Hello..it’s me..

August 3, 2020August 3, 2020 ~ thepurpledogpaintingblog ~ 1 Comment

I was wondering if after all this time
You’d like to see my blog…

I have been neglecting the old blog, there’s all sorts of cobwebs and paintbrushes laying about in here.

Sampson the purple dog is doing well. He is 13 now. He had to have surgery on his leg to remove a tumor but it was benign, thank goodness. It was a ruff operation but it didn’t take him long to get back into his yoga routine.

He’s been pretty lonely since Zeus passed away. He grew up with three cats and Zeus of course was his nonstop companion. He was having fits every time we left him alone and let me tell you terrier fits are very very loud so in March we got him another friend.

This is Tallie, she’s a little girl lab. She loves Sampson so much even though she finds his chipmunk obsession bewildering. He seems to find her entertaining too.

She’s growing quickly and is already bigger than Sampson. She won’t get as big as Zeus was but she’s big enough now that she can reach the countertops and that has been loads of fun.

Arts and crafts wise I was so sure, I’d have all sorts of time with the quarantine to do stuff but nope, Life was like “Hey! You! Busy! Busy!”.

I did make a few animals. This is from a pattern on “All About Ami“. She has such great patterns. Check her site out.

This turtle is a combo of a few different patterns. I really wish I had written down what I did but I think it’ll be easy enough to redo. The hat I made up with scraps.

I’ll be back soon with some experiments and such that I’ve been doing. Until then pass this lemon Bundt cake around and I will talk to you soon.

Recipe from King Arthur Flour’s website. Check out their advice on making Bundt cakes, if you’ve never made one before. I doubled the icing recipe because why the heck not.

©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog.com, 2020

The Super Blue Blood Moon

January 31, 2018January 31, 2018 ~ thepurpledogpaintingblog ~ 1 Comment

There should be dramatic music played every time someone says that.

And it should be said as if a wrestling announcer is saying it..

Laaaaaaaaadies and Gentleman….

(and the crowd roars)

Here in the night sky, hanging around that planet we call home, waxing and waning and dragging and pulling the water in and out and in and out and in and out..

It’s not just great..

It’s not just blue..

It’s not just bloody..

It’s the…

Supppppperrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Bluuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuue

Blooddddddddddddddddddd

Moon!!

Dum Dum Dum Dahhhhhhh….

Then all the Goths cheer! (do Goths cheer?)

This is not the greatest photo, a little fuzzy but I took it at 4am when I was also a little fuzzy so it’s all good.

Anyway Happy Super Blue Blood Moon Day. Congratulations on making it through the first month of the year. Woo hoo.

©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog.com, 2018

Bird Watching

May 16, 2017May 16, 2017 ~ thepurpledogpaintingblog ~ Leave a comment

Once upon a time

There was a little bird

And it was whistling a tune

I had never heard.

It started me looking

Straining to see

What was making that sound?

Up in the old oak tree

Was it a cardinal, a bluejay, a wren, a dove?

Was it a blue heron with it’s head, held high above.

Could it be an owl

That majestic wise bird

Or was it a sparrow

Chirping that chirp that I heard

A parrot, an eagle

I surely don’t know

Except that I’m certain that it wasn’t a crow

It was driving me crazy! It had to be found!

Oh what could be making that beautiful sound?

Was it a grebe, a loon, a silly old duck?

I really wasn’t having much luck

Then I caught a glimpse

Of a back, black and white

And a crimson chest

What a stunning sight!

It was that wonderful bird

So lovely and unique.

The charmingly operatic

Rose-breasted Grosbeak.

©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog.com, 2017

April Showers Bring..

April 7, 2017April 7, 2017 ~ thepurpledogpaintingblog ~ 1 Comment

Much smorgasborgery.

Starting with some watercolor cherries from a Challenge on WetCanvas (in the miniature forum, thanks Lil, for the photo).

On this, I used only Alizarin crimson, ultramarine and yellow cadmium light.

Keeping it simple.

This dragon was also for a WetCanvas Challenge (in the Sci-fi/fantasy forum, the theme was wings). It doesn’t have any limbs as I am a bit of a defeetist.

Hahahahahahahahahaa..haha..ha..

*cough cough*

Ahem, pardon me.

This was done from a scanned sketch I did then I added the colors with a photo program. That’s about all digitally, that I know how to do.

My original sketch of the defeeted dragon.

Next up was this oddity. She’s a masthead that has escaped from her ship.

Metallic watercolors.

I’m still working on the linocutting. Having a great time of it.

I decided to make rampants for us. I was going to go traditional but then I thought why use a lion rampant or a unicorn rampant when you can use a Westie Rampant and a Labrador Retriever Rampant.

I intentionally left the rough bits in on this. I liked the look of them.

Meanwhile back at the ranch, everything is growing.

I love Spring!

©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog.com, 2017

A Perambulating Possum

January 26, 2017January 26, 2017 ~ thepurpledogpaintingblog ~ 4 Comments

A pretty possum

Perambulating past.

Leaving radishes

On my window sash!

.Perhaps she lives

in a purple house

With other possums

and a little mouse.

They could drink tea

and dance in delight

And when they are tired

They’ll say goodnight!

©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog.com, 2017

The Cage, the Clown and the Curse

October 31, 2016October 31, 2016 ~ thepurpledogpaintingblog ~ 1 Comment

Hanging in an iron cage

Above the weathered path

Was a smirking scowling

Absurdly demented

Grinning psychopath

Come here he said

With a sharp toothed smile

And let me tell you a tale

Of horror and gore

And murder and more

And such that will make you pale

Oh you macabre mime

With your twisted old rhyme

You do not scare me at all

Stuck there in your cage

With your lonely dark rage

You’ll be dead by the end of the fall

But he mocked me with glee

For on All Hallows Eve

When the shadows rode low on the ground

That evil old clown

One magic trick he had found

To free him precipitously

He cast on me

A vermilion curse

As he cackled over the boos of the hoard

To my utter dismay

I was now in his cage

And I had transformed into a gourd!

The last that I saw him

That gruesome old fool

He was dancing in the dying leaves

Cackling, spiteful

Insanely delightful

Wailing

Happy Halloween!

Boo!

©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog.com, 2016

Waspppp Uppp!!

September 18, 2016 ~ thepurpledogpaintingblog ~ 5 Comments

That is…

Wasp up there!

Actually, it’s a hornet’s nest, a bald faced hornet. They’re pretty talented, look at those textures.

We’ve had a busy year in our gardens for insects. The insect world is an interesting one.

I don’t quite know what to make of whatever this bee is doing.

Is he fighting with that bug? Is he eating it? Do bees eat bugs?

I have no idea but this butterfly watched the whole thing and kept getting closer and closer until the bee buzzed at it.

I watched until the bee flew away with the creeper butterfly in tow. It was rather disconcerting and a bit gross so here’s a cute bee on a pretty flower to wash that taste out.

Then there’s the mason bee, they come in varying colors. This one is wearing a sassy blue metallic coat that she picked up at the recent New York Fashion week.

The bees and the wasps were all enjoying the various flowers and hummingbird feeders. The hummingbirds kept a wary eye…

..while Dummy hung out on a mushroom.

I wonder if he knows that he has a thread stuck in his neck joint.

I guess I’ll go tell him, if I can find him. He’s never around when I want him.

Here’s 4×6 pen and ink with watercolor of a Greenman. Thanks to graymare on WetCanvas for putting the photo in the Reference Image Library there.

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.