The drive out…

September 11, 2011 ~ thepurpledogpaintingblog ~ 2 Comments

It was a dark and stormy morning…..

Well it wasn’t that dark, since we didn’t leave until 9:30 as we hadn’t any water. Our well was being cleaned..we had forgot all about the maintenance schedule…

*sigh*

So we took our dirty selves to the store and bought bottled water to have quickie baths in and then smelling pretty we left…

As we drove over the Mississippi River into Iowa, the wild sunflowers were glowing in the sun. At this time of year the wild grasses have a silvery feathery top on them. It is so lovely. We decided to drive north through Iowa to Minnesota then over west to South Dakota.

We drove past the world’s largest truck stop. As you can see the sky was starting to darken. We hit hard rain several times, hard enough to have to pull over. We saw several cars in ditches but thankfully everyone was fine.

The skies cleared as we reached South Dakota. We realized fairly quickly that people in South Dakota really like signs. I mean they really like signs.

We started to see a few signs here and there. But then we saw one we couldn’t ignore..

Hmmmm. A Corn Palace? The world’s only Corn Palace?

We tried to resist but then we saw this one…

A Corn Palace and a ban pun and Free!…I like corn, I like bad puns..and free is always good…we needed to stop for the night but Dummy would not let us forget that we were so near the home of the Corn Palace…

At the hotel he nagged and nagged and hogged the remote until we agreed to go over to the Corn Palace the next morning…

The little so and so….

The next morning dawned bright and crisp and clear. A perfect September day. A day made for seeing corn palaces…

And there was a corn palace..and it was free.

These people like corn. A lot.

Even the street posts..well you can see for yourself. They like corn.

And then we saw the Corn Palace in all it’s glory. I had envisioned a sort of Lincoln Log type of model built with corn but oh no this was much bigger. In fact these people took a perfectly good building (albeit one with Russianesque onion domes and medieval turrets painted in glaring greens and yellows) and glued 300000 pieces of corn and various grasses all over it. It is pretty impressive. I can’t even get two sheets of paper to stay glued together. If I was the one who glued all that stuff on, people would be getting boinked in the head from falling cobs..so kudos to them.

Apparently they’ve been doing this every year for a good long time. Every year has a theme. This year’s theme was American Pride and Transportation. Cause you know we are just not a patriotic enough country..and lord knows none of us drive enough.

A closeup of the corn.

Why did they do it? And how do they stop the lights from setting the dry grass on fire?

I don’t know.

Sometimes it’s best not to ask.

We made a quick stop at Cabela’s to look at dead animals and an iron sculpture..

Smile..

Dummy lost his manners and ignored the signs telling people not to climb on the sculpture.

So he had to go in the glove box for a while.

And we continued on..

Going bad…

September 1, 2011September 1, 2011 ~ thepurpledogpaintingblog ~ 11 Comments

To the Badlands that is…

Be back in a couple of weeks.

©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog.com,2011

A Farewell

August 29, 2011April 8, 2014 ~ thepurpledogpaintingblog ~ 30 Comments

My little ball of fluff with the big blue eyes passed away Saturday at the age of 23. She died in my son’s arms with Sampson by her side.

Minou was six pounds of dignity, disdain, fury and frivolity. She was so small and yet she meant so much.

Thank you Minou.

Thank you for the years of love and loyalty.

Thank you for waking me up every day. I now have to learn how to use an alarm clock.

Thank you for teaching every dog you met how to respect a cat. When we brought home a 150 pound mammoth of a dog from the SPCA, in less than a minute you taught him to never chase cats again. And he never did. He chased dogs. So that was helpful.

Thank you for your War on Earwigs. It started way back in ’89 and not once was it funded by taxpayer money. You fought well, you fought hard and you never gave up. Generations from now, tales of the Fury with the ice blue eyes will haunt the dreams of earwigs everywhere.

Thank you for eating my brown couch. You were right. It was ugly, it was old and yes, I do keep things for too long.

Thank you for making senility look fun. In the last year, I didn’t scold you for sitting on the dining room table because I knew that in your heart, you sincerely believed that you were sitting on the couch.

