Posts Tagged ‘salt’
Oil Slick
Monday, July 4th, 2011
Oil Slick by Amy Crook, $199
I’m constantly frustrated by how hard these pieces are to photograph. The few people who have seen them in person agree with me that there’s really no way to capture the texture, the play of light and color, and the overall feel of the sparkling salt. In this case, the salt sucked up the paint and the dark green ink spirals to acquire a dark iridescence like an oil slick or a bird’s wing.
Oil Slick, 5.5″x4.25″ mixed media on embossed card, $199 with free shipping. I’m still on the lookout for frames for these pieces, but they could be mounted in a larger frame quite easily with a simple matte.
You can see below how the salt crystals formed with layers of color, making intriguing tiny patterns within the patterns.
Oil Slick, detail 1, by Amy Crook
And here’s a hint of the way the colors shift and change when you move the piece in the light:
Oil Slick, detail 2, by Amy Crook
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art
Tags: for sale, pen and ink, salt, watercolor
Haloed
Friday, July 1st, 2011
Haloed by Amy Crook
For this piece I used salt in a more traditional method to get the haloed starbursts in the blue-black sky. I overworked the section with the moon a little too much, so the paper tore in places, but I do like the overall effect and might try to reproduce it later with a bit more care.
Haloed, 9″x5″ mixed media on paper, nfs.
Haloed, detail, by Amy Crook
Categories: Daily Art, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes
Tags: moon, nfs, pen and ink, salt, watercolor
Twisted Tree
Thursday, June 30th, 2011
Twisted Tree by Amy Crook
Today’s art combines a number of techniques into one unusual piece. The base is a heavy, handmade postcard from India, part of a set I bought years ago with irregular, natural edges. The wash was made with strong black tea, and the texture comes from salt crystals placed on the wet paper. Then, I added a touch of blue paint and a little more salt to create the shape of the bird.
I have to admit, once I saw a bird in the blue, I couldn’t help but think of Twitter, but I think that’s just a sign I spend too much time on social networks.
I broke out my fine-point sharpies in brown and black to create the tree and the detail on the bird, using a loose, scribbly style to create an organic shape that fit with the background.
Twisted Tree, 4″x6″ mixed media on paper, nfs (sold).
The bird ended up with a bit of an attitude, and I rather imagine him saying something like, “Yeah, yeah, tweet, whatever.” Despite that, he’s got a bit of sparkle to his personality, as you can see here.
Twisted Tree, detail 1, by Amy Crook
Actually, there’s salt crystals in a fine layer all along the lower part of the painting, giving it texture and a subtle glimmer.
Twisted Tree, detail 2, by Amy Crook
It looks quite nice in a simple black frame, and this painting, like always, will ship wrapped up safely and ready to display.
Twisted Tree, framed, by Amy Crook
Categories: Daily Art, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes
Tags: bird, nfs, salt, sharpie, sold, tea, tree, twitter
Harvest Moon 2
Tuesday, June 28th, 2011
Harvest Moon 2 by Amy Crook
Even as I’m really developing the salt work into a proper technique, I still learn something new with each piece. This painting began with a lot of painstaking drawing that became nearly obliterated by the process, and ended up with a deceptively simple image with a lot of texture and detail just waiting to be found by the careful viewer.
Harvest Moon 2, 7″x5″ salt, pen and ink and watercolor on watercolor paper.
The central shape actually started as a dense circle of pen-and-ink spirals, but you can only see a tiny shadow of the original ink if you look very closely.
Harvest Moon 2, detail 1, by Amy Crook
When I added the salt and water to it, the golden-orange ink turned into a vividly orange puddle, which then dried to the softer peach color you see in the final product.
Harvest Moon 2, in progress, by Amy Crook
There’s a dense layer of sparkling salt crystals overlaying the entire surface of the ‘moon,’ adding a physical texture on top of the visual texture.
Harvest Moon 2, detail 2, by Amy Crook
The salt layer, like the ink beneath it, formed unevenly based on where the paper warped and the water pooled. Here you can really see the line of dense crystals that runs vertically through the image.
Harvest Moon 2, detail 3, by Amy Crook
And here it is tucked into a frame, ready to find its new home.
Harvest Moon 2, framed, by Amy Crook
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes
Tags: harvest moon, moon, pen and ink, salt, watercolor
Mod Tree
Monday, June 27th, 2011
Mod Tree, framed, by Amy Crook, $222
This piece was an experiment in making something less abstract out of the salt pools. I really like the way the arrangement of dots suggest a tree without ever actually forming the shape of leaves. The circles remind me of abstract Mod art from the ’60s, hence the name.
