Posts Tagged ‘more cowbell’
Palimpsest
Tuesday, June 14th, 2016
Palimpsest: something reused or altered but still bearing traces of its earlier form,
7″x5″ pen & ink and Sharpie marker on recycled artwork
This week’s word art is a request from Kim, one of my lovely Patreon supporters. As soon as I saw her request, I actually went and washed an old piece of art I wasn’t happy with, getting most of the paint off but leaving the ghostly blue world behind. Paper doesn’t recycle quite as well as parchment, but there wasn’t too much blurring with the strong Sharpie marker, though you can see some in the green vines on the upper left there.
If you’d like to see your own favourite word reinterpreted, consider becoming a patron! For a mere $5 you could get your request fulfilled.
Categories: Completed Commissions, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, Pretty Words, Series and Books
Tags: calligraphy, kim, more cowbell, nfs, patreon, sharpie marker, sold, word art, word art weds
Fairytale Sky 11
Monday, September 7th, 2015
Fairytale Sky 11 by Amy Crook
Against the soft background of salt-created stars and matte teal night, the glowing moon and iridescent clouds look like enamel, more substance than mist and light. The clouds are mainly a beautiful turquoise with odd purple lowlights that appear and disappear as you move past it, lined with pearlescent moonlight along the spiral curves and sinuous shapes.
Every Fairytale Sky painting is a little different. This one’s got some serious shine that give it a beautiful feel of a fairy tale just waiting for you to step through and find your magical adventure.
Fairytale Sky, 7″x5″ watercolor, pearlescent watercolor, duochrome watercolor, and salt on paper.
Fairytale Sky 11, detail, by Amy Crook
Above, you can see the velvety softness of the sky and the bright enameled moon floating atop it. Below, the night is captured in a frame, safe and cool even in the day.
Fairytale Sky, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Floating Gallery, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, Series and Books
Tags: duochrome, fairytale sky, iridescent, moon, more cowbell, nfs, salt, sold, spirals, watercolor
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
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