painted, my mind supplied Lovecraftian stories to go with the muted palette, reminiscent of his cities of glowing semiprecious stone there in the Dreamlands.
After the Stars, 6″x4″ Japanese watercolor on Fluid watercolor paper.
After the Stars, detail, by Amy Crook
Above, you can see a small detail of a few buildings, one dripping with something that might be blood, one cracked all along its windowless face, and a third thrusting up at the clouds, defying the decay around it. Below, you can see it in a frame, waiting to go to its new home.
After the Stars, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Floating Gallery, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, Series and Books, Things I'm a Fan Of
Tags: city, japanese watercolor, lovecraft, nfs, sold, watercolor
Lost Arcadia
Monday, November 5th, 2012
Lost Arcadia, watercolor by Amy Crook
I’ve been reading a lot of HP Lovecraft lately, and aside from being occasionally stunned by the epic racism, I’ve noticed that a lot of his descriptions of paradise have a certain common form. There’s tall spires, glowing domes, beautiful temples and perfumed gardens awaiting the lucky person who can find the various lost cities. Of course, doom (or DOOM in the case of Sarnath) often comes to destroy those idyllic cities or sink them to the bottom of the ocean, but it wouldn’t be Lovecraft if it didn’t.
This is painted using three shades of near-black, the soft green, midnight blue and deep purple, and a tiny bit of actual black thinned out to almost nothing to give texture to the glowing moon, plus a wee bit of white for the few stars that peek out above the clouds. I like the loose way I can just paint with no sketch or reference using the blacks, getting a whole range of values that aren’t just plain grey due to the subtle tinting.
Lost Arcadia, 8″x8″ watercolor on paper, nfs (sold).
Lost Arcadia, detail 1, by Amy Crook
I have a hard time convincing Photoshop to clear away the blue tinge of sunlight from the image without over-saturating the subtle colors on the image, so I left the one above without much adjustment so you can see the detail on the buildings. Below, you can see the swirling blue-black clouds and violet-tinted night sky as it lightens up in the glow of the city below.
Lost Arcadia, detail 2, by Amy Crook
And finally I have it in a frame! My 8×8 frames don’t have stands, just wall hanging hardware, and my iPhone couldn’t jump that high, so I’m afraid you’ll have to imagine how they look together.
Lost Arcadia, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Daily Art, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, Series and Books, Things I'm a Fan Of
Tags: city, lovecraft, moon, nfs, sold, spirals, watercolor
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Hello City
Friday, August 31st, 2012
Hello City watercolor by Amy Crook
This one’s a bit of an amalgamation of Insomnia City and Seven for a Secret, with the seven crows spiralling up into the endless sky above the funky city. The seventh crow up at the top is dim and distant, barely seen against the vast blue. The city itself is a purplish grey-black with a soft warm yellow glow. This piece would fit nicely into an 8″x10″ frame on a desk, cubicle wall, or in amongst the other art and photos in your home, don’t you think?
Hello City, 4″x8″ watercolor on Fluid watercolor paper.
Hello City, detail, by Amy Crook
Above, you can see the crows fading upward into the bright blue sky, growing harder to see as they become more distant. Below, I’ve temporarily tucked this piece into a frame to show you scale.
Hello City, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Daily Art, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, Sea Creatures and Other Animals
Tags: blue, city, crow, for sale, sky, watercolor
Insomnia City
Friday, July 27th, 2012
Insomnia City, watercolor by Amy Crook
I couldn’t sleep the other night, so I pulled out some paper and my new palette of almost-black paints and painted. It started out with similar spiral clouds as Dirigible, but instead of filling up the whole image, I created a stormy blue-grey sky and then painted the city below in a deep, dark plum color. I wanted to give the whole thing a but of surreal whimsy while keeping the feel of a proper skyline, and keeping the buildings from actually running into the clouds. I kind of like how the lower right ended up shadowed by its incoming cloud bank there, too.
Insomnia City, 8″x4″ watercolor on paper, nfs (sold).
Insomnia City, detail, by Amy Crook
Above I turned up the saturation a little so you could see the subtle purple and blue and the contrast between them. Below, you can see the piece in all its muted glory, tucked into its temporary frame and hanging out with my iPhone in the sunshine.
Insomnia City, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Daily Art, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes
Tags: blue, city, clouds, nfs, sold, spirals, watercolor
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