acrylic

Maud Lewis

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Maud Lewis was a Canadian artist who created beautiful folk art despite suffering terribly from rheumatism. The film “Maudie” detailed her life. I think it’s still on Netflix.

She was a talented folk art painter even going to the extent of painting every surface of her tiny one room home. Her entire house is preserved inside the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia. There’s even a virtual tour which is worth looking through.

On WetCanvas, which is still alive despite the owners, we have a monthly challenge in the acrylics forum. The theme for May’s challenge (I know I know I’m late posting but I don’t think anyone is reading this, blogs seem to be passe but I’m good with talking to myself!) was to either do a study of one of her paintings or do your own inspired by one of her paintings.

Folk Art seems easy but funnily enough more people had a hard time with this than with other genres or subjects in past challenges.

These are mine. The first one is based on her “Snow dog” but instead of her white dog I used my Tallie. This is 2.5 x 3.5 inches.

A happy folk art painting of a yellow labrador retriever, dog, in a garden of tulips with plum blossoms overhead
Tallie in the Tulips

The second is a copy of “Eddie Barnes and Ed Murphy Going Fishing” 13.7 x 12.5 inches. I used some crackle on it as I had a tonne left from another project.

Folk art painting of a ship going out to fish. A landmass with a lighhouse and several other buildings can be seen in the background.
Study of Maud Lewis’s “Eddie Barnes and Ed Murphy Going Fishing”

The big one is 20 x 16 inches and is the top half of the inside of her storm door as seen in the museum. I had fun painting the canvas to look like wood!

Folk art painting of a door with a painting of a blue bird and flowers in a red vase.
Maud’s Door.

I enjoyed this challenge so much. Folk art is a genre I rarely do but appreciate more than any other.

I hope you enjoyed looking. As always, if you have a question, please ask in the comments below.

©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog.com, 2022

Abstraction and impressionism

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This whole year has been an abstraction and I’m not impressed with it but I hope it’s finding you well.

I did these as part of a challenge over at WetCanvas. I got right in there with fingers and palette knives and large brushes. These all started out as innocent sheets of 12×18 watercolor paper, they ended up being various sizes depending on how much I tore the paper. I ruined a couple of brushes and one shirt but it was thoroughly entertaining.

These are some of my favourite places.

“The landscape”
“Water’s Edge, Niagara”
“Horseshoe Falls, Niagara”
“Sailing”
“The beach”
“The field”

Let me know in the comments what you think. If you’re on Instagram, give me a shout over there, so I can follow you, I mean that in a general Instagram way not like a deranged stalker or anything.

Stay safe and healthy.

©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog.com, 2021

Art by the Foot Project

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We are still reeling from the unexpected loss of Zeus. We have lost family, friends and pets before as many of you have but this loss was such a shock. We still find ourselves reeling from it. We all miss him terribly.

Poor Sampson is of course devastated. They hadn’t been apart in over ten years. We know it will take him some time to adjust but for now we are taking extra care with him, the poor guy.

I did this acrylic of Zeus, it’s a foot square and will be on display at the Figge Museum in Davenport as part of a community art project.

This piece is also on display. It is again on a one foot foam square. The museum gave each artist two to paint on. This is a mixed media piece with acrylic, a linoprint and pen drawing.  It is the lino print of the north wind but reversed from the one I showed you in a prior post. I added it to a stormy acrylic sky with a pen and ink drawing of the man that the Sun and North Wind were toying with.

I did it at the last minute over another painting so I hope that it holds up on display. I’m a bit nervous about it.

If you’re in the Quad Cities area,  The Art by the Foot exhibit is open and it displays art made by artists of all ages and abilities from the Quad-City area. The works were collected this spring and were required to be made on boards provided by the Figge. All of the works will be on view in the Mary Waterman Gildehaus Community Gallery from June 20th to September 1st.

I have to say, I love this idea and I thought it so clever of the museum to give artists this chance. I also love that it ranges from professionals to small children. That sort of encouragement is priceless!

.

©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog.com, 2019

 

 

 

 

 

Painting from the Masters.

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I recently did an ATC trade on WetCanvas.com. The theme was “Painting from the Masters”. We weren’t  picky on what master/artist it was as long as the work we were copying were made before 1923.

An ATC is an artist trading card. They are 3.5 x 2.5 inches, the size of a traditional playing card.

This card is based on Berthe Morisot’s “Woman at her Toilette”. Morisot was an impressionist. She studied with landscape painter Jean-Baptiste Camille Corotin and in Paris under the tutelage of Joseph Guichard who had her copy Masters at the Louvre. I’m sure she would enjoy knowing that people are copying her! My version is in acrylic on 300 gsm watercolor paper.

