Zinnia Madness

August 25, 2019August 25, 2019 ~ thepurpledogpaintingblog ~ 1 Comment

And wouldn’t that be a great band name..

I love to plant zinnias. They’re beautiful, they’re easy and best of all they attract these beauties.

A white garden butterfly, some call it a cabbage butterfly. They are so fast!

Another speedy one, a Silver Spotted skipper which is a pretty fancy and deceptive name. I would say that that spot is white but who am I to rain on someone’s parade.

Another kind of skipper, it’s either a Sachem Skipper or a Zabulon Skipper, I don’t know enough about them to tell the difference but both are super fast and surprisingly cuddly looking.

My, what big eyes you have…

An American Lady Butterfly, what a beauty. She’s a subtle one but stunning nevertheless.

It was a big difficult to take a photo of this Red Spotted Purple Admiral. As you can see her wing is damaged and she was quite rightly spooked. They mimic the Pipevine Swallowtail which are poisonous but someone grabbed her. She still flew quite well though.

This is not on a zinnia, this is a hummingbird hawk moth on a lilac. The colors on this one were so cool and again very cuddly looking. Maybe that is why they are all so fast, everyone would hug them to bits if they could catch them.

This one is not for hugging, they can bite when annoyed. She’s also not on a zinnia but such a beautiful color and she looks so wise, I think that’s known as the Jiminy Cricket effect.

Green Katydid.

Please don’t spray! And please watch out for caterpillars and worms, many of the creepiest and ugly turn into these beauties.

©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog.com, 2019

Merry Christmas!

December 21, 2017 ~ thepurpledogpaintingblog ~ Leave a comment

I was involved in a Christmas card trade on WetCanvas with a few other artists. It was so much fun and I received some beautiful cards from all the world.

These were the ones I made. They’re ink and metallic watercolor. The metallic are so much fun to work with but they are hard to photograph!

I also did a Science Fiction ~ Fantasy Christmas trade. I made this dragon for a wonderful friend of mine, who is a guide on the Science Fiction & Fantasy forum on WetCanvas. She does monthly challenges there that are so much fun and very clever. If you like scifi or fantasy, check it out!

This is watercolor, ink and a whole lot of glitter.

I hope you have a happy holiday whichever one you celebrate!

Much love and good wishes to all!

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©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog.com, 2017

In the garden.

September 28, 2017September 28, 2017 ~ thepurpledogpaintingblog ~ Leave a comment

A hummingbird

A Monarch.

A finch, checking out its feet.

A swallowtail.

Another swallowtail.

And of course, a Lesser Blue Warted Toadgon, native of the Indigo Forest of Cerulean. It is one of the prettier invasive species though it’s a bit of a pest, stomping about and getting bluing everywhere.

©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog.com, 2017

The Mantis

November 16, 2016November 16, 2016 ~ thepurpledogpaintingblog ~ Leave a comment

The zinnias are still lovely at this time of year.

The praying mantis, she finds them quite dear

Such big yellow eyes!

So many butterflies..

They’d better scurry.

For the frost is near.

©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog.com, 2016

Elephants and Pumpkins

October 16, 2016October 16, 2016 ~ thepurpledogpaintingblog ~ 3 Comments

And no, this is not a political post.

Fall with it’s dramatic skies and dancing leaves is here with a vengeance. I really need to do some catching up on the blog.

This painting is a two inch square in acrylic and will most likely be bigger on your screen then in real life.

This ink is more than double the size at 5×5 inches. This was part of a monthly miniature challenge on WetCanvas. WetCanvas has a huge reference image library, it’s a fantastic resource. Thanks to the member that added the photo I used as a reference for this.

In the original photo the wall was brick and there were solar panels everywhere. I altered those which is always a good idea when you have discordant elements. You don’t have to paint or draw exactly what is in a photo or right in front of you. The pens are Microns.

This pumpkin in acrylic is from the same challenge. This quick study is 5×5 inches.

This is also from a photo reference from WetCanvas. This was a fun one, it was a challenge to use restricted palettes.

This is the Zorn palette which is Yellow Ochre, Cadmium Red Medium, Ivory Black and Titanium White.

Anders Zorn(February 18, 1860 – August 22, 1920) was a Swedish painter who generally painted people and figures. I’m not sure why he used such a restricted palette but after playing with it for awhile I can see the lure of the colors he used.

Fish on a plate, acrylic, 10×14 inches (not a mini!)