Having a Hitchcock moment…

Good Evening, ladies and gentlemen…

The scene is set. An isolated farmhouse before the storm.

A ladder leaning against a lone tree.

Here a heedless harpy harangues her hapless husband.

The husband, his soul pierced by a thousand verbal barbs, slouches over his basement work table and slowly twists a rope over and over.

And as the skies darken, faint thunder is heard rolling across the barren landscape. The basement stairs creak as the man heavily climbs them with the rope in his hands.

Twisting, twisting….

house2©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog, 2013.

Meanwhile a lone eagle flies over a railroad span.

The river rages below.

The wind whips through the trees. A light mist settles.

A ravenous troll lurks below the bridge as a footsteps of a young goat rings out.

Clip. Clop. Clip. Clop. Clip…

railroadbridge©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog, 2013

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Oh sorry Sampson, didn’t mean to scare you. Thank you Zeus for covering his eyes. Sammy is a bit nervy at times. He also needs a bath..

Sammy2©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog, 2013

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Why don’t you guys go and chase some birds?

Oh I see. Yes, that is an awful lot of birds.

A Hitchcockian amount of birds, one might say.

birds2©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog, 2013

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Where’s an eagle when you need one?

There he is!

eagle9©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog, 2013.

Now, where was I? I was going somewhere with this Hitchcock stuff.

Never mind, I’ve lost it. Here, look at a photo of Zeus chasing his nose.

Yup, that’s what he’s doing. Don’t worry though, he didn’t catch it.

Zeus2©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog, 2013

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Well. I guess I should quit messing around with the camera and go paint something.

Till we meet again..

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©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog, 2013

My Summer or How I Was Kneecapped By A Groundhog..

So how’s your summer going? I know, I know it’s nearly over and I haven’t posted much but I swear I have a great excuse, ahem I mean reason..

So there’s this groundhog and like all groundhogs, he is so cute, a big darling fat ball of fur.  Adorable.

Actually there are a lot of groundhogs,woodchucks, whistlepigs, whatever floats your boat, there are tonnes of them all over North America.

As everyone knows, groundhogs often study meteorology. They quite enjoy it even though they get dragged out of their den every February to tell us when winter will end. And since all groundhogs have a strange sense of humor, they will often lie and give us the wrong info. They’re funny like that.

Some groundhogs, especially those located in Ohio are infamous for their archeological interests. In fact, The Ufferman Site in Ohio, which is on the National Register of Historic Sites has been solely excavated by groundhogs. They have brought up human bones, pottery and rock tool bits used by the Cole culture (circa 800-1300AD).  No human has ever had to excavate as the groundhogs have done such a great job of it.

Groundhogs, can climb trees, they can swim and they can run. To their dismay, they cannot cycle and since all groundhogs dream of competing in Ironman competitions, their sorrow is great.

But there is one thing that Groundhogs are renowned worldwide for, there is one thing they love to do more then anything, there is one thing that amuses them to no end and that is to dig holes, big deep holes…

And while many people think they dig them to live in for safety and food storage, that’s ridiculous, everyone knows they prefer bungalows with full size pantries. They actually dig holes to trap humans especially humans walking around with cameras, so that that  human walking around with a camera will twist and turn as they fall to save their camera and tear all the muscles holding their knee cap in place. And then that human will spend the next six weeks wearing a hot awkward metal and foam cast that makes me, ahem that human, walk like Frankenstein and since that human will be in pain occasionally they will groan and small children and animals will run from this Frankensteinian beast, except of course for the fat black cat that lives with that human and likes to scratch her face on the metal contraption and enjoy her pain cause she’s an awful sadistic animal and meanwhile the groundhog is rolling around slapping it’s knee, bubbling over with mirth and glee, because even though he’s adorable, he’s a mother of a mean little so and so…

And that ladies and gentlemen is how you write a run on sentence…

Anyway, it’s not that bad. (rolleyes) I’m fine (whine whine moan). Seriously it’s all good. (sigh)

Actually did some drawings for a trade.  Lots of fun.

