Posts Tagged ‘moon’
Violet Way
Monday, March 12th, 2012
Violet Way, abstract art by Amy Crook
This is a larger piece like Golden Moon, done with the same black paper. This time I used a pearlescent violet paint and created a swath of larger stars, then filled in with smaller, salt-free spirals to give a feeling of clustered stars, like looking up at the Milky Way. This paint looks white from some angles and a lovely pale violet from others; the scanner picks up the violets pretty well, so for once I think the colors are pretty accurate.
Violet Way, 10″x8″ iridescent Japanese watercolor and salt on Arches cover black paper.
Like most of my salt paintings, this one started in the spirit of experimentation. I just bought some new watercolors from Japantown (along with ALL the pens), and I wanted to see how they’d work with the salt. techniques. I made a special effort to mix extra paint into the water droplets after they were on the paper, and you can see how it looked while I was working on it below.
Violet Way, work in progress, detail 1, by Amy Crook
You can see one freshly-painted spiral at the bottom, and then the water droplet just above that and to the left is opaque with swirled paint. It settled out after a while, as you can see in the droplets further away, but the salt pools have a definite coating of iridescent paint you can see in the next photo.
Violet Way, work in progress, detail 2, by Amy Crook
Below you can see a more oblique shot of one tiny detail in the finished piece, one single pool of salt surrounded by the little echoing spirals. I really love the way you can see each individual salt crystal, especially if you click through to the larger version of the image.
Violet Way, detail, by Amy Crook
I’ve also made a computer wallpaper, should you like to splash my artificial stars across your computer screen. Finally, you can see it in its frame below, attempting to turn itself into a mirror. Glass reflects, who knew?
Violet Way, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Daily Art, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, Free Wallpapers
Tags: black paper, iridescent, moon, nfs, salt, spirals, violet
Moonglow
Monday, March 5th, 2012
Moonglow by Amy Crook
Sparkly green and purples sit suspended in deep, rich black. For some reason it reminded me of one of my favorite oil paint colors, even though it’s not at all the same shade of purple, but I still named the piece Moonglow after the paint.
The watercolor paint I used in the salt pools separated, with the green pigment all going into the salt and leaving the sparkly violet swirls attached to the paper for a very nifty effect. I carried it through with purple and green glitter gel pen, adding smaller spiral stars and drawing in the eerie, barely-there moon.
I’ve totally embraced my sparkly side, too, and bought more glittery pens in Japantown as well as some pearlescent paints. Expect to see more shiny!
Moonglow, 7″x5″ iridescent watercolor, salt and glitter gel pen on Arches cover black paper.
Moonglow, detail 1, by Amy Crook
The first detail photo, above, totally exaggerates the separation of the paint, the sunlight making the salt practically glow while the purple spirals catch the light. The second one, below, shows the play of green and purple gel pen in the moon. Spirals!
Moonglow, detail 2, by Amy Crook
Categories: Daily Art, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, Series and Books
Tags: black paper, for sale, glitter gel pen, green, iridescent, moon, salt, violet, watercolor
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Golden Moon
Monday, February 27th, 2012
Golden Moon, watercolor and salt painting by Amy Crook
Two of my favorite pieces at the Endgame show have been bought, so I took this one and Violet Midnight 2 over there to replace the sold pieces on the wall. Then I realized I’m so far behind in posting that I hadn’t even shown it to you guys here on the site, oops.
I used a gorgeous golden yellow paint to make these spirals, and then added the salt while they were still wet. You can really see how the salt around the “stars” is yellower than the white aura I added to the moon later, sans paint. I like this one because it makes me think of moonrise, of looking up into the sky with the low, yellow moon hanging just off to one side of your vision, rather than taking over the whole show.
It’s bigger than my usual, too, 10″x8″ instead of the smaller size, which gives room for the smaller, saltless star-spirals that I put into the background. The piece is really simple but it’s got a lot of depth for me because it took several sessions to paint all the details, and spent at least two days just growing salt crystals. Each of these salt pieces is part art and part experiment for me, so when I’m working on them I tend to think a lot about the technical aspects and let the aesthetics work themselves out almost meditatively in the spacing, size and color choices.
Golden Moon, 10″x8″ salt and watercolor on Arches cover black paper.
Golden Moon, detail 1, by Amy Crook
Above you can really see how much whiter the salt is without the paint adulterating it. I love the way this shot came out enough I even made you guys a wallpaper of it. And by you I mean me, of course. Below, I’ve zoomed in on just one pair of stars, so you can see how sparkly and three-dimensional they really are. I actually find it pretty funny that I’ve started making a lot of art that shimmers, glitters and sparkles, since in my real life I’m the least-sparkly person you’ll meet with my unchanging jewelry and boring black t-shirts.