Thank you for biting every vet you met. Especially the arrogant young one in Colorado who insisted that it was easy to give a cat a pill. He tried for an hour and he still bears the scars today. He lost his arrogance and gained a much needed respect for small animals. Good girl.

Thank you for sitting with Max that noble dog as he lay dying, you licked his muzzle and you cried. Thank you for taking every puppy and kitten we brought in to your side. You trained them well, scolded them and babied them. And now they cry for you.

Thank you for sitting in my lap, purring and offering comfort when my child was sick, when my husband was at war, when my Dad passed away. I don’t tend to let people know when my heart is breaking. I’m silly, I make smart ass comments, I carry on. But you always knew. You were always there. Throughout the times of joy and the times of deepest sorrow. You were there. A little brown and black ball of fluff with big blue eyes purring and yowling and fussing.

Now the house is quiet and you lie under the purple mums by the forest’s edge.

And I miss you so much.

I will always miss you.

Goodbye my little friend. Meow.

For my sister…

August 23, 2011 ~ thepurpledogpaintingblog ~ 15 Comments

I recently sent my sisters a link to my blog.

My sister Sherry being an excellent sort of sister said “I love it!”.

My sister Yvonne (who is way older than me and don’t let her tell you any different) said and I quote..

“About your blog. How about telling people what paper you use, what kind of brushes you use…expensive or cheap, do you cut your artwork with a border, do you leave it on a big sheet, does it curl when dry, how do you display your artwork, how do you send your work, do you matte it..”

and then…

“Have you considered doing a project where you do the same picture but in different medium, you know, for those who may like water colour or crayons? “

and then…

“Okay, I just got why you call it the purple dog…slow or what”

and then…

“But I LOVED your blog. And I love you.”

She’s an excellent sister too. And she has a point. So inspired by my sister, here’s a personal list of items I like to use. Since a picture is worth a thousand words, Dummy is kindly playing Vanna.

The List!

pre-stretched canvas or watercolor paper, the higher the gsm the less likely it is to curl ( and no I never stretch my own canvas, too much work for me)
tripod or any firm surface
paint, I prefer Liquetex or Amsterdam but use whatever you like, student grade or otherwise, it’s all a personal thing.
that being said, having a warm grey and a cool grey is great, I always use both in almost every painting as well as my favorite violet blue.
lots of brushes, some expensive, some very cheap, again whatever works best for you
Sta Wet palette (but a plastic bin with a lid and wet paper towels with a piece of waxed paper on top works just as well)
a sketch pad
a corkboard with a photo of my cat
pencils, conte, white erasers
kleenex, paper towels, rags
a pink rabbit
scissors and tape (in case you get bored waiting for your paint to dry and want to make some cut outs)
good lighting
a cigar box full of pencils and pens
a good pencil sharpener
a water container, I like the kind with the ridged bottoms, they get your brushes cleaner.
a worried looking elephant
acrylic varnish
a piece of cupboard lining cloth, I use it to open up stubborn paint lids, it gives a good grip
rulers, straight edges, T-squares, templates and other implements of destruction
a good reference, either go outside (au plein aire) or paint from your own photo or use someone’s photo but only with their permission of course (most art forums have image reference libraries)

I’m sure I probably missed a tonne of things but those are the basics I like to use. Any questions?

Artist Trading Cards (or ATC’S, ACEO’s or minis, whatever floats your boat)

August 17, 2011August 18, 2011 ~ thepurpledogpaintingblog ~ 17 Comments

Recently I joined a trade on Wetcanvas. For those who aren’t sure what I’m talking about. An ATC (artist trading card) is about the size of a baseball card and can be in any medium. And you trade them like baseball cards to other artists. It’s fun, you get to meet artists all over the world as well as being great practice. Plus it’s nice to get real mail once in a while as well.

If you’re in this trade with me stop reading this until you get your mail. 😀

The theme of this current trade I’m in was Animals. Here’s a couple I did. These are all the size of a baseball or playing card..they will appear larger on your screen then they actually are. These are all acrylic, except for the skunk which is pen on acrylic.

Hope you enjoy.

Dummy is off on vacation. I am hoping to join him soon!

©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog.com, 2011

Blog open after maintenance..

August 5, 2011August 18, 2011 ~ thepurpledogpaintingblog ~ 15 Comments

House maintenance that is.

