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©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog.com, 2016
arts
The Cage, the Clown and the Curse
Hanging in an iron cage
Above the weathered path
Was a smirking scowling
Absurdly demented
Grinning psychopath
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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
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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
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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
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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!
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The last that I saw him
That gruesome old fool
He was dancing in the dying leaves
Cackling, spiteful
Insanely delightful
Wailing
Happy Halloween!
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Boo!
©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog.com, 2016
All rights reserved.
Elephants and Pumpkins
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.
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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.
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This pumpkin in acrylic is from the same challenge. This quick study is 5×5 inches.
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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!)
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I found some interesting shadows on my walls.
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And I fixed a staid apron by embroidering an elephant with a happy spoon on it.
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Meanwhile back at the ranch..
Sampson had surgery and thoroughly enjoyed his meds.
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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.
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My sunflowers grew over 12 feet tall.
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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!
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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.
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This came across our TV, then we had three very small tornadoes..
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And there’s a frog living in my birdhouse. He’s been there since early July.
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And I’ve taken at least one hundred photos of him,
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And he is smiling in every single one.
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🙂
©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog.com, 2016
Veggie Overload!
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.
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So many veggies..
I’ve even resorted to painting them!
A garlic bulb in acrylic, 5×7.
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©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog.com, 2016
Happy Independence Day!
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©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog.com, 2016
Happy Giraffe Day!
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It was actually the 21st of June but really, isn’t every day a good giraffe day?
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©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog.com, 2016
Happy Summer!
It is sweltering and hot and muggy and it’s summer!!
Yayyyy! Let’s go outside
And hang with the hummingbirds.
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Or dally in the daisies
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Or bounce with the bunny..
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Or go to the lake!
Acrylic, 12×9, with a palette knife.
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Whatever you are doing, enjoy the day!
Happy Summer!
Woohoo!
🙂
©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog.com, 2016
The heat is on..
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. 🙂
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“The Cherry Blossom Festival” is usually one of the first warm weather festivals and is the best smelling one to boot.
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“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.
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“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.
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“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..
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“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.
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“The Music Festival”. Those prices are getting out of control, man.
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“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.
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“The Craft Show” where crafty people while never admitting it, go to get more ideas on crafts to craft..Crafty crafty crafting crafters.
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“The Farmer’s Market” where the pies are sweet and the birdies say tweet.
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“The Waterfront” or “Why I love boating”.
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“The Renaissance Fair”. Cheers good Knight!
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©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog.com, 2016
Scratch Scratch
This is what a squirrel looks when it scratches its back on a peanut shell.
Sexy, non?
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Apparently he became itchy while trying to steal seeds from the bird feeder. The local birds were not all that thrilled.
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Run, little squirrel! Run!
It’s okay, he’s safe, that was from February.
Spring is definitely in the air here.
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Meanwhile back at the easel..
The palette came out better than the painting!
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And at the drawing board. This is ink, 10x 3 inches. I’m debating on whether or not to color it in.
Close ups.
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Hope everyone is having a good spring!
©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog.com, 2016
Happy New Year!
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.
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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.
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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.
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I hope you and yours had a wonderful start to the year!
©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog.com, 2016
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