Posts Tagged ‘triptych’
Gestate, Uncurl, Blossom
Thursday, May 22nd, 2014
Gestate, Uncurl, Blossom; a calligraphic triptych by Amy Crook
Three small words and a simple illustration of a plant going from seed to flower in three panels. A metaphor for creating. A reminder of what it takes to get the beauty of a flower.
Gestate. The tiny green curled in the heart of brown seed.
Uncurl. The plant braves the world, straightens up, spreads its leaves wide.
Blossom. The beauty that can’t exist while the plant is still safe in its seed.
Gestate, Uncurl, Blossom, a triptych of watercolor artworks on 4″x6″ Fluid watercolor paper.
Gestate, Uncurl, Blossom; three details by Amy Crook
Above, you can see the three tiny watercolor illustrations up close: seed, curled-up sprout, and flower. Below, the trio in frames, lit by warm spring sunshine.
Gestate, Uncurl, Blossom; framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Floating Gallery, Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, Words Words Words
Tags: calligraphy, for sale, triptych, watercolor
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Event Horizons: Black, Blacker, Blackest
Monday, March 19th, 2012
Event Horizons: Black, Blacker, Blackest watercolor triptych by Amy Crook
I entered this triptych in the juried art auction for IMSA25, the 25th anniversary for my old high school. They wanted art with a theme of energy and innovation, and the connection of these mini black holes was enough to get in, thankfully.
I actually only had the first piece done, the white one, when I decided to enter them into the show. The idea to make them into a triptych came later, and I really think the framing on their grey backing paper was the final piece that the work needed to come together. The salt pools in all three pieces are infused with fountain pen ink, and then I used the pen to draw a circle around each pool, a little event horizon between the pool and the black halo around it.
Interestingly, the black paper absorbed the Lunar Black paint too well for it to really granulate like it does on the other two pieces, and the paint is just slightly blacker than the paper itself, which provides an interesting contrast to the other two parts of the series. The whole thing makes me think of atoms or micro black holes, something tiny and mysterious that can’t normally be seen with the naked eye.
Event Horizons: Black, Blacker, Blackest, 3-5″x7″ mixed media on paper, nfs (available at the auction only).
I’ve got one detail shot from each piece for you, anyway, just because I think they’re beautiful.
Event Horizons 1: Black, detail, by Amy Crook
Event Horizons 2: Blacker, detail, by Amy Crook
Event Horizons 3: Blackest, detail, by Amy Crook
This is my first juried show in nearly 20 years, so I was extremely nervous about entering, and very excited to get in! I just thought you should know that. Heh.
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art
Tags: art auction, black paper, pen and ink, salt, triptych, watercolor
Blue-Green Spirals
Friday, February 24th, 2012
Blue-Green Spirals, abstract watercolor by Amy Crook
And here’s the last of the Spirals Trio, the blue-green ones that don’t overlap at all. The two darker shades of green are nearly the same here, though there’s a little more variation in real life. Blue-green shades are really the hardest to reproduce electronically, they always end up muddy or too much in one or the other direction. In this one I tried to let the spirals really dance together without putting one atop the other, so they swirl and snuggle and intertwine instead.
Blue-Green Spirals, 5″x7″ Japanese watercolor on Arches cover black paper.
Spirals Trio, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art, Series and Books
Tags: black paper, blue, green, japanese watercolor, nfs, sold, spirals, spirals trio, triptych
Blue-Violet Spirals
Wednesday, February 22nd, 2012
Blue-Violet Spirals, abstract art by Amy Crook
A companion to Monday’s piece, this one overlaps the one big purple spiral that’s barely visible in the background with a play of lighter ones in bluer tones. The lightest is a lovely periwinkle, and the three colors together (and really this whole series) reminds me forcefully of my crayon box from childhood. The pure tones of this paint scan horribly, though really the dark purple really does sink into the black paper to become barely visible the way it is here. You can see the play of shapes better in the bigger version of the scan.
Blue-Violet Spirals, 7″x5″ Japanese watercolor on Arches cover black paper.
You can see the color better in its frame below despite the glare, especially the darker background spiral.
Spirals Trio, framed art by Amy Crook
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art, Series and Books
Tags: black paper, blue, japanese watercolor, nfs, purple, sold, spirals, spirals trio, triptych, violet
Red-Violet Spirals
Monday, February 20th, 2012
Red-Violet Spirals, abstract watercolor by Amy Crook
I’m going to mix up the schedule this week a little, I have three related pieces (this is the first) that I’ll post Monday-Wednesday-Friday, and then there’s Tentacles for Tuesday of course, and more tentacles in the form of a Weeble Squid for Thursday. In addition, on Friday I’ll post a special button to buy all three pieces framed and ready to display.
I have several sheets of this velvety black paper from days gone by, and I’ve torn it down into smaller pieces that I pull out sometimes when I’m not sure what I want to work on. I was wanting to do something immediate, which meant no salt, and so I got out my big palette of Japanese watercolors (yay birthday presents) and got all the pans wet. I took out three sheets of the black paper and layered spirals on each in a color family, experimenting with light and dark, overlapping and not. I think this was actually the third one finished, but I can’t quite remember.
I decided on the spirals because I love spirals. I have no idea why, I just do, and one of my things I wanted to do this year was paint more spirals on things. This one ended up looking almost like a Valentine, actually, with just a hint of a heart in the final arrangement of shapes.
Red-Violet Spirals, 5″x5″ Japanese watercolor on Arches cover black paper.
My scanner did not like this series, and so you can get a better idea of the actual color in the photo below.
Spirals Trio, three watercolor abstracts by Amy Crook
Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art, Series and Books
Tags: black paper, burgundy, japanese watercolor, nfs, pink, red, sold, spirals, spirals trio, triptych
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