The only rule was that they had to be small 3.5 by 2.5 inches (ATC’s, ACEO”s whatever) about the size of a playing card and they had to be in black and white.

As always they might appear larger on your screen then they actually are

This is a little windmill, in black and white that’s down the road a ways, I think someone lives in it.

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This is from a photo in the RIL on Wetcanvas, many thanks to the person who put it in there for all to use.  It’s acrylic.

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This is a barn in pen and ink that we have driven by a few times.

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This is an 1800’s bread oven off in the woods (to keep the heat away) at Balls Falls in Ontario, Canada. This is an acrylic.

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This is an old wagon that for some reason, someone stuck in their yard. Acrylic.

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This is a penguin, cause I sure as heck wasn’t going to draw a groundhog. Pen and Ink.

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And this is a Victorian house we drove by on the way to Saint Louis in acrylic.

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Other then that, I took a photo of the blue moon. It wasn’t blue but it’s negative is.

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I also found a potato with dancing angels in it, I was going to sell it on EBay but I gave it to the raccoon instead..

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I hope everyone has had a wonderful summer and has a fun holiday weekend.

Happy Labor Day!

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©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog, 2012

Weekly Photo Challenge: Purple

This week’s Photo Challenge’s theme is Purple.

I was trying and trying to come up with something purple.

Had an idea floating in the back of my head..

Hmmm….What was I going to do?

Was I going to show you some sage?

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Pretty, but no, no that wasn’t it..

Sammy, can you help me out?

Oh! I beg your pardon, I didn’t know you were in the bath.

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How about the balloon flowers? They are a lovely shade aren’t they.

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Also pretty but no, that wasn’t it either..

Sammy why are you laughing at me? I know, my memory is just terrible!

But considering how much stuff you have buried in the back, I wouldn’t mock if I were you.

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Oh what a minute, I did use a purple filter on the Moon, I mean I was actually on the Earth taking a photo of the Moon with a purple filter…(Grammar will get you every time. So will gravity, come to think of it.)

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No, no I’m sorry folks I just can’t remember what purple photos I wanted to show you…

It’s a shame really..

Why are you looking so frustrated, Sammy??

It’s okay, maybe this Purple theme will come around again..

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We’ll try again next week.

If you would like to participate in the Weekly Photo Challenges, follow the link and join in!

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©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog, 2012

Feral bankers, enchanted muskrats and black velvet…

Well hello to all the real people and the nice spambots who have been filling up my spam comment catcher.

Sometimes I wonder if spambots have souls. Well actually I never wonder that. I know they are soulless creatures floating in the internet universe desperately hoping that someone will notice them. I once had a friend, more of an acquaintance really, who like spambots would go to great lengths to get anybody with a pulse to talk to her. We would all go out dancing and her chest would be tethered and strapped so high that if she had even attempted the first move in the Watusi, she would have knocked herself out cold. And forget hiphop, that would have put her right in a coma. So just remember, if you ever get tempted to reply to a spambot, you’re just inviting a boozy, strapped in, tethered up, pulse seeking, lousy coma prone dancer into your home.

Occasionally it is tempting to answer them, especially when they give me comments like this..

“I adore foregathering useful info, this post has got me even more info!”

What a flirt, not only can he foregather which I’m assuming is some bizarre psychic thing, he enjoys my usefulness in pointing out tap dancing baby giraffes, bird drowning bigfoots and silly billboards.  I can quite honestly say of all the things I thought could be said about this blog, useful was not one of them.

This one just said

“There you will find 40528 more Infos”.

Infos..with a capitol “I”.  40528 of them. I think it’s trying to get me curious enough to check out it’s Infos. But I don’t want 40528 Infos, I only want a little bit of Info and that my dear spambot is…Who counted all those Infos. And how did you keep track? Did you use a really big abacus or do they come rolled like pennies. And do they smell like pennies? There’s a terrible smell. And it attracts bankers. A cold shiver went down my spine at the thought of attracting bankers. Be careful folks once a banker starts tracking down that penny smell, you’ll be in trouble. The next thing you know you’ll have feral bankers living behind your house, breeding like crazy, scaring your dogs and knocking over your garbage cans looking for torn up bills. Then you’ll have to listen to them maniacally laughing while they try to piece them back together. Let me tell, you have to shred that paper really good or really well..whichever you prefer.