Golden Moon, detail 2, by Amy Crook
And finally, you can see it in a frame! The shot’s a little dark, but that’s because black paper behind glass is basically a mirror, also known as a huge pain in my butt to photograph.
Golden Moon, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Daily Art, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, Free Wallpapers, Series and Books
Tags: black paper, for sale, moon, salt, spirals, stars, watercolor, yellow
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Distant Skies at Endgame in Oakland, CA
Monday, February 6th, 2012
Distant Skies, art by Amy Crook at Endgame in Oakland, CA
Did you miss the tentacles? Never fear, new art is here! Well, here at Endgame in Oakland, anyway. I decided to theme the show with skies, stars and moons, and so you can see there’s pieces ranging from last week’s Blue Moon to some of my earliest salt pieces like Aglow. It’s funny, it feels like I’ve been working on the salt technique for ages, but really it’s not quite been a year, so this is a good sampling of the things I’ve done over the past year.
As before, the art is upstairs in the open gaming area, and I’m there most Wednesday evenings playing boardgames with the guys, so feel free to stop in. Of course the room up there is open most of the time, so if you just want to take a peek when I’m not around to stare to you, feel free.
The salt paintings are just so much cooler in person, I want you all to see them, I admit it. There’s even one token non-salt watercolor, Mountains of Madness, just for variety. You can click the image above to get a better view of the 13 pieces included in the show.
Categories: Daily Art, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, Words Words Words
Tags: endgame, moon, show, stars
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Blue Moon
Thursday, February 2nd, 2012
Blue Moon by Amy Crook
I chose soft blue pen and ink to pair with a rich, deep blue background, and then added salt in two different ways for texture. The brightest stars are the now-familiar salt pools, and there’s a scattering of dimmer ones formed by salt sprinkled onto the damp watercolor paint and brushed off once it dried. It was still too stark for me, so I went and found my tiny dot-card sample of interference blue and added haloes of half-there light around each salt pool and the moon, too, which you can barely see in the above scan, and better down in the detail shots below.
Blue Moon, 7″x5″ salt, pen & ink, watercolor and iridescent watercolor on paper, nfs (sold).
Blue Moon, detail 1, by Amy Crook
Above you can see three of the salt pools up close and personal, light glinting off their facets and a faint shadow of the interference blue. Below, the shimmer’s caught the light and you can see the brushed haloes around each large object, as well as the little starbursts of texture in the background of the deep blue sky.
Blue Moon, detail 2, by Amy Crook
And of course I took a photo of it framed, once I had it all ready for the show. In the sunlight, the background looks less black, though it’s still velvety-matte against the shimmering, sparkling stars and moon.
Blue Moon, framed watercolor by Amy Crook
Categories: Daily Art, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, Series and Books
Tags: blue, blue moon, iridescent, moon, nfs, pen and ink, salt, sold, spirals, watercolor
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Moon Valley
Monday, January 23rd, 2012
Moon Valley watercolor by Amy Crook
I’ve been working for many months now on the re-launch of Moon Valley Astrologer, and it’s finally up, huzzah!
I used watercolors to create both the Moon Valley header art and the background of stars, though as you can see there was some Photoshop tomfoolery on her final header to make the moon more like a proper orange harvest moon. Not to mention the cropping and text!
Moon Valley Astrologer header by Amy Crook
This site was a huge undertaking, but I’m really happy that it’s all come together in time, and I look forward to continuing to work with Celeste as the site continues to grow. And of course Michael, who does the heavy lifting of implementing my designs with best practices.
The painting itself went through several practice versions, including the very creepy-sky study Mountains of Madness. This final has a peaceful, luminous quality that I think really goes well with her site and personality. Although it’s not really a portrait of the actual Moon Valley where she lives, it conveys the feeling we were hoping for in subtle, inviting colors that we then echoed into the rest of the site.
Moon Valley, 14″x8.5″ watercolor on paper.
Categories: Daily Art, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes
Tags: for sale, moon, moon valley astrologer, mountains, stars, watercolor
Moon Dark
Friday, January 6th, 2012
Moon Dark by Amy Crook
I really love how stark and simple this piece is. I was tempted to add more color to it, but in the end I think the copper moon and golden, salt-haoled stars are best on their own. In a simple black frame, it’s really striking, a slice of night for a desk, wall or bedside table.
Moon Dark, 5″x5″ watercolor and salt on paper, nfs.
Moon Dark, detail, by Amy Crook
Here you can see how the salt picked up a tiny bit of the iridescence from the paint, though mostly it sparkles all on its own.
Moon Dark, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art
Tags: black, copper, gold, moon, nfs, salt, spirals, stars, watercolor
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