Posts Tagged ‘iridescent’
Yearning
Friday, April 4th, 2014
Yearning, abstract watercolor by Amy Crook
Yearning might actually be my favorite piece out of April’s Floating Gallery. Everything about it is subtle, delicate, and incredibly hard to convey with photos and pixels, but I love it anyway. There’s just something about the two shapes and the way they strain to cross the void, sending out waves of yearning like a corona surrounding the core.
What are you longing for, in your silent, secret heart?
Yearning, 10″x8″ duochrome watercolor on watercolor paper.
Yearning, detail 1, by Amy Crook
Above, you can see the upper left corner, turned to catch the sunlight and reveal the hidden treasures of color and light in its depths. Below, we have the lower right, cooler and more congruent but still sending those secret tendrils outward.
Yearning, detail 2, by Amy Crook
And finally, the piece in a frame, showing off the depth of texture in the paper, and hanging out with my iPhone for size comparison.
Yearning, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Floating Gallery
Tags: duochrome, for sale, iridescent, splash, watercolor
Deepest R’lyeh
Saturday, March 8th, 2014
Deepest R’lyeh, abstract art by Amy Crook
“Ph’nglui mglw’nafh Cthulhu R’lyeh wgah’nagl fhtagn”
(“In his house at R’lyeh, dead Cthulhu waits dreaming.”)-HP Lovecraft
Strange, tentacled things grow in the depths, with the horrible spheres of the ancient city of R’lyeh shining dim and strange through the murky waters. Colors shift and change, and objects seem to flow into one another in ways that the mind can’t quite comprehend. What strange horrors lie just out of sight, waiting for the stars to be right?
Deepest R’lyeh, 5″x5″ watercolor and duochrome watercolor on Arches cover white paper.
Deepest R’lyeh, detail, by Amy Crook
Above, you can see a close-up of one of the strange, multicolored tentacle creatures. Below, you can see the piece in a frame, a window into a world of madness.
Deepest R’lyeh, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Floating Gallery, Sea Creatures and Other Animals, Series and Books, Tentacles
Tags: duochrome, for sale, iridescent, more cowbell, watercolor
Night Blooming
Friday, March 7th, 2014
Night Blooming by Amy Crook
Three flowers shine under the midnight sky full of silver stars or, as one person suggested, floating fireflies. The flowers change colors depending on the angle, pink to purple for the thistle, gold to green for the amaranth and gold to a richer orange-gold for the little wildflower down at the bottom, with the greenery going softly blue like moonlit leaves at some angles.
Gorgeous and ethereal, this painting makes the flowers seem ghostly as the bloom out of their normal cycle, bright against the blackness of the paper.
Night Blooming, 7″x5″ duochrome watercolor on Arches cover black paper.
Night Blooming, detail, by Amy Crook
Above, you can see the thistle from two angles, purple-blue as it catches the sunlight on the left, and pink and green on the right under more normal lighting. Below, you can see the piece in a frame, with a few more eternally blooming flowers from my bookshelf for company.
Night Blooming, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Floating Gallery, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes
Tags: black paper, duochrome, iridescent, nfs, sold, watercolor
Dragonfly Trio
Wednesday, March 5th, 2014
Dragonfly Trio by Amy Crook
Three filigree-winged, iridescent dragonflies flit across the matte surface of this gorgeous blue-purple background. A deep pond edged with fuchsias, perhaps, or a midnight puddle lit by Chinese lanterns. Their bodies and wings are painted with a duochrome paint that catches the sunlight, changing color depending on the angle just like the real thing.
Dragonfly Trio, 6″x4″ Japanese watercolor and duochrome watercolor on Arches cover white paper.
Dragonfly Trio, detail, by Amy Crook
Above, you can get a hint of the way the dragonfly seems to float above the surface of the other paint when it properly catches the light. Below, it’s in a frame, reflected darkly back at itself in my phone.
Dragonfly Trio, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Floating Gallery, Whimsical and Strange
Tags: blue, dragonfly, duochrome, iridescent, nfs, purple, sold, watercolor
Fairytale Sky 8
Monday, January 13th, 2014
Fairytale Sky 8 by Amy Crook
It’s the last day of the Floating Gallery, and I’m rounding up a week of art with another Fairytale Sky.
I used a different palette this time, a rich orange harvest moon that lights up the mist below in swirls of the same color. There’s a soft silvery green shimmer in and around those orange spirals, and a few little silver stars manage to peek out above the thick fog.
Everything about this painting is better in person, of course, from the shimmer of paint that changes color when the light hits to the soft texture of the black paper.
Fairytale Sky 8, 6″x4″ duochrome watercolor and Japanese watercolor on Arches cover black paper.
Fairytale Sky 8, detail, by Amy Crook
Above, you can see the mist lit up with golden sparkles by the last rays of a sunset. Below, you can see the painting in a frame, with the phone that took the picture above. It’s quite a small piece, and could go on a desk, cubicle wall, or tucked into an odd corner of architecture to bring a smile whenever you glance into that little hidden place.
Fairytale Sky 8, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Floating Gallery, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, Series and Books, Whimsical and Strange
Tags: black paper, duochrome, fairytale sky, for sale, iridescent, japanese watercolor, moon, orange, spirals, watercolor
Roil
Friday, January 10th, 2014
Roil, abstract art by Amy Crook
What can I really say about this painting? It started out with a completely different idea, and once I let go of the image I had for it I was able to make something I really love. It’s got layers of color, texture and sparkle. The shapes are partly chaos and partly deliberate. It’s also the first painting I finished this year — I even remembered to write AC2014 instead of 2013!
Roil, 4″x6″ watercolor and duochrome watercolor on watercolor paper.
Roil, detail, by Amy Crook
Above, you can see the sunlight glittering off some of the secret bits of sparkle hiding in the bottom of the painting. Below, it’s in a frame with my iPhone for size reference.
Roil, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Floating Gallery
Tags: duochrome, for sale, iridescent, watercolor
Death of a Comet
Wednesday, January 8th, 2014
Death of a Comet, abstract watercolor by Amy Crook
This painting feels a little like a Rorschach blot to me — I look and see ephemera, fleeting beauty, something that will melt or shift or fade away. Frost on a dark window. Clouds lit up against a midnight sky. Or the comet ISON that it’s named for, breaking up in the blackness of space after flying, Icarus-like, too close to the sun.
What do you see?
Death of a Comet, 7″x5″ iridescent watercolor on Arches cover black paper.
Death of a Comet, detail, by Amy Crook
Above, you can see the way the iridescent paint seems to float above the black paper. This paper is made by setting off a chemical process in the paper pulp rather than dying, so the color will stay a rich, soft black for years. Below, you can see it contrast with the shining paint in sunlight, blossoming in the simple frame.
Death of a Comet, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Floating Gallery
Tags: black paper, iridescent, nfs, sold, watercolor
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