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

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

Ahh… Spring

April 26, 2017April 26, 2017 ~ thepurpledogpaintingblog ~ 1 Comment

Smells delicious.

In the plum tree..

and among the tulips.

©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!)

I found some interesting shadows on my walls.

And I fixed a staid apron by embroidering an elephant with a happy spoon on it.

Meanwhile back at the ranch..

Sampson had surgery and thoroughly enjoyed his meds.

Zeus also had surgery and was awfully affronted when I suggested that he was supposed to be sitting on the pillow on the floor not in my new chair.

They both recovered nicely.

My sunflowers grew over 12 feet tall.

We rescued these two birds.

This juvenile cedar waxwing was caught in a sudden heavy deluge of rain. he was fine after he dried off. Sorry about the fuzzy photo!

This red breasted nuthatch, I found upside down on the porch, I think he hit the window. He flew away fine after a drink and some warmth.

This came across our TV, then we had three very small tornadoes..

And there’s a frog living in my birdhouse. He’s been there since early July.

And I’ve taken at least one hundred photos of him,

And he is smiling in every single one.

🙂

©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog.com, 2016

Happy September!

September 1, 2016 ~ thepurpledogpaintingblog ~ Leave a comment

©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog.com, 2016

Veggie Overload!

August 7, 2016August 7, 2016 ~ thepurpledogpaintingblog ~ 1 Comment

The garden went crazy!

So many veggies.

But no beans.

Does anyone know where the beans went?

Da Da Da Dum…

.Hmmm….the mole did it, you say?

But the mole is in a cup…

Or was it this guy?

But he’s in Gettysburg!

No, it is definitely not the meerkat!

Wait a minute, I have a grainy photo taken at twilight through a window.

Who’s that sitting inside the garden fence?

What a cheeky bunny!

*sigh*

Ah well, it doesn’t much matter.

There is plenty to go around.

So many veggies..

I’ve even resorted to painting them!

A garlic bulb in acrylic, 5×7.

©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog.com, 2016

The heat is on..

June 14, 2016 ~ thepurpledogpaintingblog ~ Leave a comment

Recently I participated in an ATC trade. An ATC is a small card about the size of a playing card, that is 2.5 inches by 3.5 inches.

Most trades have themes, for this one the theme was “Warm Weather”.

I used ink and watercolor to make some scenes from various festivals and other warm weather activities. These will most likely appear bigger in your screen then they are in life. The color looks better in real life as well, my photography brain left me stranded when I took these.

“The Carousel”

There is a Carousel in Port Dalhousie, Ontario. The price is still only 5¢.

That carousel, has one of the five Loof lions that are left in North America. Their lion is the only left that has its head turned to look at the spectators, which for some reason has always made me happy. 🙂

“The Cherry Blossom Festival” is usually one of the first warm weather festivals and is the best smelling one to boot.

“The Flea Market”. My Dad, was not a shopping/ clothes minded guy . One day he wandered off at a flea market. He came back with a gigantic bag of factory castoff socks. He paid $2 for all those socks and it made him sooo happy. My mother who had just accidentally shrunk his pea green plaid suit by putting it the dryer fifty times was not so happy. Coincidence? I think not.

“The Hiking Trail”. With the upsurging popularity of the Parks system, it will be only a matter of time before Yeti becomes a bearded, top knot wearing hipster.. If he opens a coffee shop and hires a groovy ukulele playing singer, it could work out well for him.

“The Campground” where you go after hiking. It is also where the raccoons go. Once when we were out on a canoe trip, our campers were getting a little freaked out by raccoons who were making various.. um, love songs, let’s say. We told them to scare them off by making noise. Not too long afterwards, we heard an especially long “love song”. As soon as it stopped all our campers burst into claps and whistles. I swear that raccoon walked right into the clearing and gave a bow..

“The Strawberry Field”. I should have added a couple kids pelting each other with soft strawberries because as anyone who has been strawberry picking with my brothers knows..that happens.

“The Music Festival”. Those prices are getting out of control, man.

“The Garden Show”. I once spent a summer slightly adjusting and moving my neighbors gnomes every day. Ended up getting the whole neighborhood involved so she couldn’t figure out who was doing it. Drove her crazy….good times, good times.