Zinnia Madness

And wouldn’t that be a great band name..

I love to plant zinnias. They’re beautiful, they’re easy and best of all they attract these beauties.

A white garden butterfly, some call it a cabbage butterfly. They are so fast!

Another speedy one, a Silver Spotted skipper which is a pretty fancy and deceptive name. I would say that that spot is white but who am I to rain on someone’s parade.

Another kind of skipper, it’s either a Sachem Skipper or a Zabulon Skipper, I don’t know enough about them to tell the difference but both are super fast and surprisingly cuddly looking.

My, what big eyes you have…

An American Lady Butterfly, what a beauty. She’s a subtle one but stunning nevertheless.

It was a big difficult to take a photo of this Red Spotted Purple Admiral. As you can see her wing is damaged and she was quite rightly spooked. They mimic the Pipevine Swallowtail which are poisonous but someone grabbed her. She still flew quite well though.

This is not on a zinnia, this is a hummingbird hawk moth on a lilac. The colors on this one were so cool and again very cuddly looking. Maybe that is why they are all so fast, everyone would hug them to bits if they could catch them.

This one is not for hugging, they can bite when annoyed. She’s also not on a zinnia but such a beautiful color and she looks so wise, I think that’s known as the Jiminy Cricket effect.

Green Katydid.

Please don’t spray!  And please watch out for caterpillars and worms, many of the creepiest and ugly turn into these beauties.

 

©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog.com, 2019

 

 

 

 

 

 

My favorite watercolors of the year.

I haven’t wrote on here in awhile. I don’t know if people read blogs much anymore but I do enjoy writing so I’ll keep on keeping on even if I’m only entertaining myself. 

To catch up, with everything I meant to post this year, I thought I’d do a couple of year blogs to showcase my favorite creations of the year.

These are some ATC’s, that is cards that measure 2.5 by 3.5 inches. These are all done with watercolor. These were done for a trade. watercolor painting Virginia Spencer vmrs ATC

This is also a watercolor but is a little bigger at 7×4 inches.

Here’s a warmer watercolor,  also a miniature at 4×6 inches.

And here’s a watercolor of a leaf and acorn. I think this one was 5×4 inches.

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©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog.com, 2018

Me me me me me!!

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

Scratch Scratch

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