Posts Tagged ‘green’
7 Seconds
Thursday, July 28th, 2011
7 Seconds, abstract art by Amy Crook, $399
I can’t really explain the title of this painting, other than to say it suggested itself to me when I was contemplating what to name the file when I was scanning it. There are seven pools of salt, rather more distorted from perfect rounds than usual because the paper was already slightly warped by the wash of hibiscus tea before I made them.
This is one of my first pieces combining watercolor with tea, though I’ve since worked on several more. I really like the way the rich turquoise paint works with the softer green of the salt, and the muted blue-violet of the tea.
7 Seconds, 7″x5″ mixed media on paper, $399, framed, with free shipping.
Here you can see the initial wash drying — the lightest spots turned to blue almost immediately, leaving the original pink lingering in the pools of tea, though as you can see they, too, changed as they dried.
7 Seconds, work in progress, by Amy Crook
This photo gives away one of my cheater secrets — I use the knickknacks off my shelves to flatten out the pages when they get too warped. Though it’s far from perfect, that’s part of the point, the compromise between order and entropy, deliberation and natural randomness.
7 Seconds, work in progress by Amy Crook
It was quite warm the day the salt water was drying, which created unusually delicate salt formations.
7 Seconds, detail 1, by Amy Crook
Some of those formations were washed away by the paint, turning instead into small crystals haloing the original salt pools.
7 Seconds, detail 2, by Amy Crook
This is definitely one of those paintings that looks much better once it’s framed. The black really makes the colors look richer and deeper, and helps showcase the harmony of the piece.
7 Seconds, framed art by Amy Crook, $399
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art
Tags: blue, for sale, green, hibiscus, pen and ink, salt, watercolor
Batik Pattern
Saturday, July 16th, 2011
Batik pattern by Amy Crook
Busy busy busy! I’m on a deadline, so I haven’t had time to get something scanned for today.
This is a batik-like pattern I created that never got used — you can see it repeating on a page here. I used Illustrator to make the shapes and get it to repeat cleanly.
It’d make a pretty neat fabric, I suppose, not that there’s not a ton of things just like it out there already, heh.
Categories: Daily Art, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes
Tags: batik, green, illustrator, nfs, pattern
2 Comments »
Mod Tree
Monday, June 27th, 2011
Mod Tree, framed, by Amy Crook, $222
This piece was an experiment in making something less abstract out of the salt pools. I really like the way the arrangement of dots suggest a tree without ever actually forming the shape of leaves. The circles remind me of abstract Mod art from the ’60s, hence the name.
When I make these pieces, I can only line three or four up on the bookshelf at a time, and they have to dry anywhere from half a day to a full 24 hours. I can’t always take good progress photos if I start something at night, but when the sun’s shining in the window I do try to make sure I get some shots.
Mod Tree, 5″x7″ salt, pen and ink and watercolor on watercolor paper, $222, framed, with free shipping.
In the first detail shot, the lighter colors got washed out a bit but you can see the biggest salt crystals rising up off the paper.
Mod Tree, detail 1, by Amy Crook
Here you can see how the minimalist tree trunk gently supports the sparkling arrangement of leaves above.
Mod Tree, detail 2, by Amy Crook
Here you can really see the salt inside each water droplet, before it dissolved. I love how the light just glows through the water at the start, an ephemeral moment of beauty in the process of making art.
Mod Tree, in progress, by Amy Crook
The scanned version doesn’t have the same sparkle and dimension as the photos, but you can see the shape and color really clearly. It’ll ship in its frame so it stays nice and safe on its journey to your home.
Mod Tree by Amy Crook, $222
Categories: Daily Art, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes
Tags: for sale, green, pen and ink, salt, tree, watercolor
Bubbling
Friday, June 17th, 2011
Bubbling by Amy Crook, $199
This piece reminds me of bubbles rising up through a lemon-lime soda, or perhaps a glass cauldron full of mysterious iridescent goo. The salt has no ink under each pool this time, so it picked up a little of the paint but remained largely clear. The crystals really catch the light like bubbles, as you can see below. The ink spirals were drawn in while the watercolor was still wet, so they blurred into the background, blending the piece into a more harmonic whole.
A lot of my pieces use numbers that are interesting to me – there’s 7 green swirls in this one, for instance, but the salt pools go to eleven.
This is another size I haven’t yet sourced frames for, but I’m on the lookout, since I’ve done a couple of pieces on this larger stock lately. The paper is thin and tends to warp, but it’s a nice smooth, bright white that takes the colors really well.
