I didn’t want to leave February without a post, thank goodness for that extra day!
My surgery went well and I’m as happy as a squirrel with a piece of buttered popcorn.
Dummy was a bit perturbed that I didn’t share his holiday greetings so…
Happy Belated Valentine’s Day!
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See you soon!
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©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog.com, 2016
A bit late but well intended nevertheless.
Here’s a bright bird to start the year off. I’ve had an injury and will be having an operation on my arm so this was an experiment with large brushes and lots of paint mostly because it was driving me nuts not to paint.
I have lost some movement and control but I have not lost the ability to write run on sentences. Yay!
11×14, Acrylic, Goldfinch on a cone flower.
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Don’t worry though I have some friends looking in on me. I mean literally just walking up and looking in the window. Who does that? I appreciate the thought but use the door for Pete’s sake.
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While I’ve been icing my arm, my trees decided to show me how it’s done and are doing a little ice therapy in my backyard. So pretty.
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I hope you and yours had a wonderful start to the year!
©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog.com, 2016
I’ve been playing with knives.
Palette knives that is.
No one trusts me with the real kind…sigh.
This first one is acrylic, 11 x 14, inches This is the Wheatfield in Gettysburg, PA. where we visited recently.
The Wheatfield had during one day over 20,000 men fighting on her soil and ended with mass causalities. It’s not a terribly large area, I can’t imagine what they must have suffered through. It’s one of the many places on this earth where if you stand still for a moment you can feel the sorrow welling up.
With this painting I used the palette knife over a brushed in backdrop. The brushwork on the bottom layer was used to create the soft edges of the distant hills.
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This tree was a fun sort of leftover paint attack. This was done solely and a bit souly with knives. I really enjoyed throwing the paint around on this. It’s in acrylic and is approximately 11 by 14 inches.
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This one wasn’t done with a knife, just regular old brushes. My brushes are so beat up, I hold on to them until the very end. Acrylics are rough on brushes. Some people will tell you to spend a tonne of money on brushes but really as long as they’re not the kind where the hairs fall out, the cheap ones are fine. It’s 4×6 inches and I call it “Blue Christmas” ’cause I love Elvis.
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And here’s another 4×6 inches. This is an acrylic of one of my favorite ornaments, an inch high wooden rocking horse.
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If you have any questions about the paintings or technique or what have you, feel free to ask in the comments.
Have a good one.
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©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog.com, 2015
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Ba dum tsssssk…
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Bwahaahahaaaa.
*cough *
Ahem. Pardon me.
That one was for the green thumbs out there.
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And I’m walking slowly away…
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©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog.com, 2015
©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog.com, 2015
Slowly, drifting
Moaning, wailing
The ghoul
Appeared in the sky.
With his face corroding
Decomposing
The beast
It would not die
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In the garden waiting
Anticipating
Dummy
Flashed his knife
With his courage fading
His wooden limbs
Shaking
He would fight for his life
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The ghoul it crept
To our hero inept
As a skeleton
Cried from the ground
A gargoyle leered
The pumpkins they feared
That the beast would win this round
But as the ghoul soared
Dummy jumped on the gourd
And sank his knife deep into its chest
The ghoul cried “Boo Hoo!”
‘Cause he knew he was through.
Though he had given it his very best
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The beast
It went to his grave so green
Shouting to all who could hear
You’re all so mean!
But Happy Hallowe’en.
I’ll see you again next year!
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©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog.com, 2015
Zeus is itchy.
It’s his yearly Autumn Itch.
So I bought him some itch relief stuff.
Let’s read the bottle..let me see..we have
Deep skin cleansing….splendid, that’s much better than shallow skin cleansing.
Complete body cleanser..even better, not much point only cleaning part of it.
Soothes ….great stuff, nothing better than a soothing soothe.
Clams.. sure a good clam is..What?…I mean..Pardon?
Hmmm..Yup that’s what it says..
Soothes and clams…
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I’ve never had my dog clammed before.
Shellfish of me I know.
I wonder if it’s good for his mussels?
Sorry I’ll scale back.
I know it’s getting ruff.
It’s load of carp really.
Llama get back to the point.
It’s not like this happens aviary day.
It’s dragon on…
No use hanging around.
Or lion..
I’m just kitten..
Sea ya!
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©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog.com, 2015
This is a public service announcement.
Do not run with apples in your mouth!
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Stop it!
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Put that down!
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It looks ridiculous.
Much as I appreciate the art of meditation that doesn’t look much better.
“Thpbfft!”
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How rude!’
Now everyone..
Jump!
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©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog.com, 2015
Please click here for available prints.
Thank you!
Recently I was at Fort Erie, across from Buffalo, New York. It sits on the shores of Lake Erie, near the mouth of the Niagara River.
From it you can see the gorgeous Art Deco building that is Buffalo City Hall. The City Hall was designed by architect John Wade and finished in 1932. There are triumphant arches and columns and reliefs and sculptures and mosaics and a bat signal on the roof.
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Fort Erie was originally built in 1764 during Pontiac’s Rebellion. Pontiac of course had been overtaking the cart market which the British did not appreciate. Soon after, the Brits sold Jaguar to Ford who sold it to the Tatas, a group of entrepreneurial strippers and a couple hundred years after the Fort was built, Pontiac ceased productions.
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Okay, that may not be quite what happened.
However at one point during the War of 1812, the Fort did blow up..
What happened was that the British were led by a general so inept, his subordinate officers including his own nephew settled their affairs and gave away valued property before following his battle plans. They knew they were doomed.
They were right. It turned out that firing a cannon over top of a large powder magazine was not a great idea. The explosion threw the two tonne cannon over one hundred yards. Hundreds died or were wounded and more than 500 soldiers simply disappeared in the initial blast and the ensuing fires.
Brutal stuff.
General Drummond, the man responsible for the whole mess had a road named after him in Niagara Falls.
It’s still there if you’d like to go stomp on it.
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The tour was quite interesting.
We found out that some people during the 1800’s used old suits of armor as a sort of tactical vest. Pretty clever, not comfortable but clever.
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They shot off some muskets which was fun to watch.
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They did not however let me use the cannon.
*Sigh*
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This is an acrylic of the monument marking the grave site of 153 soldiers. 150 British and 3 Americans. 8×10 inches.
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©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog.com, 2015
Please click here for available prints.
Thank you!
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