Posts Tagged ‘tree’

Eight for a Wish

Thursday, May 16th, 2019

Eight for a Wish, 6″x6″ Primatek watercolor on paper

Although the original rhyme is about magpies, there’s only murders hanging about outside my windows, so crows are what you get.

Seven charming fellows are flying in, with an eighth ahead of them already swooping along, banked to skim close to the thick trunk of this twisting tree. The ghost this time is looking more annoyed than anything; perhaps it’s not a fan of birds.

Although one of my patrons has already claimed this for their collection, you can still admire its creepy fog, spooky tree, and the gentle motion of eight pairs of wings.

Eight for a Wish, detail, by Amy Crook

Above, you can see the ghost’s very grumpy expression and the soft flutter of many wings. Below, it’s haunting this frame before it flies off to its new home.

Eight for a Wish, framed art by Amy Crook

Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Floating Gallery, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, People, Figures and Faces, Sea Creatures and Other Animals, Series and Books, Zombies, Skulls, and Other Morbid Things
Tags: counting crows, crow, ghost, nfs, primatek, sold, tree, watercolor

Moon Landing

Thursday, May 2nd, 2019

Moon Landing, 9″x12″ Primatek watercolor on paper

This started with a palette and a sky, and the tree grew in complexity and reached out just asking for a bird to alight on its outstretched branch. There’s a dim daytime moon just barely visible in the upper left corner, inspiring the punny name.

This painting has a really delightful, eerie quality with its soft sky and stark tree. The black bird has a beautiful organic quality to the motion of its feathers, and the reach of its feet. It looks like the branch is beckoning it in for a landing, for good or ill.

Moon Landing, Detail, by Amy Crook

Above, you can see the crow up close in all its gloomy glory. Below, this painting is in a frame, showing off its size by being almost as tall as the writing desk’s cubbies.

Moon Landing, framed art by Amy Crook

Categories: Floating Gallery, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, Sea Creatures and Other Animals
Tags: crow, for sale, moon, primatek, tree, watercolor

Hillside

Friday, March 8th, 2019

Hillside, 4″x6″ Primatek watercolor on paper

A bird of prey stoops above, but our mere human eyes can’t see what it’s diving for down in the scrub grass clinging to the hillside despite the season. The tree is stripped of its foliage, half vanishing against the twilight, everything softened by mist and distance.

The limited palette blends beautifully, mineral paints that cling together on the soft paper. The sunshine is rust, the sky turquoise and amethyst and barely-there vivianite, creating a glow against which the bloodstone paint seems almost transcendent.

There’s a missing corner on the lower right, but as you can see in the photo, a frame will easily hide the slight imperfection so only you and your artist will know it’s there.

Hillside, detail, by Amy Crook

Above, you can see the twining branches of the tree vanishing into the mists. Below, this small painting rests in its frame, the perfect size to tuck a bit of mystery into your life.

Hillside, framed art by Amy Crook

Categories: Floating Gallery, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, Sea Creatures and Other Animals, Whimsical and Strange
Tags: nfs, primatek, sold, tree, watercolor

Life Is Not the Same

Tuesday, March 5th, 2019

Life Is Not the Same, 8″x4″ watercolor on paper

This painting started with such bright skies, it’s not really a surprise that it took such a surrealist bent all the way to the finish line. The trees in the foreground seem almost hyperreal against the softness of the clouds, with a red hawk gliding between the two states.

Perhaps it’s hunting reality.

The title is from the Spiderverse soundtrack, the line, “Life is not the same with your picture in my frame,” that somehow spoke to the sense that each component of this painting lives in a slightly different universe from the others.

Life Is Not the Same, detail, by Amy Crook

Above, you can see the red hawk, circling among the fuzzy clouds, above the brushstroke trees. Below, the painting is waiting in a temporary frame to fly to its new destination.

Life Is Not the Same, framed art by Amy Crook

Categories: Floating Gallery, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, Series and Books
Tags: horizons, nfs, sold, tree, watercolor

Solar Wind

Saturday, October 6th, 2018

Solar Wind, 18″x6″ watercolor on Fluid watercolor paper

A lovely, large panorama of sunset and birds and a windblown tree, this painting is a moment at the edge of night, just as the sun is slipping away below the horizon and off the page.

The clouds reflect the bloody light from below, refracting it into orange and pink as well as red. Five beautiful blackbirds ride the winds of evening, slipping past the tree that autumn’s already caught ahold of and stripped of its summer foliage.

A full foot and a half wide, this painting will need some special framing, but it would make a beautiful, warm addition to any room.

Solar Wind, detail, by Amy Crook

Above, an up-close view of the windswept tree and wispy clouds, as well as one of the five intrepid crows riding the breezes. Below, a very wide shot indeed to encompass this whole panorama.

Solar Wind, a panoramic watercolor painting by Amy Crook

Categories: Floating Gallery, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, Sea Creatures and Other Animals, Series and Books
Tags: crow, for sale, horizons, panorama, sunset, tree, watercolor

Cloud Cover

Wednesday, August 8th, 2018

Cloud Cover, 8″x10″ ink and watercolor on artboard

A sky filled with clouds, covered from horizon to infinity with smudging swirls of blue-grey in an endless cover. A skeletal tree rises up against it, the details fine as lace. Branches tangle and twist, while a black bird comes to rest, wings a blur of motion, and another flies close.

A lot of this month’s paintings are dichromatic, ink on paint, a mix of a beautiful, nearly abstract background with a black-painted foreground. This one is made of a dark, opaque ink that holds texture and gives a sense of dimension as well as the simplicity of silhouette.

Cloud Cover, detail, by Amy Crook

Above, you can see the textures of ink, board, and paint weaving together to make a beautiful tree. Below, the painting is in its temporary frame, like a window into a piece of autumn.

Cloud Cover, framed art by Amy Crook

Categories: Floating Gallery, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, Sea Creatures and Other Animals, Series and Books, Whimsical and Strange
Tags: artboard, brush and ink, crow, for sale, tree, watercolor

Grove

Wednesday, June 6th, 2018

Grove, 6″x4″ watercolor on Fluid watercolor paper

Now that spring is sprung and summer is on its way, it’s back to longing thoughts of autumn and winter, and trees bare of their leaves (and their evil, evil pollen).

The sky is painted with gold and red, pink and orange, and the trees have a depth to them that invites the eye to trace out branching pathways like handmade lace against the peachy clouds.

What’s on your horizon?

Grove, detail, by Amy Crook

Above, you can see the soft oranges of the sky and the interlacing branches of these dormant trees. Below, they’re in a small frame, perfect for adding a bit of beauty to a tiny space.