Posts Tagged ‘moon’

Fairytale Sky 9

Tuesday, October 7th, 2014

Fairytale Sky 9 by Amy Crook

Fairytale Sky 9 by Amy Crook

A lovely, shadowed full moon hangs in a sky full of stars, but the real shine is from the mysterious spiraling clouds. They gleam subtly in blues and purples, stately shapes with just a hint of soft brushwork about the edges. This addition to the Fairytale Sky series is very reminiscent of the first, but refined by the iterations in between.

Sometimes I think it’s good to treat life like you’re in your very own fairytale. Do good deeds when you can, and you’ll find them returned when you least expect it. Don’t cause harm through inattention or ignorance. And always wear good walking shoes.

Fairytale Sky 9, 7″x5″ Japanese watercolor and duochrome watercolor on Arches cover black paper.

Fairytale Sky 9, detail, by Amy Crook

Fairytale Sky 9, detail, by Amy Crook

Above, you can see the subtle shimmer of the paint together with the soft shine of the stars and the bright gleam of the moon. Below, I’ve put this sky in a frame, like a window to another world, one full of magic and fairytale logic.

Fairytale Sky 9, framed art by Amy Crook

Fairytale Sky 9, framed art by Amy Crook

Categories: Floating Gallery, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, Series and Books, Whimsical and Strange
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Blood Moon 5

Tuesday, May 6th, 2014

Blood Moon 5 by Amy Crook

Blood Moon 5 by Amy Crook

Another Blood Moon made its way into my work queue this month, this time by adding some very subtle tentacles to an older painting in lieu of the previous image. This one is much more eerie than the last one, the bloody color leeching from the shadow to the white parts of the moon, and a second, smaller moon waiting off to one side, ruddy and strange. This sky is not our sky, or perhaps it is our sky many millennia hence, when the stars have become right and Great Cthulhu will rise up from R’lyeh to reclaim the planet for himself.

Blood Moon 5, 5″x7″ Japanese watercolor on Arches cover black paper.

Blood Moon 5, detail, by Amy Crook

Blood Moon 5, detail, by Amy Crook

Above, you can more clearly see the subtle mist and dark black tentacles rising up from the bottom of the painting, reaching toward the bloody moons. Below, the piece rests in a frame, a little window to some awful future*, or perhaps somewhere very far away indeed.

Blood Moon 5, framed art by Amy Crook

Blood Moon 5, framed art by Amy Crook

*Perhaps it’s Thundarr the Barbarian’s future, instead of Cthulhu’s. I always did like Ookla.

Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Floating Gallery, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, Tentacles
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Blood Moon 4

Sunday, May 4th, 2014

Blood Moon 4 by Amy Crook

Blood Moon 4 by Amy Crook

May the Fourth be with you! I chose a swirly, spiraled abstraction of a real-life space phenomenon today to go with the long time ago and far, far away that today brings to mind.

It’s a bright, warm afternoon when I’m writing this, and the cold hour standing outside when I saw the Blood Moon eclipse does seem rather long ago and far away. I spent almost an hour staring up at the sky, eyes fixed on the sliver of moon above through the haze of clouds that waxed and waned. I could only see Spica and Mars of all the bright objects, because I’m in the middle of a city in the middle of a lot of other cities, but I could see enough to be worth the chilled feet.

Blood Moon 4, 5″x5″ Japanese watercolor, duochrome watercolor, and glitter gel pen on Arches cover black paper.

Blood Moon 4, detail, by Amy Crook

Blood Moon 4, detail, by Amy Crook

Above, you can see the bright red and gold glitter shining atop the much more muted red-brown and white eclipsed moon. Below, you can see the piece in a frame with its shining mist.

Blood Moon 4, framed art by Amy Crook

Blood Moon 4, framed art by Amy Crook

Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Floating Gallery, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes
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Fairytale Sky 8

Monday, January 13th, 2014

Fairytale Sky 8 by Amy Crook

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

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

Fairytale Sky 8, framed art by Amy Crook

Categories: Floating Gallery, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, Series and Books, Whimsical and Strange
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Five for Silver

Tuesday, December 3rd, 2013

Five for Silver, watercolor by Amy Crook

Five for Silver, watercolor by Amy Crook

Tuesday seems like a good day for some crows flying through the gloaming. The moon has risen early, gibbous and pale above the evergreens. Soft clouds curl and five black birds fade ghostlike into the shimmering twilight sky.

This is a mix of very different paints that all fall under “watercolor,” with the trees done in pine-scented Christmas paint, the sky textured layers of shimmering Iridescent Moonstone, the moon made of opaque Japanese watercolor, and the birds a translucent black.

Five for Silver, 8″x4″ watercolor on Fluid watercolor paper.

Five for Silver, detail, by Amy Crook

Five for Silver, detail, by Amy Crook

Above, you can see some of the delicate shimmer on the sky, and the painterly brush strokes in the trees and birds. Below, I have it temporarily matted into a frame so you can get a feel for the unusual size.

 

Five for Silver, framed art by Amy Crook

Five for Silver, framed art by Amy Crook

Categories: Floating Gallery, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, Sea Creatures and Other Animals, Series and Books
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Cthonian Skies

Monday, December 2nd, 2013

Cthonian Skies by Amy Crook

Cthonian Skies by Amy Crook

The Floating Gallery has touched down for December, and I thought I’d start your Monday off strangely.

The swampy greens in this strange sky are laced with shimmering iridescence. The moon shimmers darkly beneath spirals of gold, and strange salt-formation stars radiate yet more gold into the gloomy mists of night. Perhaps this is what Cthulhu saw in his native skies, or what he sees now in the slice of reality he occupies as he slumbers deep beneath the waves — beautiful, maddening dreams of a night that never was.

Cthonian Skies, 5.5″x8.5″ pen & ink, salt, watercolor, and iridescent watercolor on acid-free embossed paper.

Cthonian Skies, detail, by Amy Crook

Cthonian Skies, detail, by Amy Crook

Above, you can see the sunlight making long shadows from the salt crystal stars, and the textures of paper and paint interacting. Below, it’s loosely attached to a frame for size. The final product will be properly matted and framed for shipping, to protect the nifty salty bits.

Cthonian Skies, framed art by Amy Crook

Cthonian Skies, framed art by Amy Crook

Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Floating Gallery, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes
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Misty Moon 2

Friday, November 8th, 2013

Misty Moon 2 by Amy Crook

Misty Moon 2 by Amy Crook

A black crow flies against the darkest part of the sky, while mist swirls and floats all around, obscuring the shining moon. The mist drifts in wispy tentacles that light up into spirals when the light hits them just right.

Misty Moon 2, 6″x4″ watercolor and iridescent watercolor on Fluid watercolor paper.

Misty Moon 2, detail, by Amy Crook

Misty Moon 2, detail, by Amy Crook

The scanner captures the painting in an in-between state, but you can see above how the stars light up violet and the mist glows blue when the sun hits it. Below, the painting in its frame appears more like it does to the naked eye, with the shimmering spirals hidden, and only the slithering tentacles of mist show through.

Misty Moon 2, framed art by Amy Crook

Misty Moon 2, framed art by Amy Crook

Categories: Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, Sea Creatures and Other Animals, Series and Books, Whimsical and Strange
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