This card is also in acrylic on watercolor paper. The original by Canadian, Helen Galloway McNicoll, was called “Buttercups”. McNicoll studied under William Brymer in Montreal. She also painted in Britain as a member of the Royal British Society of Artists and was vice-president of the Society of Women Artists. She was one of the few impressionist who was able to make a financially secure living from her art. She was deaf since childhood and died young from diabetes at the age of 35.

This card is based on a wooden panel painted by John La Farge simply titled “Fish”.. He was a member of the Arts and Crafts Movement and was noted for his stained glass windows. He designed windows for the Trinity Church in Boston and Memorial Hall at Harvard.

To make this card look like wood I first did a ocher undercoat. When that was dry I painted over it with a thicker coat of an ocher/red mix. When that was almost dried, I gently scratched out wood grain like patterns with the edge of a palette knife and let it dry before adding the fish and decorations.

It was interesting copying the works of others but I have a tendency to change them to how I would like them to look, very cheeky I know but I can’t seem to help myself!

 

©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog.com, 2019

 

My favorite acrylics of the year.

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And yes to my Canadian relatives, I did spell “favourites” the American way.

A hot air balloon, 4×4 inches.

A still life, 5×7 inches.

A zombie that for some reason ended up looking like Patrick Swayze, 8 x 10 inches.

Another still life, 3×6 inches, I forgot to finish the lemon the left..ignore that please.

A sign for my house, 22 x 8 inches.

Some pizza, 3×3 inches

A fancy colorful sheep.

acrylic sheep animal colorful painting

And my favourite, an Ode to VanGogh and Space.

.

©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog.com, 2018

 

 

 

 

 

 

Me me me me me!!

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I recently participated in an art trading card (ATC) project.

The theme was “All About Me”

That’s right. Me me me me me..

The cards are all 2.5 by 3.5 inches and painted with acrylic.

This one is a still life of flowers. I love flowers.

I also love tea and grow my own mint.

These art deco bottles belonged to my grandmother.

My gardening shovel.

One of my oldest and dearest friends. His name is Spot and we went on many an adventure together.

One of the Lincoln dresses, from the display at the Lincoln Museum in Springfield.

My breakfast, blueberries and peanut butter on a waffle. That’s right, I eat that.

My favorite color of nail polish, green!

©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog.com, 2018

Elephants and Pumpkins

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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.

house-painting-acrylic-miniature.

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.

pumpkin-garden-art-ink.

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

pumpkin-acrylic-painting-art.

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!)

zorn-painting-fish-palette.

I found some interesting shadows on my walls.

blog-tower-shadow-eiffel.

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

elephant-embroidery-sewing.

Meanwhile back at the ranch..

Sampson had surgery and thoroughly enjoyed his meds.

sampson-westie-dog-collar.

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.

zeus-dog-lab-yellow.

My sunflowers grew over 12 feet tall.

blog-sunflowers-gardening-large.

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!

cedar-waxwing-bird.

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.

nuthatch-rose-breasted-bird.

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

tornado-tv-warning.

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

treefrog-birdhouse.

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

smiling-tree-frog.

And he is smiling in every single one.

treefrog-sleeping-birdhouse.

🙂

©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog.com, 2016

 

Veggie Overload!

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The garden went crazy!

So many veggies.

But no beans.

Does anyone know where the beans went?

Da Da Da Dum…

bunny blog.Hmmm….the mole did it, you say?

But the mole is in a cup…

mole cup cuteOr was it this guy?

chipmunk

But he’s in Gettysburg!

blog pensive meerkat

No, it is definitely not the meerkat!

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

bunny garden

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.

image.

So many veggies..

I’ve even resorted to painting them!

A garlic bulb in acrylic, 5×7.

garlicvmrs.

©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog.com, 2016

 

 

 

 

Scratch Scratch

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

Sexy, non?

scratch2scratch.

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

crankybird titmouse woodpecker.

Run, little squirrel! Run!

eagle2

bald eagle bird raptor

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

Spring is definitely in the air here.

tulip.

rhodedendron

Meanwhile back at the easel..

The palette came out better than the painting!

palette knife 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

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Hope everyone is having a good spring!

©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog.com, 2016

Happy New Year!

~ thepurpledogpaintingblog ~ 6 Comments

A bit late but well intended nevertheless.

Here’s a bright bird to start the year off. I’ve had an injury and will be having an operation on my arm so this was an experiment with large brushes and lots of paint mostly because it was driving me nuts not to paint.

I have lost some movement and control but I have not lost the ability to write run on sentences. Yay!

11×14, Acrylic, Goldfinch on a cone flower.

goldfinch small.

Don’t worry though I have some friends looking in on me. I mean literally  just walking up and looking in the window. Who does that? I appreciate the thought but use the door for Pete’s sake.

buck.

While I’ve been icing my arm, my trees decided to show me how it’s done and are doing a little ice therapy in my backyard. So pretty.

winter trees small.

I hope you and yours had a wonderful start to the year!

©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog.com, 2016