I know, spambot, I know. The simplest explanation is that you have 2026 employees who counted on their fingers and toes and one employee who after a horrible Infoaccident lost three digits on each extremity. That’s very sad, Infoaccidents are terrible things, you shouldn’t mock the guy and make him keep counting on his poor mangled extremities. And in protest until you do I’m not checking out your link. I won’t be a party to such a lackadaisical attitude towards Infoaccidents.

This one tried to trick me into believing my site wasn’t working.

“I’m not certain exactly why but this web website is loading incredibly slow for me. Is anyone else having this issue or is it a issue on my end? I’ll check back later and see if the issue still exists”

Buddy, I’d like to help you but I have no idea how this site works. For all I know, enchanted muskrats could be taking care of it while I’m not around. And anyway, you probably just need a better internet connection. I suggest using cable.

This spambot was really clever. It said..

“I’ve just been talking to Sean Gallagher about his upcoming Instant Income Cash Machine course, and he’s been kind enough to fill me in on a couple of details regarding his upcoming course. “

That’s right, it tried to fool me into thinking it was my mother by telling me pointless gossip about people I don’t know. Throw in a trip to the grocery store where there was some nice produce (my mother once left me a six minute message about the nice onions she bought at the grocery store. I don’t even like onions), a story about the Hysterical I mean Historical Society and some random observations about “Raccoons” which is what she calls UFO’s so no one thinks she is crazy and you might have had me fooled.

And this one just outright tried me order around.

“You should have relevant usage of Bold and italics..panda”

All I have to say to that is.. NO! and who are you calling panda?

Well I was through amusing myself with spambots after that so I took to going through some of the more ridiculous filters on my photo editing program. It’s an old Microsoft one and like all the good programs they come out with they promptly discontinued it when they realized it actually worked. I would use Photoshop or Corel, but my computer has a glitch in it that doesn’t allow me to download either one. It runs on Windows 7 which is kind of like Windows Vista which is nothing like XP which actually worked and thus was discontinued. I’d listen to my Zune, which I liked better then the IPod but I can’t find the power charging cord. I’d buy a new one but alas..that’s right…discontinued.

So to make a long story short (hahahahaha, man I crack myself up) there’s this filter that turns photos into a neonish, little bit tacky, little bit garish, sort of black velvet painting with a modern twist. I mean who can resist that right.

Well I managed to resist it for seven long years.. then I realized I could do this to my dog. I would show you a nicely taken photo of my dog but for that fact that I took him to the groomer last week. She apparently mistook him for a poodle on crack mixed with a Clydesdale mixed with a bat that had had unnatural relations with a primate. He had weird poufy things going on and long shaggy legs, bat ears and a shaved nose, back and bottom to boot. The poor dog looked a baboon from behind. A baboon with weird ass poodle poufs. And bat ears. And Clydesdale legs. So I cut off the weird poodle poufs, bat ears and Clydesdale legs but there’s just nothing I can do about the baboon thing, I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t go for a toupee.

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“The Groomer did What?!?”

westie neon

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©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog, 2012

A toad beat up my dog…

So Sampson the Wonder Dog got himself into a little altercation.

He went under the deck and decided to catch himself a toad. Then he took it for a walk.

And the toad was not happy.

And then Sammy was foaming and rolling around being sick from both ends at the same time..and well that’s more then enough about that.

So he ended up in the shower with me washing his mouth out over and over and over and over…

And then he had to take a bath.

That was one sick little dog. And mad to boot, he hates baths.

The toad was fine. I did have to read him the “Wind in the Willows” to apologize though.

When Sammy was feeling better, I asked him what possessed him to carry around a toad. He looked me dead in the eyes and said “I am a Carnivore.” as if that explained anything.

But it reminded me of the many carnivorous animals I was lucky enough to see at the zoo.

