Posts Tagged ‘for sale’
Tentacle Deeps 32
Tuesday, April 3rd, 2012
Tentacle Deeps 32 by Amy Crook
This tentacle painting is much more subtle and mysterious than the usual, covered almost entirely in salt crystals. There’s a dark violet-black background hiding under all that salt, and then iridescent violet tentacles. Then I inundated the whole thing with my potion of salt, water and paint. After it dried, I went in with black ink and brought the tentacles back up out of the sparkling murk I’d created.
The effect in the end is both murky and sparkly at the same time, and really does make me think of deep R’lyeh where mysteries slumber, waiting to rise up through the blue deeps to the surface.
Tentacle Deeps 32, 5″x7″ salt, sumi-e ink, and watercolor on paper.
Of course it’s terribly hard to catch the feel of this art in a scan or photo, so much of it changes with the light and angle, but I’ve taken some detail photos to try.
Tentacle Deeps 32, detail 1, by Amy Crook
Above is the usual photo from the bottom of the tentacles, but this time it almost looks like an 80s fantasy movie set after they applied all the glitter. You can see the swirling colors and shapes, and the tentacles dark and mysterious running through it. Below, I took a shot of the longest tentacle and the varying textures in and around it. I liked the way that one turned out with its shining squares on the left and sand-like salt crystals to the right, so I made you yet another wallpaper. Don’t you feel special?
Tentacle Deeps 32, detail 2, by Amy Crook
Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Daily Art, Free Wallpapers, Series and Books, Tentacles
Tags: blue, for sale, iridescent, salt, sumi-e ink, tentacle deeps, tentacles, violet, 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
Pattern Recognition
Friday, March 30th, 2012
Pattern Recognition, abstract art by Amy Crook
This piece started out as tiny bead-like droplets of salt-infused ink on the paper. The salt crystals that grew were small and black, evenly spaced across the ink circles, and the ink was actually coating the salt so they hardly sparkled at all. I took a wet brush and idly doodled the uppermost right-hand pattern by re-wetting the ink and drawing it out in three long, swooping lines. Using water to separate this ink shows off its complex color structure of blue and orangey-brown, and so I used the same method to make patterns around the rest of the ink dots as well.
Since I gently dissolved some of the ink off of the salt crystals, they regained a tiny bit of sparkle, so this image that could have been boring black and white had I made it with pen and ink, has a three-dimensional, full-color palette of tiny details. Sometimes it’s worth it to do things the ridiculously complicated way.
Pattern Recognition, 5″x5.25″ ink and salt on paper, $234 framed, with free shipping.
The detail shot below shows off both the color variation in the “black” ink, and the dull shine of the tiny salt crystals. To give you a sense of scale, the entire design in this photo is about the size of a quarter.
Pattern Recognition, detail, by Amy Crook
I haven’t yet framed this piece, it’s just a tiny bit too big for a 5″x5″ frame, so it’ll get mounted into a larger 8″x8″ frame before going to its new home.
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art
Tags: brush and ink, for sale, ink, salt
Tentacle Deeps 31
Tuesday, March 27th, 2012
Tentacle Deeps 31, watercolor by Amy Crook
I’m still enamored of these paints that are ghostly pale from some angles, and richly colored from others. This one looks like fine gilding from the right angle, but turns almost white and translucent from the wrong one. I couldn’t resist the idea of golden tentacles, though!
Tentacle Deeps 31, 4″x6″ watercolor on paper.
My camera picked up the golden color quite well, though I ended up leaving the background a little more purple than it is in reality because, well, it looks cool.
Tentacle Deeps 31, detail, by Amy Crook
The piece looks nice framed, below, with my usual iPhone for scale. I considered using a dollar, but then, I have no idea of my international readers (hi!) know how big a dollar is, and yet it’s safe to assume most of you have seen someone holding their iPhone. Weird.
