animal

My apologies…

~ thepurpledogpaintingblog ~ 10 Comments

It’s been a bit since I wrote a new post. It was mostly just laziness but I have a variety of excuses as well. Pick which ever one suits your frame of mind..

Excuse #1 …

I was watching my neighbor burn down his yard..

Yes the same neighbor who yells at me for watering even though I have rain barrels and an overflowing well. Yes the same one who thinks I gave his yard crabgrass even though I have none. The same guy who hates my maple tree and wants me to cut it down even though it has nothing wrong with it and it’s a pretty tree…and so on and so on….

What happened was that not realizing that I was home, he started to blow all his leaves into my yard so I casually took the dogs out.

And he blew them all back.

He made a  20 foot long pile in his yard, about 2 feet high.  Since he couldn’t foist them off on me, he decided to mulch them with his riding lawn mower…

Well the pile was too high, the leaves ended up caught in his engine and

FIRE ! FIRE! FIRE!

He kept driving then did a double take (which I’ve never seen anyone outside the movies do before)

Then he was dancin’ and singin’ and movin’ to the groovin’ (Sorry, sorry had a moment of Funky Grooviness there, it won’t happen again)

But he was dancing and grooving and jumping up and down flailing his arms and he kept kicking the leaves all over and they kept burning farther and faster and further and faster as well.

I opted to watch from my living room and not let him know that I knew that he set his yard on fire. I’m nice like that. Plus I may possibly have been hysterically laughing… ahem..

Anyway at least his crab grass is gone. Who knew it was that flammable.

Excuse #2…

I was helping Sampson put together a performance piece. It involved putting my garden to bed for the winter and cleaning up leaves (while not setting the yard on fire, I mean he did want to juggle some flaming torches but I nixed that one much to his disappointment). Sampson’s art du jour was a mind numbing display of pumpkin abuse..

At this point your children should leave the room, it may be too much for them.

SQUISH!! SQUISH!!! SQUISH!!!!

That’s downright disturbing. Pumpkin abuse is wrong, people!!

But see, there isn’t any crabgrass.

Excuse #3…

Speaking of dogs, I was also trying in vain to get a nice dignified photo of Zeus.

I often see beautifully dignified labs in magazines. So I was determined to get one.

I swear they must drug those dogs in the magazines.

Don’t stick your tongue at me..rude I tell you…

Aw..Gee..I’m sorry…

Oh that’s okay.

We’ll try again.

No! Not dignified! Not dignified!

My attempts to take a dignified photo of Zeus are on temporary hiatus since he decided to introduce himself to a nest of yellow jackets and he’s allergic. He’s fine, sillier looking then normal but fine.  *Sigh*

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I have actually done a couple little paintings. These are rough copies of some Christmas cards ideas.

The first is a Partridge in a Pear..

Because I didn’t feel like drawing a tree..

Several people have clicked on this. If you use or copy this image without my permission you are commiting a crime.
Partridge in a pear ©Virginia Spencer, 2011

Could you imagine if someone actually gave you a partridge in a pear tree? I would be miffed myself.

The second is in the style of Van Gogh, and is a snowman.. (I was pretty sure you can tell it’s a snowman but judging by the amount of weird Russian spam I get on this blog, I’d like to make myself clear. It’s a snowman and no I don’t want any mukluks.)

If you notice there is a bend in the corner. Sampson chewed on it for a bit.

He’s still a bit mad about not being allowed to juggle flaming torches.

Ah, c’est la vie.

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©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog.com, 2011

Ohhh the colors…

~ thepurpledogpaintingblog ~ 23 Comments

Autumn is definitely in full swing.

This a twisted maple in my yard.

Isn’t that a gorgeous color.

This is a watercolor mini I did awhile back.

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I watched an interesting show on “60 Minutes” this week about Van Gogh. I’m sure most people have heard by now that there’s a theory that he did not commit suicide but was accidentally shot. It reminds me of the theory that Gauguin actually cut off Van Gogh’s ear (which is more probable than not, Gauguin was there, he and Van Gogh were fighting , Gauguin was swinging around a sword but he claimed he left before Van Gogh cut himself.) Of course the curators at the Van Gogh museum get in a huff anytime someone mentions that Van Gogh might not have been altogether an insane depressed madman. It just gets them in a right tizzy.

Personally I love Van Gogh. I like most art though the religious works of the Renaissance leave me cold (except for Da Vinci’s, but only because he at least seemed to have a sense of humor).  But either way, I have tried several times to copy Van Gogh’s painting (for practice only of course). After studying his brush strokes and color, I’ve come to one conclusion…

That guy was crazy!!