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Zebra, what are you laughing at?

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Carnivorous animals are meat eaters not carnival animals..

Pardon?

No, I can’t see you behind that tree..very clever.

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Yes Hyena, I know you can see him but don’t tell him that.

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And don’t bother telling the tiger either.

He’s a bit miffed.

He was just in his own private pool and when he wasn’t looking someone stole his towel.

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And the Leopard is ignoring everyone. He was quite hurt that the “Wind in the Willows’ didn’t have any leopards in it.

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I don’t know how you snuck in here, little Speke’s Gazelle, but you are too darn cute to be a carnivorious post.

Go on with you now.

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Oh, look what you’ve started. The Nyala is in here now, batting her lashes at everyone.

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And no, the baby bongo has come in too!

He definitely has to go back until those horns grow in..

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I need someone with some common sense to speak to the herbivores..

Hmm, the gorilla is deep in thought..

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Yes, sir..You want me to put a scary carnivore in here..

What kind of scary carnivore?

A Stork?

Oh I see, you mean a Marabou stork..

They eat carrion, frogs, fishes, other birds, small animals, garage and well pretty much anything that they can fit in their mouth.

That’s one strange bird.

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Well that’s done the trick.

Everyone ran back to where they’re supposed to be.

Alright then, have a good one folks!

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©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog, 2012

Meet me in Saint Louis, Louis..

That’s a great song. Written by Sterling and Mills for Judy Garland of course.

Everyone sing!

“Meet me in Saint Louis, Louis..

Meet me at the fair

Don’t tell me the lights are shining any place but there!”

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“We will dance the Hoochee Koochee”

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“I will be your tootsie wootsie!”


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“If you will meet me in St. Louis, Louis,
Meet me at the fair!”

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Alright so I was actually at the Saint Louis Zoo but it was started when the city bought the walk-through birdcage from the 1904 World’s Fair. It’s now a world class zoo and it’s gorgeous. Just the landscaping alone is worth seeing.

And this camel with the bad toupee is worth seeing as well.

“Toupee!” he says in a bad British accent “You cad!”

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Then there was this monkey, a lion maned something or other who apparently thought I was a photographer for a clothing catalog.

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And he told the lemur to pose too. Work it baby, work it!

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This lemur went for the deep look

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This guy just yammered on in a bad New York Yiddish accent

“Oh vey! What do you expect me to pose for, I don’t wear the clothes!”

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And the hippo was as adorable as a 6000 lb animal can be.

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And don’t get me started on how much I love rhinos.

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Being at the zoo reminded me of a painting I had wanted to do for a long time.

I was the Pueblo Zoo in Colorado a few years back. I was watching this goose who was sitting on the ledge of their little river. And this goose refused to move, all the geese kept having to walk around him. Then along came this white goose and a brown goose. Instead of walking around the sitting goose, they stood and watched it, honking softly.

They seemed very perplexed by the sitting goose’s lack of manners. The sitting goose did everything it could not to look at them. It was a very haughty goose and it made me laugh.

This is acrylic, 5×7.

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©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog, 2012

It’s Spring!

Spring! Spring!! Spring!!!

Makes me sing sing sing!!

What a grumpy looking cardinal!

Cheer up Buddy.

It’s Spring!!

No? Hmmm. I wonder if he’s heard about Zeus’s bird catching abilities.

That’s right Zeus, my lab, catches birds.

He doesn’t hurt them. He simply catches them then stands around looking like a fool with wings flapping from both sides of his mouth.The birds freak out of course. Lab spit just isn’t a good cologne during mating season. Normally they prefer Old Spice.

I think he thinks they’re small planes. We live near an airport where many hobby planes are. I quite like them myself especially the old painted bombers. Zeus thinks he can catch them too. No such luck so far though.

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He’s been trying to catch this flicker, but he tends to stay up high. He looks like such a soft sweet bird but let me tell you when his suet is out that bird yells his fluffy little head off.

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So I told Zeus to stop catching birds. It’s weird.

To which he replied..

“Birds! I wasn’t catching birds! I was catching little planes!”

