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

Happy Independence Day!

July 4, 2016July 4, 2016 ~ thepurpledogpaintingblog ~ 3 Comments

©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog.com, 2016

Happy Giraffe Day!

June 25, 2016June 25, 2016 ~ thepurpledogpaintingblog ~ Leave a comment

It was actually the 21st of June but really, isn’t every day a good giraffe day?

©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog.com, 2016

Happy Summer!

June 20, 2016June 20, 2016 ~ thepurpledogpaintingblog ~ 2 Comments

It is sweltering and hot and muggy and it’s summer!!

Yayyyy! Let’s go outside

And hang with the hummingbirds.

Or dally in the daisies

Or bounce with the bunny..

Or go to the lake!

Acrylic, 12×9, with a palette knife.

Whatever you are doing, enjoy the day!

Happy Summer!

Woohoo!

🙂

©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.

“The Craft Show” where crafty people while never admitting it, go to get more ideas on crafts to craft..Crafty crafty crafting crafters.

“The Farmer’s Market” where the pies are sweet and the birdies say tweet.

“The Waterfront” or “Why I love boating”.

“The Renaissance Fair”. Cheers good Knight!

©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog.com, 2016

Scratch Scratch

April 26, 2016April 26, 2016 ~ thepurpledogpaintingblog ~ 4 Comments

This is what a squirrel looks when it scratches its back on a peanut shell.

Sexy, non?

Apparently he became itchy while trying to steal seeds from the bird feeder. The local birds were not all that thrilled.

Run, little squirrel! Run!

It’s okay, he’s safe, that was from February.

Spring is definitely in the air here.

Meanwhile back at the easel..

The palette came out better than the painting!

And at the drawing board. This is ink, 10x 3 inches. I’m debating on whether or not to color it in.

town ink Virginia Spencer

Close ups.

halftwo

half one

Hope everyone is having a good spring!

©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog.com, 2016

Under the knife..

December 4, 2015December 4, 2015 ~ thepurpledogpaintingblog ~ 3 Comments

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.

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.

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.

And here’s another 4×6 inches. This is an acrylic of one of my favorite ornaments, an inch high wooden rocking horse.

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.

©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog.com, 2015

Butterflies and Bees

July 24, 2015July 24, 2015 ~ thepurpledogpaintingblog ~ 4 Comments

“Hail the Monarch

King of the Flowers!”

He says to himself… Himself, that is.

“Bzz!” says the bee

“Buzz Off!

You Are Ruining My Photo Shoot!”

(Monarchs always enunciate and capitalize Their Words)

“Bzzz, the nerve!”

“I Beg Your Pardon!”

“Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!”

(Oooo, the mouth on that bee!)

“Hmph!

Now Where Were We?

Hmph! I Say Again.”

“Ah Yes, I Remember”

*whistles Mr Williams’ “Imperial March”*

“Hail the Monarch!

King of the Flowers”

He says to Himself.

——————————

Please follow this link for available prints.

Thank you!

Clouds and catching up with arty stuff.

June 25, 2015June 25, 2015 ~ thepurpledogpaintingblog ~ Leave a comment

It’s been a heck of a stormy month.

It has rained and rained and rained.

The clouds have been interesting at least.

These clouds were followed by a really loud thunderstorm.

I love storms but this one made me leery.

Of course I still went outside and took a photo.

Silly silly silly.

Personally, I prefer Zeus clouds like this one.

At least the weather gave me a chance to do some arty stuff.

This is a field near my house in acrylic, 4×6 inches.

A view of the river. Acrylic, 4×6 inches.

This is a house on the road to Galena, Illinois. Acrylics, 4×6 inches.

This door knocker was done in acrylic, it’s about 4×4 inches or so.

(from a reference photo in the RIL of WetCanvas)

This is a barn that is falling to pieces.

Ink and watercolor, 4×6 inches.

A watercolor of an egg and cups, a bit messy, it was done on scrap paper .

(from a reference photo in the RIL of WetCanvas)

And a study of hats with watercolor.

If you have any arty questions, please feel free to ask in the comment section.

———————–

Please follow this link for available prints.

Thank you!

Happy Turtle Day!

May 23, 2015 ~ thepurpledogpaintingblog ~ 2 Comments

We recently saw a few of our reptilian friends at the National Mississippi River Museum and Aquarium in Dubuque, Iowa.

This one in particular seemed glad to see us.

Such a nice smile!

These ones were lazing about on the boat launch railings. I’m guessing they were trying to get somebody to take them out on the big boats. Turtles love yachting.

These ones were having a spa day complete with mud baths and natural moss scrubs.

This one appears to be stuck.

His friend seemed to find that amusing. Turtles are like that.

This is a green sea turtle who was rescued. The blue bean bag thing is a weight pack/buoyancy device which helps her swim. She was hit by a boat and her back flippers are partially paralyzed.

This is an octopus.

This is a quickie sketch of a house in town. 4×6 inches.

This an acrylic painting of a mason jar from a lesson in the book “50 Small Paintings” by Mark Daniel Nelson, a great book for everyone from beginners to professional and all in between. 4×6 inches.