All those little dabs of color, over and over and over and over…

That and the whole walking over to the brothel and handing his ear wrapped in tissue to a prostitute named Rebecca for safe keeping…

Here’s my ode to Van Gogh.

“Van Gogh’s Cat”

(please note this is not a copy of a real VG painting, it’s my tribute to him)

Acrylic, 2.5 inches by 3.5 inches.

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Here’s a couple more ACEO’s (Atc’s, minis)

I used to do paper-cutting in the traditional style of Scherenschnitte.

I still do occasionally but this time I was lazy and used ink.

Both are ink on acrylic, 2.5 by 3.5 inches.

“Fish Eyes”

“Mouse Tail”

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And here’s a photo of a llama meditating.

llama llama llama llama llama

Van Gogh should have tried that. It’s very relaxing.

My spell check does not recognize “Van Gogh”. Seriously.

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©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog.com, 2011

The drive out…

~ thepurpledogpaintingblog ~ 2 Comments

It was a dark and stormy morning…..

Well it wasn’t that dark, since we didn’t leave until 9:30 as we hadn’t any water. Our well was being cleaned..we had forgot all about the maintenance schedule…

*sigh*

So we took our dirty selves to the store and bought bottled water to have quickie baths in and then smelling pretty we left…

As we drove over the Mississippi River into Iowa, the wild sunflowers were glowing in the sun. At this time of year the wild grasses have a silvery feathery top on them. It is so lovely. We decided to drive north through Iowa to Minnesota then over west to South Dakota.

We drove past the world’s largest truck stop. As you can see the sky was starting to darken. We hit hard rain several times, hard enough to have to pull over. We saw several cars in ditches but thankfully everyone was fine.

The skies cleared as we reached South Dakota.  We realized fairly quickly that people in South Dakota really like signs. I mean they really like signs.

We started to see a few signs here and there. But then we saw one we couldn’t ignore..

Hmmmm. A Corn Palace? The world’s only Corn Palace?

We tried to resist but then we saw this one…

A Corn Palace and a ban pun and Free!…I like corn, I like bad puns..and free is always good…we needed to stop for the night but Dummy would not let us forget that we were so near the home of the Corn Palace…

At the hotel he nagged and nagged and hogged the remote until we agreed to go over to the Corn Palace the next morning…

The little so and so….

The next morning dawned bright and crisp and clear. A perfect September day. A day made for seeing corn palaces…

And there was a corn palace..and it was free.

These people like corn. A lot.

Even the street posts..well you can see for yourself. They like corn.

And then we saw the Corn Palace in all it’s glory. I had envisioned a sort of Lincoln Log type of model built with corn but oh no this was much bigger. In fact these people took a perfectly good building (albeit one with Russianesque onion domes and medieval turrets painted in glaring greens and yellows) and glued 300000 pieces of corn and various grasses all over it. It is pretty impressive. I can’t even get two sheets of paper to stay glued together. If I was the one who glued all that stuff on, people would be getting boinked in the head from falling cobs..so kudos to them.

Apparently they’ve been doing this every year for a good long time. Every year has a theme. This year’s theme was American Pride and Transportation. Cause you know we are just not a patriotic enough country..and lord knows none of us drive enough.

A closeup of the corn.

 Why did they do it?  And how do they stop the lights from setting the dry grass on fire?

I don’t know.

Sometimes it’s best not to ask.

We made a quick stop at Cabela’s to look at dead animals and an iron sculpture..

Smile..

Dummy lost his manners and ignored the signs telling people not to climb on the sculpture.

So he had to go in the glove box for a while.

And we continued on..

A Farewell

~ thepurpledogpaintingblog ~ 30 Comments

My little ball of fluff with the big blue eyes passed away Saturday at the age of 23. She died in my son’s arms with Sampson by her side.

Minou was six pounds of dignity, disdain, fury and frivolity. She was so small and yet she meant so much.

Thank you Minou.

Thank you for the years of love and loyalty.

Thank you for waking me up every day. I now have to learn how to use an alarm clock.

Thank you for teaching every dog you met how to respect a cat. When we brought home a 150 pound mammoth of a dog from the SPCA, in less than a minute you taught him to never chase cats again. And he never did. He chased dogs. So that was helpful.

Thank you for your War on Earwigs. It started way back in ’89 and not once was it funded by taxpayer money. You fought well, you fought hard and you never gave up. Generations from now, tales of the Fury with the ice blue eyes will haunt the dreams of earwigs everywhere.

