Posts Tagged ‘sun’

Crack of Dawn

Wednesday, April 3rd, 2024

Crack of Dawn by Amy Crook

Crack of Dawn, 6″x12″ watercolor on paper, $350.

Yeah, the title is a joke, but I also really love the egg-like glow around our shining light here. Is it the moon? Is it the sun? Who knows! That’s up to you, what you want to see floating up in that deep blue-violet sky among the stars.

This unusually sized painting will be perfect to fill that odd spot on your wall that needs a splash of color.

Crack of Dawn, detail, by Amy Crook

Crack of Dawn, detail, by Amy Crook

Categories: Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, Series and Books, Whimsical and Strange
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Burning Planet

Thursday, April 7th, 2011

Burning Planet by Amy Crook

Burning Planet by Amy Crook, $169

A circle is such a simple form, and yet I feel like I could find an infinite variation in them. This one, too, looks the surface of a planet to me, or maybe some alien sun, the swirls of almost neon yellow marked by orange and red patterns.

This time I used my Windsor & Newton watercolors rather than the Japanese pigment inks, and it’s really interesting how the different media react differently to the addition of the salt. Rather than drying to a fine powder, each little spot of orange-red on the yellow paint is actually a salt crystal formed with the pigment-rich water as the salt on top dissolved, and then dried. If you look closely you can see the flat, squarish shapes of the salt crystals (click the image to enlarge). It even sparkles in the sunlight.

Burning Planet, 5″x5″ salt and watercolor on watercolor paper.

Here’s a terrible iPhone photo of the painting at an angle, so you can see the sun sparkling off the crystals:

Burning Planet, detail, by Amy Crook

Burning Planet, detail, by Amy Crook

Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art, Series and Books
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Shrinky Dink Doodles

Saturday, May 22nd, 2010

Shrinky Dink Doodles by Amy Crook

Shrinky Dink Doodles by Amy Crook

A while back I picked up something quite nostalgic, a Klutz Press book for doing Shrinky Dinks. If you don’t know what those are, it’s a clear-ish plastic sheet that you draw on, then cut out shapes, put it in the oven, and watch it shrink down to a much smaller size. A childhood staple for me!

I was thinking of doing up some little charms for Etsy or just for myself, and I doodled up these half-dozen images for tracing with a sharpie onto the plastic. Then I could color them with sharpie or colored pencil, cut them out, and cook them in my little toaster oven. I’m sure I’ll get around to using some of the shrinky dink material someday, if only to amuse myself.

Got a favorite?

Categories: Daily Art
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Dance

Tuesday, May 11th, 2010

Dance by Amy Crook

Dance by Amy Crook

Another monoprint, this one full of sunshiney joy. I went through a period where I painted people in every color of the rainbow, and so we have this magenta-skinned girl with her matching hair, dancing in a green meadow full of little yellow flowers. Even the plate seems to dance on the page. Something happy for a Tuesday!

Dance, 2″x6″ monoprint on 8″x11″ watercolor paper.

Dance, detail, by Amy Crook

Dance by Amy Crook

Categories: People, Figures and Faces, Whimsical and Strange
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