However you choose to view this piece, it’s definitely got a cheery, bubbly sort of feel to it.
Bubbling, 5.5″x8.5″ salt, pen and ink and watercolor on embossed cardstock, $199 with free shipping.
Bubbling, detail, by Amy Crook, $199
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art
Tags: for sale, green, pen and ink, salt, watercolor
Iridescence
Tuesday, June 14th, 2011
Iridescence by Amy Crook, $499
Despite the fact that very little about this piece is shiny aside from the salt crystals, it reminds me of the gentle iridescence of bird wings, and that’s where it gets its title. Much like Badlands from last week, this piece has some unusually tall and interesting salt formations, this time created on purpose by using big salt in little puddles.
The other day I mixed up some teal-black paint, and found ways to use it on several pieces but not, ironically, the piece it was originally intended for, which turned out to need more drying time before it was ready for the next step. Here it’s been watered down and then had extra drips and swirls of green and blue added in, which then flowed and dried in the beautiful color patterns you see here.
Iridescence, 7″x5″ watercolor, ink and salt on watercolor paper, $499, framed, with free shipping.
This piece is framed in a shadowbox to protect the salt crystals, and sitting on my bookshelf taking up space I’ll likely need to use for art pretty soon.
Iridescence, framed, by Amy Crook
I love the way some of the salt formations are secretly hollow inside, growing walls around an empty inner space where the original salt crystal sat. This one has another formation gamely trying to start off the top corner, as well, the color dense where the ink was concentrated.
Iridescence, detail 1, by Amy Crook
And this little ziggurat is a textbook formation of simple square crystals.
Iridescence, detail 2, by Amy Crook
As an added bonus to those of you who read this far down, have an iPhone wallpaper and computer wallpaper. I’m using the computer one myself right now!
After using the iPhone wallpaper for a while, I realized that, while it did have my signature on it, it didn’t have my favorite part of the image, the part Molly called a “dragon’s head.” So, for those of you seeing this many days after posting (yay you!), here’s a different iPhone wallpaper.
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art, Free Wallpapers
Tags: blue, for sale, green, iridescence, pen and ink, salt, watercolor
1 Comment »
Green Salt Pools
Friday, June 3rd, 2011
Green Salt Pools by Amy Crook
This time I used small chips of salt inside tiny, tight spirals of bright green pen, and put a scant drop of water atop each one. I got small, dense pools of dried salt, almost all of which had a central crystal as well as the border of salt that always forms. This pen came out a pale, yellow-green when it was diluted into the salt, and just like the blue and gold earlier this week, the ink dissolved into the solution completely.
The green in the background is dark and bluish, but the rings around each little salt formation are a brighter green, from the dark shadowy forest to the rich green of leaves overhead to the bright new-leaf green of the salt growth.
Green Salt Pools, 7″x5″ salt, pen and ink and watercolor on watercolor paper, $299 framed, with free shipping.
This picture gives you a better feel for the color and texture of the piece:
Green Salt Pools, detail, by Amy Crook
And here you can see it tucked safe in its frame:
Green Salt Pools, framed, by Amy Crook
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art, Series and Books
Tags: for sale, green, pen and ink, salt, watercolor
4 Comments »
Tentacle Deeps 13
Tuesday, May 31st, 2011
Tentacle Deeps 13 by Amy Crook
And so we come to the end of a series! 13 Tentacle Deeps seemed like enough, a good stopping point before I got bored with the idea altogether. I’ve really enjoyed having the structure there to experiment with materials, watercolor and salt, pen and ink, different papers and techniques.
This last installment in the series started with a very dark wash of mixed black and green and a little blue, which settled out at the bottom in an interesting root-like formation when it dried. I chose to grow the tentacles out of the top of the roots rather than cover them up, and then added simple table salt to give a little bit of sparkle and texture to the image. The paper is one of the handmade postcards I bought ages ago, rough and off-white and not really a proper rectangle, which gives the piece a wonderful texture.
Tentacle Deeps 13, 4″x6″ watercolor and salt.
I’ve also made an iPhone wallpaper and computer wallpaper out of this one to celebrate the end of the series. Enjoy!
Tentacle Deeps 13, framed, by Amy Crook
Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Daily Art, Free Wallpapers, Series and Books, Tentacles
Tags: for sale, green, salt, teal, tentacle deeps, watercolor
1 Comment »
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