Thank you for eating my brown couch. You were right. It was ugly, it was old and yes, I do keep things for too long.

Thank you for making senility look fun. In the last year, I didn’t scold you for sitting on the dining room table because I knew that in your heart, you sincerely believed that you were sitting on the couch.

Thank you for biting every vet you met. Especially the arrogant young one in Colorado who insisted that it was easy to give a cat a pill. He tried for an hour and he still bears the scars today. He lost his arrogance and gained a much needed respect for small animals. Good girl.

Thank you for sitting with Max that noble dog as he lay dying, you licked his muzzle and you cried. Thank you for taking every puppy and kitten we brought in to your side. You trained them well, scolded them and babied them. And now they cry for you.

Thank you for sitting in my lap, purring and offering comfort when my child was sick, when my husband was at war, when my Dad passed away. I don’t tend to let people know when my heart is breaking. I’m silly, I make smart ass comments, I carry on. But you always knew. You were always there. Throughout the times of joy and the times of deepest sorrow. You were there. A little brown and black ball of fluff with big blue eyes purring and yowling and fussing.

Now the house is quiet and you lie under the purple mums by the forest’s edge.

And I miss you so much.

I will always miss you.

Goodbye my little friend. Meow.

For my sister…

~ thepurpledogpaintingblog ~ 15 Comments

I recently sent my sisters a link to my blog.

My sister Sherry being an excellent sort of sister said “I love it!”.

My sister Yvonne (who is way older than me and don’t let her tell you any different) said and I quote..

“About your blog. How about telling people what paper you use, what kind of brushes you use…expensive or cheap, do you cut your artwork with a border, do you leave it on a big sheet, does it curl when dry, how do you display your artwork, how do you send your work, do you matte it..”

and then…

“Have you considered doing a project where you do the same picture but in different medium, you know, for those who may like water colour or crayons? “

and then…

“Okay, I just got why you call it the purple dog…slow or what”

and then…

“But I LOVED your blog. And I love you.”

She’s an excellent sister too. And she has a point. So inspired by my sister, here’s a personal list of items I like to use. Since a picture is worth a thousand words, Dummy is kindly playing Vanna.

The List!

  • pre-stretched canvas or watercolor paper, the higher the gsm the less likely it is to curl ( and no I never stretch my own canvas, too much work for me)
  • tripod or any firm surface
  • paint, I prefer Liquetex or Amsterdam but use whatever you like, student grade or otherwise, it’s all a personal thing.
  • that being said, having a warm grey and a cool grey is great, I always use both in almost every painting as well as my favorite violet blue.
  • lots of brushes, some expensive, some very cheap, again whatever works best for you
  • Sta Wet palette (but a plastic bin with a lid and wet paper towels with a piece of waxed paper on top works just as well)
  • a sketch pad
  • a corkboard with a photo of my cat
  • pencils, conte, white erasers
  • kleenex, paper towels, rags
  • a pink rabbit
  • scissors and tape (in case you get bored waiting for your paint to dry and want to make some cut outs)
  • good lighting
  • a cigar box full of pencils and pens
  • a good pencil sharpener
  • a water container, I like the kind with the ridged bottoms, they get your brushes cleaner.
  • a worried looking elephant
  • acrylic varnish
  • a piece of cupboard lining cloth, I use it to open up stubborn paint lids, it gives a good grip
  • rulers, straight edges, T-squares, templates and other implements of destruction
  • a good reference, either go outside (au plein aire) or paint from your own photo or use someone’s photo but only with their permission of course (most art forums have image reference libraries)

I’m sure I probably missed a tonne of things but those are the basics I like to use. Any questions?

Artist Trading Cards (or ATC’S, ACEO’s or minis, whatever floats your boat)

~ thepurpledogpaintingblog ~ 17 Comments

Recently I  joined a trade on Wetcanvas. For those who aren’t sure what I’m talking about. An ATC (artist trading card) is about the size of a baseball card and can be in any medium. And you trade them like baseball cards to other artists. It’s fun, you get to meet artists all over the world as well as being  great practice. Plus it’s nice to get real mail once in a while as well.

If you’re in this trade with me stop reading this until you get your mail.  😀

The theme of this current trade I’m in was Animals. Here’s a couple I did. These are all the size of a baseball or playing card..they will appear larger on your screen then they actually are. These are all acrylic, except for the skunk which is pen on acrylic.

Hope you enjoy.


Dummy is off on vacation. I am hoping to join him soon!

©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog.com, 2011