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

Lest We Forget

November 10, 2015November 10, 2015 ~ thepurpledogpaintingblog ~ Leave a comment

Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.

©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog.com, 2015

Time Warp

November 3, 2015 ~ thepurpledogpaintingblog ~ Leave a comment

The time change makes me feel

a little bit cuckoo..

©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog.com, 2015

The Ghoul

October 31, 2015January 7, 2016 ~ thepurpledogpaintingblog ~ Leave a comment

Slowly, drifting
Moaning, wailing
The ghoul
Appeared in the sky.
With his face corroding
Decomposing
The beast
It would not die

.
In the garden waiting
Anticipating
Dummy
Flashed his knife
With his courage fading
His wooden limbs
Shaking
He would fight for his life

.
The ghoul it crept
To our hero inept
As a skeleton
Cried from the ground
A gargoyle leered
The pumpkins they feared
That the beast would win this round
But as the ghoul soared
Dummy jumped on the gourd
And sank his knife deep into its chest
The ghoul cried “Boo Hoo!”
‘Cause he knew he was through.
Though he had given it his very best

.
The beast
It went to his grave so green
Shouting to all who could hear

You’re all so mean!

But Happy Hallowe’en.

I’ll see you again next year!

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©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog.com, 2015

Keep Clam!

October 29, 2015 ~ thepurpledogpaintingblog ~ 4 Comments

Zeus is itchy.

It’s his yearly Autumn Itch.

So I bought him some itch relief stuff.

Let’s read the bottle..let me see..we have

Deep skin cleansing….splendid, that’s much better than shallow skin cleansing.

Complete body cleanser..even better, not much point only cleaning part of it.

Soothes ….great stuff, nothing better than a soothing soothe.

Clams.. sure a good clam is..What?…I mean..Pardon?

Hmmm..Yup that’s what it says..

Soothes and clams…

I’ve never had my dog clammed before.

Shellfish of me I know.

I wonder if it’s good for his mussels?

Sorry I’ll scale back.

I know it’s getting ruff.

It’s load of carp really.

Llama get back to the point.

It’s not like this happens aviary day.

It’s dragon on…

No use hanging around.

Or lion..

I’m just kitten..

Sea ya!

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©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog.com, 2015

Running amok!

October 1, 2015 ~ thepurpledogpaintingblog ~ 1 Comment

Between wandering and procrastination, I have not been keeping up with this blog. I fool myself into thinking I am keeping up because I write long posts in my head. I then, of course promptly forget them when I sit at the computer.

I also forgot how to paint again so I did this lesson in acrylic from a book by Mark Daniel Nelson. The book is called “Learn to paint in Acrylics with.. 50 Small paintings”. Good book, was a nice refresher.

Here’s a photo from one of the places I’ve wandered to.

Niagara Falls.

I have some stories to tell so I’ll be back soon!

Thanks for sticking around.

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©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog.com, 2015

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.

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©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog.com, 2015

Please follow this link for available prints.

Thank you!

Happy May Day!

May 1, 2015 ~ thepurpledogpaintingblog ~ 5 Comments

Tiptoe through the tulips.

Dance with the daffodils.

And have a wonderful day!

Happy Birthday to my May Day sister, Sherry!

Please follow this link for available prints.

Thank you!

Squirrel!

April 30, 2015 ~ thepurpledogpaintingblog ~ 5 Comments

There once was a cheeky squirrel

who was driving my poor dog mad

He mocked and he laughed and he chortled

Oh! He was such a cad.

He used diabolic acrobatics

To show me his tummy bare

Hanging about on the feeder

He masticated without a care.

And yet he is saved from my revenge

By a fact of no dispute

Thief and bandit he may be

But aw look, he’s just so cute!

Please follow this link for available prints.

Thank you!

Seeing Red

March 14, 2015March 14, 2015 ~ thepurpledogpaintingblog ~ 6 Comments

Last week while we were still in the deep freeze I heard a knock at my window.

As I was on the second floor, I was a bit startled.

I looked around and there on the ground was a very woozy cardinal.

Now I know, it’s not a good idea to mess with nature even if you mean well and normally a bird after hitting a window will be okay after a rest but it was so cold the cardinal was starting to stick to the ground so I had to intervene. (Now there’s a good example of a run on sentence. I haven’t written one in awhile, I’m so glad I haven’t lost my touch!)

He really didn’t seem to mind the open box with a hot water bottle in it.

He stayed there for quite a while, I was starting to get worried.

Fortunately, he was just really comfy.

After a couple hours, all was well!

He’s still hanging around. I think he’s waiting for me to put the hot water bottle back out again. Maybe I should add a little bird spa to the front porch. I could call it “Chic Chicks” or “Pique Your Beak” or “Fly and Dry”. On the other had we already have many “Seed and Feed” franchises around the yard. No body ever pays but we like the company.

Here’s an ink drawing of a church in the woods. (thank you to the person who put the reference photo into WetCanvas, Reference Image Library). This is 3×5.