Gold Spirals 2

Friday, February 8th, 2013

Gold Spirals 2, abstract watercolor by Amy Crook

As promised on Monday, here’s the sequel to the first set of self-indulgent spirals. This one used the same 3 colors of gold, but a different duochrome accent. You can see how the layers build on one another from dark to light, with the duochrome adobe paint making a bright coppery splash in the upper right. Despite the sense of impending chaos, I find these rather peaceful to look at, a lovely mix of matte and metallic, deliberate and gestural.

Gold Spirals 2, metallic and duochrome watercolor on Arches cover black paper.

Gold Spirals 2, detail, by Amy Crook

Above, I’ve shot this from the corner so it looks almost like sunlight filtering down in swirls rather than rays, exaggerating the contrast from dark to light. Below, you can see this painting and its predecessor on my lovely antique desk. I’ve taken the glass out of the frames to help with glare, and you can see my iPhone hanging out for scale.

Gold Spirals 1 & 2, framed art by Amy Crook

Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art, Series and Books
Tags: black paper, duochrome, for sale, gold, gold spirals, watercolor

Gold Spirals 1

Monday, February 4th, 2013

Gold Spirals 1, abstract watercolor by Amy Crook

You may have noticed the sad lack of posts last week, which was the result of my winter lull. November and December are such huge months of creativity for me that inevitably the fields needed to lie fallow and have a bit of a creative winter. Last Friday I finally pulled out some black paper and my set of 7 metallic paint powders (they turn to watercolor when water is added, but can also be mixed into oils or acrylics). Then I chose a range of 3 different golds — a warm rose gold, a rich yellow gold and a cool pale gold — and played around.

These are very self-indulgent spirals, loosely inspired by patterns I’ve seen around, the cuffs on the robe of the Theurgy Warden Mouse in my silly FB game addiction, the background pattern on a website I ran across, the colors of the paints themselves. I layered from dark to bright, warm to cool, and then came in at the end and added a very thin, subtle extra set of spirals in duochrome tropic sunrise, which is what’s giving off the green in the scan. It’s only really visible as different from the rest of the gold in the right light, but the scanner usually does a good job of picking that up.

Gold Spirals 1, 6″x4″ metallic and duochrome watercolor on Arches cover black paper.

Gold Spirals 1, detail, by Amy Crook

Above, you can see a shot of the spirals in sunlight, each layer of metals catching the light just a little differently. Below, I’ve put it with the other self-indulgent spirals from last Friday, which you’ll see posted this Friday. If you decide you want them both, you can always email me to hold them for you.

Gold Spirals 1 & 2, framed art by Amy Crook

Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art, Series and Books
Tags: black paper, duochrome, for sale, gold, gold spirals, watercolor
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