Posts Tagged ‘ruins’
Fire Season
Wednesday, November 6th, 2019
Fire Season, 6″x4″ ink on paper
It’s fire season here in California, and it’s been a month for ruins all around.
The beautiful golden-peach glow of the smoldering sky is hard to capture on a monitor, but the inks give a magnificently clear color in person. The charcoal grey of ink wash swoops in fluid lines to suggest some kind of burnt-out ruins, close or distant, large or small.
Birds circle above and around, giving them a sense of scale — unless it’s the birds themselves that are distant.
Fire Season, detail, by Amy Crook
Above, you can see the shadow of a bird, the soft texture of paper and glow of the sky, and the stark jut of burnt ruins wreathed in their own smoky residue. Below, this dramatic scene is contained safely in a frame, just waiting to grace your wall.
Fire Season, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Floating Gallery, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, Series and Books
Tags: brush and ink, for sale, horizons, ink wash, ruins
Floating Above the Ashes
Thursday, July 4th, 2019
Floating Above the Ashes, 8″x4″ watercolor on paper
Dark carrion birds float on the rising heat from burnt-out fires, ash and smoke and soot smudging what’s left of the city beneath.
The newest in my Ruins series, this painting has a sense that the birds are almost more real than the buildings, which have a ghostly quality to them. Orange glows through the grey of cinder and ash, painting even the few intact buildings with an unreal glow.
I guess if the world’s gonna be on fire, it’s nice if it’s pretty.
Floating Above the Ashes, detail, by Amy Crook
Above, you can see my favorite building in this scene, and some of the black birds rising above on the warm air. Below, the painting is temporarily in a frame, waiting for a new space to occupy.
Floating Above the Ashes, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Floating Gallery, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, Sea Creatures and Other Animals, Series and Books, Zombies, Skulls, and Other Morbid Things
Tags: for sale, horizions, orange, ruins, watercolor
Morning After
Monday, May 6th, 2019
Morning After, 8″x4″ watercolor on paper
The sky holds the softness of spring, the delicacy of an Easter egg, the gentlest of sunrises. In front of these lovely colors, there are smoking ruins, the aftermath of some mystery calamity. Carrion birds wheel and turn on the thermals, looking for a choice meal among the destruction. The pall of smoke hanging over the burnt-out husks is no deterrent to the scavengers.
There’s a curious juxtaposition with the grey-green ruins backed by the seashell pink, baby-chick yellow, and robin’s egg blue of the sky.
Morning After, detail, by Amy Crook
Above, you can see the delicate, tiny brushstrokes that make up each hollow, destroyed building. Below, the carrion birds circle and swoop inside their temporary frame.
Morning After, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Floating Gallery, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, Sea Creatures and Other Animals, Series and Books, Zombies, Skulls, and Other Morbid Things
Tags: for sale, horizons, ruins, watercolor
Abandonment
Monday, October 8th, 2018
Abandonment, 7″x5″ ink and watercolor on paper
Often the skies come first and then the foreground goes in to match, but this time the ruins grew up out of the ashes of avoidance, and the purple clouds came rolling in later.
Spiky, burnt-out buildings lean into one another, smudged with smoke and abandoned by everyone but the carrion birds.
More ruins for a world on fire, but hey, at least they’re pretty.
Ruins, detail, by Amy Crook
Above, you can see the most-intact tower and its circle of carrion birds up close and personal. Below, the bleak landscape sits in a frame, like a window to a ruined world.
Ruins, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Floating Gallery, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, Series and Books, Zombies, Skulls, and Other Morbid Things
Tags: brush and ink, city, for sale, horizons, pen and ink, primatek, ruins, watercolor
Ruination
Thursday, October 4th, 2018
Ruination, 12″x6″ watercolor on Fluid watercolor paper
Delicate smoke rises up from these ruins, buildings ranging from whole to merely rubble but all showing evidence of some cataclysm.
Each structure has its own unique character, from the delicately cracked tower to the leaning high-rise with its side shattered by whatever disaster came to call.
Painted with a limited palette of just three colors, the subtle mix of blue, rust, and grey make a gorgeous, atmospheric homage to ruination.
Ruination, detail, by Amy Crook
Above, you can see the tiny details of windows and doors, smoke and rubble and ruins. Below, the painting is floating in its temporary frame, waiting for its final resting place.
Ruination, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Floating Gallery, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, Series and Books, Zombies, Skulls, and Other Morbid Things
Tags: city, for sale, ruins, watercolor
Invisible Sun
Monday, August 6th, 2018
Invisible Sun, 6″x4″ watercolor on Fluid watercolor paper
Through the haze of smoke and destruction, a sun faintly glows with the softest sheen of gold. Below, fantastic buildings are shattered, battered, burnt, and broken.
Another set of painted ruins joins the series of apocalyptic visions. This one is small, the size of a postcard. The sky is the color of sunset on a day full of pollution in the city, smog that dulls vision and steals the color and life from the landscape.
The title is, of course, from a song by The Police.
Invisible Sun, detail, by Amy Crook
Above, you can see the smoking city up close, its futuristic shapes shattered and ruined. Below, the piece is in its frame, small in size but powerful in scope.
Invisible Sun, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Floating Gallery, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, Series and Books, Zombies, Skulls, and Other Morbid Things
Tags: city, nfs, ruins, sold, watercolor
Shining Apocalypse
Monday, February 5th, 2018
Shining Apocalypse, 8″x4″ watercolor on Fluid watercolor paper
Mood: The end of the world, but sparkly.
This painting is full of warm colors and sparkling mineral paints, despite the ghostly city half-destroyed against a burning sky. Carrion birds dot the sky above, circling for their dinner. The buildings have a loose, alien quality to make you wonder just where this city was, and who once lived among its now-abandoned streets.
Shining Apocalypse, detail, by Amy Crook
Above, you can see the secret sparkle hiding in the simple palette. Below, you can see the painting framed and ready to let your imagination roam the landscape.
Shining Apocalypse, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Floating Gallery, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, Series and Books, Zombies, Skulls, and Other Morbid Things
Tags: city, for sale, horizons, primatek, ruins, watercolor
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