Merry Christmas!

I was involved in a Christmas card trade on WetCanvas with a few other artists. It was so much fun and I received some beautiful cards from all the world. 

These were the ones I made. They’re ink and metallic watercolor. The metallic are so much fun to work with but they are hard to photograph!

christmas art painting watercolor ink

I also did a Science Fiction ~ Fantasy Christmas trade. I made this dragon for a wonderful friend of mine,  who is a guide on the Science Fiction & Fantasy forum on WetCanvas. She does monthly challenges there that are so much fun and very clever. If you like scifi or fantasy, check it out!

This is watercolor, ink and a whole lot of glitter. 

I hope you have a happy holiday whichever one you celebrate!

Much love and good wishes to all!

 

*********************************

©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog.com, 2017

 

Merry Christmas!

I wish you all the very Merriest of Christmases and a Happy New Year!

The following were done for a trade on WetCanvas.com.

I normally do many many cards at Christmas but am having some hand issues. If you didn’t get a hand drawn one this year, my apologies!

Ink, 4×6 inches.

Virginia Taylor Spencer Art christmas-pen-reindeer-art christmas-pen-reindeer-store christmas-reindeer-pen-dance christmas-reindeer-pen-ink

.

©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog.com, 2016

Under the knife..

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.

painting wheatfield gettysburg palette knife.

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.

tree acrylic knife painting.

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.

blue bulb big blog.

And here’s another 4×6 inches. This is an acrylic of one of my favorite ornaments, an inch high wooden rocking horse.

painting horse vintage ornament.

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

.

 

 

 

 

 

Christmas Trees, Peeping Toms and Dog Portraits

It’s that time of year again.

Dummy was so excited to decorate the tree, he forgot to put his pants on.

Dummy_christmas_art.

He thinks he’s sexy.

Christmas_model_bigfoot.

No wonder we have so many peeping Toms.

peeping_tom_turkey.

Yeah, I see you Tom Turkey.

That’s right, strut away all casual like.

But I know what you did..

turkey_wild_strut.

Sampson, I can’t believe you let them get that close to the house.

What do you have to say for yourself?

Westie_dog_groucho.

Really!

And to think, I made a portrait, just for you.

Acrylic, 8×10

Westie_painting_dog.

Don’t worry Zeus, I made you one too.

Acrylic, 8×10

dog-painting-lab.

What do you think of that, Zeus?

Lab_expression_funny.

Sigh…

Here’s a couple little landscapes too. Acrylic, 3×5

landscape_winter-snow_painting.

Acrylic 3×5

landscape_snow_winter_painting

.

——————————

©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog.com, 2014

Ho, oh ho, oh no…

Ho! Ho! Ho!

It’s that time of year! It’s time for caroling!

It’s time to sing!

Hey! Hey! Where are you going cardinal?

cardinal2©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog, 2013.

Nuthatch?

nuthatch2©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog, 2013.

Anyone? Blue Jay? I see you hiding behind that fence..

bluejay©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog, 2013.

Oh alright. No singing, I am going to strum my ukulele though.

Here’s some little snow scenes I’ve been painting while medicated heavily. Had a pretty serious illness, but I’m fine now. If you ever have vertigo, I thoroughly recommend painting. It’s incredibly hard but oddly entertaining at the same time. I felt like one of Leary’s hippies.

These are all acrylic, four inch squares.

trees©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog, 2013.

sunsettrees©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog, 2013,

Bunnytree©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog, 2013.

snowman©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog, 2013.

deersunset©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog, 2013.

icypond©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog, 2013.

So I was throwing the acrylic around left, right and center, then I tried to focus.

On snowman..and their lives of snow.

snowscene3©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog, 2013.

snowscene2©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog, 2013.

snowscene1©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog, 2013.

Hope everyone is having a good December!

.

—————————-
©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog, 2013

La la la laaaa….

I haven’t been blogging much lately, not for any particular reason, I mean besides everything in my house breaking at once and a total lack of coordination in dealing with those break downs. But eventually I did manage to get somewhat coordinated and put up my Christmas tree. I have hundreds of bulbs so it takes me awhile. I used a fold up towel dryer to sort my bulbs. Clever, no?
.

xmas3©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog, 2012.

I made a few new discoveries this year. For instance I discovered that when I put reindeer antlers on Sampson, he sinks. His head gets lower and lower until paralysis sets in and he is stuck on the floor. Apparently he thinks they are very very heavy. This made him quite sad. Fortunately his little bear was there to help him out.

I’m thinking this may possibly be useful in the future.

Sammy ©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog, 2012

.

I also discovered that reindeer antlers have a strange affect on Zeus as well. He realized that the wearing of reindeer antlers changed him into a reindog with super powers. Super Reindog, we call him. These super powers give him the ability to lie on my bed, because although ordinary dogs are not allowed on the bed and think that I don’t know they get up there the second my back is turned, reindogs have no such restrictions. Yes, a reindog will lie right on the bed in front of me and coyly wave his paw. Reindogs are very impertinent animals.

Well that reindog has another think coming if he thinks I’m going to put up with that…

zeusxmas©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog, 2012

.

I also discovered that when the moon is full with Jupiter to it’s upper left and the Christmas lights are on, you can get some pretty cool shots.  You must however stand in your driveway wearing pajamas, boots and furry earmuffs to do so properly.

moonbokeh©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog, 2012

;

I also did some painting. Christmas ones of course.

This is an acrylic, 3×5 on 300gsm watercolor paper. I used one of my goose photos as a reference. This naughty goose has stolen someone’s Christmas ribbon. Geese are mean like that.

xmas4©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog, 2012.

This goose  is being downright pestiferous. Fortunately this snowman appears to be a bohemian jovial type of snowman as opposed to the perfidious abominable type of snowman.

Acrylic, 3 x 5 inches.

xmas5©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog, 2012.

I also painted a little tiny snow scene, this one is acrylic, 2 x 3 inches. I don’t know why I made that so small, I was leaning in as I painted it and it just came out that way.

xmas2©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog, 2012

.

This is another snowy scene. Had a bit of fun with the purple and yellows in this one. If you look closely, you’ll see a small pestiferous perfidious abominable snowman hiding in the shrubbery. Okay, not really. I just like using the words ‘pestiferous’ and ‘perfidious’.

Acrylic, 3 x 5 inches.

xmas1©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog, 2012.

I went out the other day, the light was terrible but I did meet up with this fellow. I was enchanted to meet him. He was, well not so much..

eagle1©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog, 2012.

Back at the ranch, Dummy decided to climb the Christmas tree so he could meet the Christmas Angel. He has been infatuated with her for years. He thought that as he started out as lowly carved piece of scrap wood, that she would not like him. He was pleasantly surprised to find that she started out as a toilet paper roll. They’ve been inseparable ever since.

dummyangel©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog, 2012.

.

Happy Holidays!!

.

©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog, 2012