Waspppp Uppp!!

That is…

Wasp up there!

hornet-nest-hanging.

Actually,  it’s a hornet’s nest, a bald faced hornet.  They’re pretty talented,  look at those textures.

blog-hornet-nest-black-white.

We’ve had a busy year in our gardens for insects. The insect world is an interesting one.

I don’t quite know what to make of whatever this bee is doing.

Is he fighting with that bug? Is he eating it? Do bees eat bugs?

bee bug.

bee bug two.

bee bug one.

I have no idea but this butterfly watched the whole thing and kept getting closer and closer until the bee buzzed at it.

moth bee watch.

I watched until the bee flew away with the creeper butterfly in tow. It was rather disconcerting and a bit gross so here’s a cute bee on a pretty flower to wash that taste out.

bee-flower-pollen-photography.

Then there’s the mason bee, they come in varying colors. This one is wearing a sassy blue metallic coat that she picked up at the recent New York Fashion week.

mason bee.

The bees and the wasps were all enjoying the  various flowers and hummingbird feeders. The hummingbirds kept a wary eye…

blog hummingbird green irredescence.

..while Dummy hung out on a mushroom.

blog-dummy-art-photography.

I wonder if he knows that he has a thread stuck in his neck joint.

I guess I’ll go tell him, if I can find him. He’s never around when I want him.

Here’s 4×6 pen and ink with watercolor of a Greenman. Thanks to graymare on WetCanvas for putting the photo in the Reference Image Library there.

greenman-pen-ink-watercolor.

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©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. 🙂

blog carousel summer merry go round.

“The Cherry Blossom Festival” is usually one of the first warm weather festivals and is the best smelling one to boot.

blog cherry festival.

“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.

blog flea market sale ATC.

“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.

blog hiking trail moose.

“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..

blog camping tents outside.

“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.

blog cherry picking farm.

“The Music Festival”. Those prices are getting out of control, man.

blog musical festival.

“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.

blog garden show.

“The Craft Show” where crafty people while never admitting it,  go to get more ideas on crafts to craft..Crafty crafty crafting crafters.

blog craft fair arts ATC.

“The Farmer’s Market” where the pies are sweet and the birdies say tweet.

blog farmer's market.

“The Waterfront” or “Why I love boating”.

blog waterfront boat beach.

“The Renaissance Fair”. Cheers good Knight!

blog renaissance festival.

©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog.com, 2016

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thistles and ink

Thistles.

clover_weeds_photographyclover_weed_photographyclover_photography_weedOld schoolhouse, ink, 4×6 inches

ink_landscape_schoolhouseSolid door on a dilapidated barn, ink, 4×6 inches.

ink_barn_landscapeOld silo with climbing tunnel, ink, 4×6 inches.

ink_landscape_farm_silo.

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©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog.com, 2015

Please follow this link for available prints.

Thank you!

Happy Fourth!

Happy Independence Day!

This is my town series.

All are ATC/ACEo size which is 2.5 inches by 3.5 inches, the size of a regular playing card.

(these appear bigger on your screen then they are in real life)

Ink and watercolor.

painting watercolor ink drawing atc aceopainting watercolor ink drawing atc aceopainting watercolor ink drawing atc aceopainting watercolor ink drawing atc aceopainting watercolor ink drawing atc aceopainting watercolor ink drawing atc aceopainting watercolor ink drawing atc aceopainting watercolor ink drawing atc aceopainting watercolor ink drawing atc aceopainting watercolor ink drawing atc aceopainting watercolor ink drawing atc aceopainting watercolor ink drawing atc aceo

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©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog.com, 2014

 

 

 

My Summer or How I Was Kneecapped By A Groundhog..

So how’s your summer going? I know, I know it’s nearly over and I haven’t posted much but I swear I have a great excuse, ahem I mean reason..

So there’s this groundhog and like all groundhogs, he is so cute, a big darling fat ball of fur.  Adorable.

Actually there are a lot of groundhogs,woodchucks, whistlepigs, whatever floats your boat, there are tonnes of them all over North America.

As everyone knows, groundhogs often study meteorology. They quite enjoy it even though they get dragged out of their den every February to tell us when winter will end. And since all groundhogs have a strange sense of humor, they will often lie and give us the wrong info. They’re funny like that.

Some groundhogs, especially those located in Ohio are infamous for their archeological interests. In fact, The Ufferman Site in Ohio, which is on the National Register of Historic Sites has been solely excavated by groundhogs. They have brought up human bones, pottery and rock tool bits used by the Cole culture (circa 800-1300AD).  No human has ever had to excavate as the groundhogs have done such a great job of it.

Groundhogs, can climb trees, they can swim and they can run. To their dismay, they cannot cycle and since all groundhogs dream of competing in Ironman competitions, their sorrow is great.

But there is one thing that Groundhogs are renowned worldwide for, there is one thing they love to do more then anything, there is one thing that amuses them to no end and that is to dig holes, big deep holes…

And while many people think they dig them to live in for safety and food storage, that’s ridiculous, everyone knows they prefer bungalows with full size pantries. They actually dig holes to trap humans especially humans walking around with cameras, so that that  human walking around with a camera will twist and turn as they fall to save their camera and tear all the muscles holding their knee cap in place. And then that human will spend the next six weeks wearing a hot awkward metal and foam cast that makes me, ahem that human, walk like Frankenstein and since that human will be in pain occasionally they will groan and small children and animals will run from this Frankensteinian beast, except of course for the fat black cat that lives with that human and likes to scratch her face on the metal contraption and enjoy her pain cause she’s an awful sadistic animal and meanwhile the groundhog is rolling around slapping it’s knee, bubbling over with mirth and glee, because even though he’s adorable, he’s a mother of a mean little so and so…

And that ladies and gentlemen is how you write a run on sentence…

Anyway, it’s not that bad. (rolleyes) I’m fine (whine whine moan). Seriously it’s all good. (sigh)

Actually did some drawings for a trade.  Lots of fun.

The only rule was that they had to be small 3.5 by 2.5 inches (ATC’s, ACEO”s whatever) about the size of a playing card and they had to be in black and white.

As always they might appear larger on your screen then they actually are

This is a little windmill, in black and white that’s down the road a ways, I think someone lives in it.

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This is from a photo in the RIL on Wetcanvas, many thanks to the person who put it in there for all to use.  It’s acrylic.

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This is a barn in pen and ink that we have driven by a few times.

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This is an 1800’s bread oven off in the woods (to keep the heat away) at Balls Falls in Ontario, Canada. This is an acrylic.

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This is an old wagon that for some reason, someone stuck in their yard. Acrylic.

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This is a penguin, cause I sure as heck wasn’t going to draw a groundhog. Pen and Ink.

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And this is a Victorian house we drove by on the way to Saint Louis in acrylic.

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Other then that, I took a photo of the blue moon. It wasn’t blue but it’s negative is.

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I also found a potato with dancing angels in it, I was going to sell it on EBay but I gave it to the raccoon instead..

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I hope everyone has had a wonderful summer and has a fun holiday weekend.

Happy Labor Day!

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©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog, 2012