Tentacle Deeps 31, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Daily Art, Series and Books, Tentacles
Tags: for sale, gold, iridescent, purple, tentacle deeps, tentacles, watercolor
Interfering Blues
Friday, March 23rd, 2012
Interfering Blues, abstract art by Amy Crook, $234
This is another of those pieces that’s challenging to photograph, and I totally did it to myself. I had the lovely ultramarine spirals already as a simple, elegant piece, but they sat around for weeks feeling unfinished before I got my new shiny Japanese watercolors. I used the blue from the pearlescent set to paint a second set of ghostly spirals atop the first, which are barely visible from some angles, and from others take on a lovely iridescent blue hue.
I’m definitely doing well with my new year’s resolution to paint more spirals on things, and I have to admit there’s something I find really charming about this particular set. The colors and shapes are very simple and bold, but they work for me.
Interfering Blues, 6″x6″ watercolor on paper, $234 with free shipping.
Interfering Blues, detail 1, by Amy Crook
These pieces are deeply frustrating to photograph. For instance here, the paper is really a nice bright white, but since the shine is even brighter but also blue, I can’t really color balance the way I’d like to. But, at least you can see the pale blue shine on some of the spirals at this angle!
Interfering Blues, detail 2, by Amy Crook
Above is more of a close-up of just one spiral, which captures the full range of color on the paint from a pearly warm white on the right to the shining blue on the left. This is such a nifty image I made a computer wallpaper of it, if you’d like a little more interference blue in your day.
The piece ships unframed for $234, but if you’d like me to frame it for you (or want to talk about anything, really!), feel free to email me about it.
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art, Free Wallpapers
Tags: blue, for sale, interference, iridescent, watercolor
In the Spiraling Blue
Thursday, March 22nd, 2012
In the Spiraling Blue, abstract art by Amy Crook
This art is deceptively simple, just one color of paint on the soft, cream paper. French Ultramarine is a rich, bright blue and it mixes pretty well with the salt to give a pale blue tint to the crystals without dulling their luster. This is the last of 3 pieces I did experimenting with various shades of blue paint, and it sat around the longest, trying to figure out what else it needed.
It turns out, it just needed for me to decide it was finished.
Sometimes art is like that, there’s always the temptation to take it one step further and possibly ruin it. This sat in my shelf for a few weeks while I glanced over and considered what else I might do with it, and eventually I realized that the strong, swooping spirals were enough by themselves, especially mixed with the tiny ones at the center of each salt pool.
In the Spiraling Blue, 7″x5″ salt and watercolor on Arches cover white paper.
In the Spiraling Blue, detail 1, by Amy Crook
The camera really shows both the soft sky blue color of the salt and the way it sparkles in the sunlight. It also tends to wash the paper with slightly more yellow than it has, giving the whole thing a blue-and-gold feeling that’s more subtle in the real thing. This iPhone wallpaper shows off the real colors a little better.
In the Spiraling Blue, detail 2, by Amy Crook
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art, Free Wallpapers
Tags: blue, for sale, salt, spirals, watercolor
Tentacle Deeps 30
Tuesday, March 20th, 2012
Tentacle Deeps 30 by Amy Crook
I actually took the time to trim this cool green cardstock down to size, so it fits just fine in a 4″x6″ frame. I realize I have a ton of frames that size, from when I was trying to get the handmade postcards to fit. I finally gave up and started matting them into a bigger frame, so I’ve got a bunch of extra frames that obviously need tentacles.
The background is pure zoisite green, granulated and squamous just the way I like it. The foreground tentacles are a blue-black that gets bluer as the tentacles “recede” into the translucent background layers. I like the extra dimension the piece gets from colored paper and colored tentacles as well as the usual colored background, the whole thing is sort of eerie and otherworldly.
Also, green.
Tentacle Deeps 30, 6″x4″ watercolor on paper.
Tentacle Deeps 30, detail, by Amy Crook
The color in the above close-up shot is a bit off, my camera keeps trying to add red to correct the green, but it’s still cool. Below you can see it with my iPhone for scale. I always think it’s neat seeing the art reflected in the surface of the phone, even if I don’t love the reflections of the room in the glass on the artwork.
Tentacle Deeps 30, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Daily Art, Free Wallpapers, Series and Books, Tentacles
Tags: blue, crane and co, for sale, green, studio gallery, tentacle deeps, tentacles, watercolor
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