*sigh*

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In the meantime since my eyes are feeling a bit better I’ve been doing some quick sketch paintings to get back into the swing of things.

This is an acrylic of the sun setting over the Mississippi. It’s 5×7 and I spent about 20 or so minutes on it. It seems to me to be a bit off balance. The positive and negative spaces aren’t doing it for me. I do like the way the blues came out. They’re a combination of prussian blue, violet blue, olive green and naples yellow with a bit of white (all Liquetex brand).

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I also did this 8x 10 of my grandmother from a very crumbly photo circa 1920. There were parts of her face that were not distinguishable so I used my sister Yvonne’s face. She’s a cutie with lovely brown cow eyes.

This is also acrylic and I spent about 30 to 40 minutes on it. This is just a quick sketch for a real portrait eventually. I’m not sure why I signed it, I don’t remember doing that. It must just be habit or my mind is going, either way, it’s all good.

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I hope you all enjoy your first day of Spring and have some time to get out and smell the crocuses, crocusi? crocs maybe?

Beats me, but enjoy them all the same.

Happy Spring!

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©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog, 2012

 

 

The Badlands…

I was looking back at photos from the past year and I realized I didn’t share the photos of the Badlands of South Dakota. Badlands are a geographic feature where the earth has been stripped to the bare rocks as opposed to the Naughty Lands which only go topsoiless.

They’re a pokey bunch of rocks. Trust me don’t trip..

Doesn’t this one look like a bunch of medieval Sci-fi castles?

This one looked liked  a temple with a pagoda.

There’s most likely a bigfoot monk living up there. Bigfoots can be deep.

And baaaaa or maaaa or blehhhh or whatever it is that goats say..

I’m still playing with this lightbox thing.  I’m boring Dummy so much, he decided to take up a hobby.

A closeup of the painting which is acrylic, 2.5 by 3.5 inches.

It’s of downtown Deadwood, South Dakota. Why there are Wii people walking in the background is beyond me. (and why Wii people have big fat heads is also beyond me.) Looks like city hall is ready to collapse there, I really should pay more attention to perspective.

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©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog, 2012

Happy Groundhog Day!

And a Happy Birthday to my stepfather Hartley, a lovely man.

I phoned Hartley this morning and he did not see his shadow.

Hazzah, hazzah! Spring is coming.

Which I pretty much figured seeing as I have 59 irises coming up. That’s right 59. I don’t know why I counted them but I am a bit worried about them so Hazzah! again for not seeing a shadow. I didn’t count the tulips and daffodils though, they can take care of themselves. Oddly enough, I haven’t heard a peep out of the crocuses.

I made Hartley this card. I was out having a chat with the local groundhog, Jack Fickle McRumplestein, when I mentioned that Hartley was born on Groundhog Day.  Jack insisted on posing for me. I think he may be under the impression that Hartley is part groundhog and all the better for it.

I should have taken this photo before I varnished it. Ahh well.

I also did a few more miniatures. Except for the leopard, these all have new homes. As always these will appear larger than they actually are.

This is an acrylic of a path near my house. It’s 2.5 by 3.5 inches (ATC/ACEO size) I used a pointillism technique which is quite fun to do on something that is the size of a playing card.

This is the Point Abino Lighthouse which I grew up near. It was operational until 1989 and then fell into disrepair. It’s being worked on now and has been declared an Historic building with a capitol “H”. It’s the only one of that style. I used to love hearing the foghorn at night. Nothing makes you feel more secure than knowing someone is up in the middle of the night keeping an eye out. Especially as I thought that there was Loch Ness monster lurking in the bay and we lived far too close to the lake for me to be happy about it.

I was trying for a more painterly simple style with this one. My perspective is bit off but that’s ok, I like the effect.

Acrylic 2.5 by 3.5 inches.

This is a church in Prince Edward Island that my sisters and I came across while rambling through the Maritimes.

Acrylic, 2.5 by 3.5 inches.

I threw perspective right into the wind on this one too. That’s right I got down and crazy on the perspective. Rebel with a paintbrush, that’s me.

