Posts Tagged ‘tree’
Three for a Girl
Friday, February 5th, 2016
Three for a Girl, 6″x6″ watercolor on Fluid watercolor paper
A third installment to one of my favorite series of last year, Three for a Girl continues the Counting Crows theme with another eerie tree and ghostly figure.
The titular girl is almost lost in the mists, fog drifting through and obscuring everything but the tree and its trio of visitors.
Three for a Girl, detail, by Amy Crook
Above, you can see how the off-black paint granulates into beautifully textured mist, pigment pooling in the hollows of the watercolor paper. Below, the painting is waiting in a frame, a season and a mood in one small, eerie package.
Three for a Girl, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: 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: bloodstone, counting crows, crow, nfs, sold, tree, watercolor
Ghost Trees
Thursday, January 7th, 2016
Ghost Tree, 6″x4″ ink wash on Fluid watercolor paper
Everything about this ink wash is understated, soft, and ghostly. The pale sky just as the sunset fades into the gloaming. The shadowy tree like a ghost against the ink-streaked clouds. The birds flitting past like memories, barely there in the distance.
The first hints of night haunt the top of the page, washing away the color as the evening threatens to fall, dropping its curtain over those last washes of pink and violet and gold still lurking in the soft clouds.
Ghost Tree, detail, by Amy Crook
Above, you can see the ghostly little ink wash birds swooping through the pale, fading daylight. Below, the tree sits in a frame, ready to haunt its new home.
Ghost Tree, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Floating Gallery, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, Sea Creatures and Other Animals, Series and Books
Tags: horizons, ink wash, nfs, sold, tree
Halloween Trees 2
Friday, October 2nd, 2015
Halloween Trees 2 by Amy Crook
The original Halloween Trees is only a year old, but it feels very different from this sequel. The sky is softer and has more cloud shapes, and the trees are a less imposing brown rather than the starkly silhouetted black. Even the crows are different, coming in for a landing instead of taking off into the sunset.
The brilliant swath of pink behind the lightning-struck tree lets that whole bank of clouds really glow. The three trees each have their own character, slightly different patterns in their branches that make it clear even without leaves that they’re not the same species. If the crows are roosting in the middle one, one might wonder what lives in the lightning-struck tree on the left?
Halloween Trees 2, pen & ink, brush & ink, and watercolor on Fluid watercolor paper.
Halloween Trees 2, detail, by Amy Crook
Above, you can see the tiny birds up close, coming in to land in the lacework of branches. Below, the piece is in a temporary frame, just waiting for its new home.
Halloween Trees 2, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Floating Gallery, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, Sea Creatures and Other Animals, Series and Books, Things I'm a Fan Of, Whimsical and Strange
Tags: brush and ink, crow, halloween trees, horizons, nfs, orange, pen and ink, pink, sold, tree, watercolor
Liminal Autumn
Thursday, September 3rd, 2015
Liminal Autumn by Amy Crook
The leaves have fallen but the cold hasn’t yet set in. Autumn still reigns, with fluffy October clouds rolling across the sky on playful breezes. Winter is just around the corner, but for now there’s still sunshine and a hint of comfort lingering around the edges of the world.
These trees have even more detail than my usual horizons, because the trees are painted in a gorgeous brown ink instead of a stark black. You can really see the texture of bark and the way the light shines through the branches, strong enough at the edge of fall still to make them seem almost translucent against the cloudy blue sky.
Liminal Autumn, 8″x4″ ink and watercolor on Fluid watercolor paper.
Liminal Autumn, detail, by Amy Crook
Above, you can see the intricate branches of the intertwining trees. Below, the painting is temporarily in a frame, waiting to be claimed and loved.
Liminal Autumn, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Floating Gallery, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, Series and Books
Tags: autumn, for sale, horizons, ink, tree, watercolor, winter
I Hear the Rain
Thursday, July 2nd, 2015
I Hear the Rain by Amy Crook
I wembled about this painting a long time — this amazing, dramatic sky sat on my art table for weeks before I drew in the tree, and then weeks more while I waffled about what else it needed.
Finally, I gave in to my gothy heart and drew this gorgeous graveyard, the mysterious silhouettes blending beautifully with the descending torrent of rain.
The painting gets its title from the Violent Femmes song “I Hear the Rain,” which is about being buried in a shallow grave and hearing the rain pound on the earth above you. It seemed apropos.
I Hear the Rain, 8″x4″ pen & ink and watercolor on Fluid watercolor paper.
I Hear the Rain, detail, by Amy Crook
Above, you can see the way the gorgeously layered rain crashes down through the silhouetted graveyard. Below, the piece is in a temporary frame, just waiting to find a new home.
I Hear the Rain, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Floating Gallery, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, Zombies, Skulls, and Other Morbid Things
Tags: blue, graveyard, horizons, nfs, pen and ink, rain, sold, tree, watercolor
Two for Joy
Friday, June 5th, 2015
Two for Joy by Amy Crook
If this painting feels familiar, that’s because it’s a relative of last month’s One for Sorrow 2. The figure this time is more androgynous, and their clothing seems to be blowing against the prevailing winds that bend the trees to their will.
Just like its predecessor, this piece has a lot of soft, pale fog that gets lost when it’s reproduced, but adds a lot of rich texture to the original. You can see it in the trees in the detail photo, a delicate sweep of wind moving across the paper grain.
Two crows sit low on a branch in the lee of the wind, harbingers of some unnamed joy. Whose joy and about what is left up to the imagination of the viewer, or perhaps it belongs to the apparition staring blankly back out of the page.
Two for Joy, 6″x6″ watercolor on Fluid watercolor paper.
Two for Joy, detail, by Amy Crook
Above, you can see the staticky figure staring back at you, his clothing seemingly blown by an opposing wind. Below, I’ve displayed the painting in a temporary frame, where it awaits its new home.
Two for Joy, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: 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: bloodstone, counting crows, crow, nfs, sold, tree, watercolor
One for Sorrow 2
Friday, May 8th, 2015
One for Sorrow 2 by Amy Crook
I’m not entirely happy with the title One for Sorrow 2, but this painting definitely needed that name, prior use notwithstanding. The single baleful crow sits high in the branches of the windswept tree, its image smeared out into the fog like an apparition, as though the bird is more of a ghost than the figure below.
There is a lot of very pale detail in the trees and sky which is hard to photograph, but shows up beautifully in person and adds another layer to the sense of windswept, foggy unreality. The detail photo shows a little of the sky, but it’s hard to spot on the sun-drenched page.
The lovely, textured greys are also not entirely black, but have a mix of reddish brown bloodstone in them to give the whole piece a more organic, grounded atmosphere.
One for Sorrow 2, 6″x6″ watercolor on Fluid watercolor paper.
One for Sorrow 2, detail, by Amy Crook
Above, you can just barely see the texture in the fog, a hint of wind and motion and shapes looming large and distant. Below, you can see the piece in a temporary frame, just waiting to haunt your house.
One for Sorrow 2, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: 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: bloodstone, counting crows, crow, nfs, sold, tree, watercolor
« Or Head Back That Way
More Art This Way »