I’ve been painting up a storm lately. Well I’ve been painting up after a storm.

It rained and poured for forty days see days see

It rained!

And poured!

And stormed like crazy, baby

And it created a hole in my roof

So we ended up with a new ceiling in the garage, which we needed as it was. So that was okay.

I am awfully tired of white paint. It took many many coats of paints, I have blisters.

My husband being a smart man was away on business. I did have some help though.

Until next time…when Dummy attempts to cross the backyard on an elephant…

Will this brave adventurer survive? Or will he be eaten by wild baby turkeys…

Or mauled by emerging cicadas..

(the ones with Elizabeth Taylor eyes are especially dangerous)

Or outwitted by Fox snakes pretending to be rattlers, those naughty naughty boys…

Stayed tuned for further developments…

Gardening and car crashes..

July 25, 2011 ~ thepurpledogpaintingblog ~ 19 Comments

Hello! The heat has finally broken a bit and we are having some great gardening weather. People all over North America are in a frenzy to figure out what to do with the twenty million tomatoes they didn’t think would actually grow. I wouldn’t have planted any but Dummy insisted.

He’s has been listening to the news and bearing in mind that heat stroke is a terrible thing, he is being smart and is wearing a hat and sunscreen with a high SPF factor of course.

Checking the tomatoes…He’s so busy that he didn’t notice that his butt is on backwards..I would tell him but his feelings get hurt awfully easily. He’ll notice when he tries to sit down.

And look how nicely the corn has come in…and yup, his butt is on right..

As for me I’ve been hanging out in the AC. I painted this little 3 x 5 inch acrylic of the downtown area in Rock Island, Illinois. I just noticed that the first building has a bit of a lean, someone should fix that. It’s a tragedy waiting to happen. And the windows in the shop look like they’re ready to burst..Oh no! There’s a pedestrian in front of them….. Run! Lady! Run! ….It’s too late!… The white car tried to save her but has run into a stop sign which some fool put in the middle of the road…oh the agony…

Good thing I caught it all on canvas. I better go send this off to CNN for their I-Witness newscast.

Summertime…

July 17, 2011July 17, 2011 ~ thepurpledogpaintingblog ~ 13 Comments

And the living is easy…

Sorry I have that song stuck in my head.

I just came in from sneaking around watering my garden. Why? you may ask.. Well, it’s not because we have restrictions on, in fact I live near the Mississippi and after the record amount of snow melt and rain this year, my well is overflowing. No, like the coward that I am, I was sneaking around avoiding my neighbor. He’s a nice elderly man who claims that I gave his yard Creeping Charlie. I don’t have any in my yard but nevertheless he says it is so. He also has a thing about people watering. I have an overflowing well and rain barrels but he’s not the logical sort. 99% of the time I find him amusing, the other 1%, well let’s just say it’s a good thing my mother made me learn my manners or I would be asking people to raise bail money for me.

It’s been a muggy hot summer so far. I haven’t done much painting wise, though in my head I’ve created masterpieces! This is a small 3×5 canvas of the backside and roofs of Rock Island , Illinois. It’s acrylic.

Well I should go find Dummy, he’s off gallivanting around. I think he may be trying to escape.

Can’t see the forest for the trees..

July 1, 2011July 1, 2011 ~ thepurpledogpaintingblog ~ 10 Comments

Well I did an abstract. Really I did. I didn’t do it to be cool or groovy . I did it because I wanted to portray the existential relationship between the forest and the trees while concentrating on the internal forms of a forest rather than a pictorial representation so as to show the analogous effect of ..oh hell, I can’t keep that crap up. I did it because I really like that picture frame and since I was fixing a hole in the wall I had a whole lot of Spackle leftover.

Note! It’s very hard to take a photo of something like this, with the textures and all. So please excuse the bad photography. It’s a fair size, the long size being about four feet. Seeing as most of my pictures are about 2.5 to 3.5 inches long, it was a bit different.

A close up..

See what I mean, isn’t that a great frame.

And on the side, I threw this little one together, it’s about 3×5 inches. A quickie acrylic. The photo I used came from Wetcanvas‘s Image Reference Library, so thanks to the contributor for sharing it. I may do more on this, I may not. I’m still thinking about it.