Posts Tagged ‘metallic’
District of the Small Gods
Tuesday, June 7th, 2022
District of the Small Gods, 7″x5″ watercolor on paper
This thickly textured paper is porous and absorbent, but brushed tend to skip over the deep valleys in the page and leave fascinating voids in the wash.
A cat-shaped temple holds center court in this strange alien district, with other small gods represented by their own odd architectures. Is the building made of pointy things a god of war or merely one of pointy things? Does the the shape on top of the spire represent a blind eye, or an all-seeing one?
What small gods do you think reside here, waiting for their small offerings?
District of the Small Gods, detail, by Amy Crook
Above, you can see thee way the light glows over and through the Temple of the Cat. Below, the art is properly encased in a frame, ready to bring strange delight to a shelf or wall.
District of the Small Gods, 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, for sale, horizons, metallic, sunset, watercolor
Concentric 15
Monday, June 6th, 2022
Concentric 15, 7″x5″ watercolor on paper
The joy of experimenting with chaos in art is that sometimes you get happy accidents, and sometimes you get gibbous moons that stare at you like a creeper.
Despite that, the matte black makes a beautiful backdrop for these shimmering bursts of color, each one fading from one thing to another as it echoes out onto the page. Gold and violet, lavender and blue-green, each one is a unique combination that changes as you look at it.
Which is your favorite part of this painting, the spooky, the pretty, or the contrast between the two?
Concentric 15, detail, by Amy Crook
Above, the dots sparkle with tiny flecks of iridescent paint. Below, you can see this moody, colorful piece in a frame, waiting to add some strangeness to your life.
Concentric 15, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Floating Gallery, Series and Books
Tags: concentric, duochrome, for sale, iridescent, metallic, watercolor, yupo
Concentric 14
Friday, June 3rd, 2022
Concentric 14, 7″x5″ watercolor on yupo
The Floating Gallery is open and ready for you, my darlings!
A change of pace for the Concentric series, this painting has a shimmering blue background with opaque, matte designs atop.
The translucent yupo paper lets the light glow through, but also makes it hard to photograph with any kind of color accuracy. Although the palette is all blues and purples and shining silver, it’s hard to tell which shade of which is there when they shift with the light.
These feel more like flowers than fireworks to me, like bursts of color atop a shimmering pond or strange flocks against a cloud-flocked sky. What do you see?
Concentric 14, detail, by Amy Crook
Above, you can see up close the way the paint sparkles and shifts in the light, and the way the yupo seems to glow with its own translucency. Below, it’s sequestered in a frame, waiting for its new home.
Concentric 14, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Floating Gallery, Series and Books
Tags: concentric, for sale, japanese watercolor, metallic, watercolor, yupo
Concentric 13
Wednesday, April 6th, 2022
Concentric 13, 7″x5″ watercolor on paper
A gorgeous deep violet wash hides hints of teal spirals beneath it, while the concentric dot patterns bring in a shine of purple, blue-green, and silver. The light makes the firework bursts shine, while a change of angle lets all but the silver fade into the paper. The colors all have a dark base with the bright sparkles to better help it shine!
There’s a little hint of the Growth series around the edges as the silver circles break up and float off, waiting to see their own bright bursts further out in the galaxy. The shapes are like dandelions going to seed, explosions of life ready to find somewhere new to take root.
Concentric 13, detail, by Amy Crook
Above, you can see the bright purple centers on each burst and how they fade first to blue then soft green and finally silver. Below, the painting is in a frame, just bursting to belong to someone — maybe you!
Concentric 13, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Floating Gallery, Series and Books
Tags: concentric, duochrome, for sale, iridescent, metallic, more cowbell, purple, watercolor
Time is Escaping
Monday, April 4th, 2022
Time is Escaping, 12″x24″ mixed media on paper
This piece has been through a number of transformations, starting with a very pink wash of rhodonite and ending with a spattering of metallic watercolor. There’s both mineral and synthetic pigments, watercolor and acrylic paints, and a variety of techniques in this big, beautiful work of art.
Larger than my usual (two feet tall — Trotsky for scale!), this painting would add shine and color to any space. It’s a gorgeous statement piece, a mix of intense blues and purples softened by sparkle and shine, and the pearly sheen of genuine black tourmaline.
Time is Escaping, detail, by Amy Crook
Above, you can see a close-up of all the gorgeous texture in the central spiral. Below, you can see the swirls and dots of the lower portion of the painting, as lit by actual spring sun!
Time is Escaping, detail, by Amy Crook
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Floating Gallery
Tags: iridescent, metallic, nfs, primatek, soft body acrylic, sold, vortices, watercolor
Concentric 11
Saturday, April 2nd, 2022
Concentric 11, 5″x5″ watercolor on black paper by Amy Crook
The soft black Arches paper, originally created for printmaking, makes a gorgeous charcoal surface to use with metallic watercolor.
Blue and gold spirals made a soft layer on which to build the concentric shapes, which stick to the palette and come in many shades of blue, gold, and silver. There’s even a few that mix the blue and gold to make soft greens, and one that fades into warm coppery golds from a nearly-silver center.
This shining painting is just the right size to bring some beauty to a little corner of of your desk, a tiny hidden bit of wall, or to nestle among some books on a shelf.
Concentric 11, detail, by Amy Crook
Above, you can really see the colors of the dot pattern as they flow one into another, and the hints of spirals hiding beneath the bursts of metallic shine. Below, this small painting is in a temporary frame, just waiting to come live on your desk and give you some good good dopamine throughout the day.
Concentric 11, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Floating Gallery, Series and Books
Tags: black paper, concentric, duochrome, iridescent, metallic, more cowbell, nfs, sold, watercolor
Resonate
Tuesday, July 20th, 2021
Resonate, 6″x4″ watercolor and tea on paper
This piece sprang from a long-lost art challenge: I took the 2 teabags out of my giant mug of tea and put them on the page to create random shapes. I left them out for a few hours, then tossed the tea and let the paper dry thoroughly, by which I mean didn’t work on it again for a couple of months.
This abstract has a feeling that makes me think of the drip of tea back into the cup, of the shape made by a splash of milk, of the way sounds or ideas reverberate in your head.
What resonates with you?
Resonate, detail, by Amy Crook
Above, you can see the mix of bronzite and gold and the subtle ways they sparkle against the soft, tea-stained paper. Below, this small painting sits in a frame, ready to help you resonate.
Resonate, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Floating Gallery, Pretty Words
Tags: brown, for sale, gold, metallic, tea, watercolor
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