When I make these pieces, I can only line three or four up on the bookshelf at a time, and they have to dry anywhere from half a day to a full 24 hours. I can’t always take good progress photos if I start something at night, but when the sun’s shining in the window I do try to make sure I get some shots.
Mod Tree, 5″x7″ salt, pen and ink and watercolor on watercolor paper, $222, framed, with free shipping.
In the first detail shot, the lighter colors got washed out a bit but you can see the biggest salt crystals rising up off the paper.
Mod Tree, detail 1, by Amy Crook
Here you can see how the minimalist tree trunk gently supports the sparkling arrangement of leaves above.
Mod Tree, detail 2, by Amy Crook
Here you can really see the salt inside each water droplet, before it dissolved. I love how the light just glows through the water at the start, an ephemeral moment of beauty in the process of making art.
Mod Tree, in progress, by Amy Crook
The scanned version doesn’t have the same sparkle and dimension as the photos, but you can see the shape and color really clearly. It’ll ship in its frame so it stays nice and safe on its journey to your home.
Mod Tree by Amy Crook, $222
Categories: Daily Art, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes
Tags: for sale, green, pen and ink, salt, tree, watercolor
Treasures
Friday, June 24th, 2011
Treasures by Amy Crook, $199
I only added a few minimal details to the original tea wash on this piece. I took brown pen and gave the face I saw dark eyes, so it looks like a mysterious veiled creature curled possessively around the lighter space in the center. Then I gave it something to be possessive of — I used the same brown ink to make spirals for the salt crystals to rest on, and then went through the process to make salt pools.
I took some photos of the process so you can see it below.
Treasures, 7″x5″ mixed media on paper, $199, framed, with free shipping.
First we have the dried tea wash, ink, and carefully chosen crystals of salt. There’s a lot of size variation in the bottle of coarse sea salt I bought, so I make sure to choose appropriately for the effect I want. In this case, I went for small to medium crystals so the pools would stay discrete and relatively flat.
Treasures, work in progress part 1, by Amy Crook
Second, I drop on the water with an eyedropper. The water washes the dust and scratches off the salt right away, leaving clear crystals that are hard to see, and the ink immediately starts to curl up into the water as well.
Treasures, work in progress part 2, by Amy Crook
Here the salt and ink have dissolved as much as they’re going to, making a fluid made of brown ink, salt, whatever tea dissolves back in, and of course tap water.
Treasures, work in progress part 3, by Amy Crook
And finally the water evaporates overnight, taking sometimes as much as a full day and leaving behind salt crystals imbued with the ink and tea. These crystals grow onto the paper, and so they’re quite well-attached. The tea gave the salt a very subtle bluish tint for some reason, though the brown ink really covers that up.
Treasures, work in progress part 4, by Amy Crook
I found a lovely wood frame that matches wonderfully with the warm browns of the tea wash. Below you can see the final piece in its frame, with the mysterious figure looming protectively over the 7 sparkling piles of salt.
Treasures, framed, by Amy Crook, $199
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art, People, Figures and Faces
Tags: for sale, salt, tea
Aglow
Thursday, June 23rd, 2011
Aglow by Amy Crook, $699
Something about this piece just makes me happy every time I look at it, the 13 glowing circles reminding me of stars, or fireflies, or even lamps through a dark mist. The dark blue-black background perfectly offsets the magical snowflake-like rosettes that formed when I tried my salt trick on this softer, more porous paper.
Aglow, in progress, by Amy Crook
The other interesting difference with this paper was that the water droplets formed little wells that actually sunk into the paper, making dimples on the back.
Aglow, back, by Amy Crook
When I painted in the background afterward, the paint was drawn straight into the circle by the salt crystals whenever the brush touched the edge of one of the little branches.
Aglow, detail 1, by Amy Crook
This is a really good close-up of a pair of the crystalline structure, so you can see all the detail that gets softened into a simple warm glow when you back up and see it from a distance.
Aglow, detail 2, by Amy Crook
I put it into a wide black frame, which sets off the warmth of the paper and the not-quite-black of the paint really nicely.
Aglow, framed, by Amy Crook
Aglow, 7″x5″ mixed media on paper, $699, framed, with free shipping.
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art, Series and Books
Tags: fireflies, for sale, salt, sky, stars, watercolor
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