Posts Tagged ‘more cowbell’

Jellyfish Bloom

Monday, October 6th, 2014

Jellyfish Bloom by Amy Crook

I went to Monterey Bay Aquarium recently, where they have two different exhibits full of jellyfish. I love the way the jellies just float serenely along, totally oblivious to the tug of gravity, going up or down or whichever way suits them at the moment. Their tentacles trail along behind like the tails of comets, following with the same slow, careless air.

The splash of sunlight at the top of this painting made me want to give them a bit of a gold sheen, so I used the palest gold paint I have (doesn’t everyone have 7 shades of gold paint?). There’s a tiny bit of salt hiding in this painting, and the background is shining and iridescent, giving everything an ethereal, underwater glow.

Jellyfish Bloom, 7″x5″ salt, metallic watercolor, and iridescent watercolor on paper.

Jellyfish Bloom, detail, by Amy Crook

It’s annoyingly difficult to photograph shiny things, because the white of the paper ends up looking grey by comparison, but you can get a little hint of the iridescent sheen that hides in the turquoise waters with the shiny gold jellies in the photo above. Below, the piece in a frame, looking rather more green from the bright sunlight.

Jellyfish Boom, framed art by Amy Crook

Categories: Floating Gallery, Sea Creatures and Other Animals, Series and Books, Tentacles
Tags: iridescent watercolor, jellyfish, metallic, metallic watercolor, more cowbell, nfs, salt, sold, underwater
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Observance

Thursday, July 3rd, 2014

Observance by Amy Crook

I almost managed to get all the pieces for July’s Floating Gallery into the blog beforehand, but this one was finished just under the wire. I think this is the single most reworked salt painting I’ve ever done, using multiple applications of both water and very watery paint to give the appearance of scattered stars and nebulae in the sky above the observatory in the mountains below.

There’s a lot of sparkle in this painting, too, each little salt crystal catches the light at a slightly different angle, making the stars twinkle as the light moves over the surface.

Observance, 6″x6″ salt and watercolor on Fluid watercolor paper.

Observance, detail, by Amy Crook

Above, you can see some of the formations of salt and watercolor that catch the light, sparkling into strange shapes in the night sky. Below, the painting is temporarily tucked into a frame, full of subtle color and light despite the dark palette.

Observance, framed art by Amy Crook

Categories: Floating Gallery, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes
Tags: for sale, more cowbell, salt, stars, watercolor

Battle Scarred

Wednesday, June 18th, 2014

Battle Scarred, abstract art by Amy Crook

There are two distinct layers to this painting, both filled with shining metallics. The copper in the back is marked and scarred like armor that survived a great battle, with blue glittery enamel filigree over the top, decoration that either came after the battle, or survived unmarked by whatever damaged the surface below. Or perhaps it’s a tracery of some magic used to preserve this artifact of past battles, won or lost.

Battle Scarred, 5″x7″ watercolor, salt, metallic watercolor, and glitter gel pen on paper.

Battle Scarred, detail, by Amy Crook

Above, you can see the copper paint catching the light, the sparkle of the glitter pen and the salt interacting. The blue pen has picked up a slight green tinge in places from the color beneath it, and the metal ranges from a blushing copper to more golden to the green of tarnish in places. Below, you can see the piece in a frame, sunlight giving it a brilliant sheen.

Battle Scarred, framed art by Amy Crook

This one-of-a-kind piece will be available in the Floating Gallery for July; you can join my list to get an early chance to buy.

Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Floating Gallery
Tags: blue, copper, for sale, glitter gel pen, metallic, more cowbell, salt, spiral, watercolor

Verdigris

Wednesday, June 4th, 2014

Verdigris, abstract art by Amy Crook

This is a month of paintings that don’t quite show online the same as they do in person. In this case, the deep teal of the swirls is out of gamut for my monitor, so it gets blued out strangely. I think the swirling spirals remind me of a wrought-iron fence with some sort of strange verdigris growing on it, turning it first a strange dark green and then lighter with age as the change deepened. There’s bright oranges and golds behind the screen of greens, which one person told me looked like sunshine chasing away the stormclouds. Either way, it’s a bright, colorful painting full of strange little details to spark the imagination.

Verdigris, 8″x4″ salt, watercolor, and Japanese watercolor on Fluid watercolor paper.

Verdigris, detail, by Amy Crook

Above, you can almost see the real color of the spirals imposed on a bit of false color in the background, which has grown far too green on the right in an attempt to get the spirals to behave. Tehre’s even a little hint of some of the sneaky salt circles hiding in the painting. Below, you can see the painting in a temporary frame, with the closest to true color of all three images, I think.

Verdigris, framed art by Amy Crook

Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Floating Gallery
Tags: japanese watercolor, more cowbell, nfs, salt, sold, watercolor

Wood Elf

Tuesday, June 3rd, 2014

Wood Elf, watercolor by Amy Crook

This painting used to be a different painting, but I honestly never really liked that other painting, whereas this one has a great, fierce simplicity to it that I really enjoy. I found the face in the hair rather than the other way around, tight-lipped and androgynous and full of determination. I don’t really know if it’s a wood elf or some other creature of myth or fiction, but I love the auburn hair and muted green of the one eye you can see.

Wood Elf, 4″x8″ watercolor on Fluid watercolor paper.

Wood Elf, detail, by Amy Crook

Above, you can see the one fierce eye glaring green out of the red-brown hair, eyebrow an expressive slash of darker brown. Below, I’ve put the piece in a temporary frame while it waits patiently for you to take it home and discover its mysteries for yourself.

Wood Elf, framed art by Amy Crook

Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Floating Gallery, People, Figures and Faces
Tags: more cowbell, nfs, sold, watercolor

Blood Moon 5

Tuesday, May 6th, 2014

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

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

*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
Tags: black paper, blood moon, for sale, japanese watercolor, moon, more cowbell, tentacles, 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.