And now some sad news. A lovely lady passed away and left our zoo which you all know I’m fond of, $250,000 to either get a panda, which can’t be done without giving China the Mississippi or the money is to be used to fix the black bear habitat. Last year they had to hire a new zoo director. Well this guy showed up in an Indiana Jones outfit complete with hat and in his infinite wisdom he decided last week to give our bears away.  He said they are and I quote “nuisance animals” as opposed to the other animals in the zoo like porcupines, various rodents, reptiles and such, all of which are adorable but none of which are fun to find in your kitchen. Then he said that the Will says the money is to be used for a black as in color of the bear as opposed to the black bears as a species. He also did this without consulting anyone including the forestry board which has authority over the zoo. Guess what the favorite animal of the Commissioner of the board is…

Needless to say, he is no longer director of the zoo. And the zoo needs to get a black bear.

Here is a photo of the bear that is now gone but who was a sweetie and comical. I’m sorry he’s gone.

The moral of the story is to never underestimate the silliness and ego of a person who dresses up like Indian Jones, complete with hat.

While I’m on the topic of zoos, here is another miniature, this one is a bit bigger being 3 x 5 inches and is acrylic. This one is based on a photo of the black leopard that is somewhere back in the blog.

Now I have to go find Dummy, he’s been a bit sulky since the tape from his Santa hat is stuck all over his head. He does hold a grudge. I think a nice photo shoot will cheer him up, he’s a vain little Dummy.

Take care!

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©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog, 2012

Snow what!!!

With many regards

To my dearest and beloved Mother Nature…

You scurrilous psychotic malevolent witch!

Listen lady, I get that screwing around with us is fun for you.

Tsunamis, earthquakes, super storms, tornadoes.

Making sure it’s cloudy every time I have even the slightest chance of seeing an astronomical event..

Seriously I had my camera and my most powerful lenses all set up to see the asteroid 2005 YU55, had my game plan set and then.. Clouds!?!!

Always with the clouds. Jeez.

Anyway I get it, you’re mad. I’ve seen photos of the Pacific Ocean Dump . It’s disgusting.

And I get it, politicians are talking about building a huge electric fence along the Mexican border which will disrupt the migration patterns of several animals including the jaguar. Now I’m sure the politicians, since we all know how clever they are, will come up with a plan to allow jaguars to cross at mandated checking points provided they show proper ID and have visas. But although cheetahs read quite well and are often spotted curled up with a nice cup of tea and a mystery novel, jaguars don’t read. Filling out all those forms to get a visa would be out of the question. And even if they were given the visas and had ID, they wouldn’t be able to carry them.  They don’t have pockets, though I suppose a lanyard wouldn’t be out of the question.

Yup, you do have a point, Mother Nature.

But to make it sleet, than freeze, then snow!

That’s just mean.

Thank goodness Dummy can fit in my tea cozy or he would have frozen to death while trying to clear the ice off the banisters.

He’s being very helpful since I actually managed to let him do his real job and pose for a painting.

This is a miniature, ATC Size (3.5 by 2.5 inches) in acrylic..

I also tried some gouache. Weird stuff, you can use it like acrylic or watercolor.

This is a miniature,  ATC Size (3.5 by 2.5 inches).

Hopefully it’s obvious that’s it’s a pumpkin..

For the pumpkin I used a photo reference from the Reference Image Library on Wetcanvas. Thank you to the contributor.  Normally I take my own photo references but the Wetcanvas RIL, is a useful tool for playing around. Most of the photos I take, I take with plans to use for references. In fact I have spent numerous hours trying to get a photo of the deer in my backyard. But the other day I was only trying to take a photo of this tree for a painting reference.  When I looked at the camera monitor I realized I had been looking at the tree for so long, I had completely missed the two deer who were rudely staring at me.

Apparently being contrary creatures, deer don’t like to have their photos taken unless they think you’re not taking a photo of them. Vain, I tell you.

Oh hey, the sun is shining!

That’s good, I can get my tea cozy back from Dummy.

Thanks Mother Nature. Carry on..

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©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog.com, 2011