Hello..it’s me..

August 3, 2020August 3, 2020 ~ thepurpledogpaintingblog ~ 1 Comment

I was wondering if after all this time
You’d like to see my blog…

I have been neglecting the old blog, there’s all sorts of cobwebs and paintbrushes laying about in here.

Sampson the purple dog is doing well. He is 13 now. He had to have surgery on his leg to remove a tumor but it was benign, thank goodness. It was a ruff operation but it didn’t take him long to get back into his yoga routine.

He’s been pretty lonely since Zeus passed away. He grew up with three cats and Zeus of course was his nonstop companion. He was having fits every time we left him alone and let me tell you terrier fits are very very loud so in March we got him another friend.

This is Tallie, she’s a little girl lab. She loves Sampson so much even though she finds his chipmunk obsession bewildering. He seems to find her entertaining too.

She’s growing quickly and is already bigger than Sampson. She won’t get as big as Zeus was but she’s big enough now that she can reach the countertops and that has been loads of fun.

Arts and crafts wise I was so sure, I’d have all sorts of time with the quarantine to do stuff but nope, Life was like “Hey! You! Busy! Busy!”.

I did make a few animals. This is from a pattern on “All About Ami“. She has such great patterns. Check her site out.

This turtle is a combo of a few different patterns. I really wish I had written down what I did but I think it’ll be easy enough to redo. The hat I made up with scraps.

I’ll be back soon with some experiments and such that I’ve been doing. Until then pass this lemon Bundt cake around and I will talk to you soon.

Recipe from King Arthur Flour’s website. Check out their advice on making Bundt cakes, if you’ve never made one before. I doubled the icing recipe because why the heck not.

©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog.com, 2020

Art by the Foot Project

June 23, 2019June 23, 2019 ~ thepurpledogpaintingblog ~ Leave a comment

We are still reeling from the unexpected loss of Zeus. We have lost family, friends and pets before as many of you have but this loss was such a shock. We still find ourselves reeling from it. We all miss him terribly.

Poor Sampson is of course devastated. They hadn’t been apart in over ten years. We know it will take him some time to adjust but for now we are taking extra care with him, the poor guy.

I did this acrylic of Zeus, it’s a foot square and will be on display at the Figge Museum in Davenport as part of a community art project.

This piece is also on display. It is again on a one foot foam square. The museum gave each artist two to paint on. This is a mixed media piece with acrylic, a linoprint and pen drawing. It is the lino print of the north wind but reversed from the one I showed you in a prior post. I added it to a stormy acrylic sky with a pen and ink drawing of the man that the Sun and North Wind were toying with.

I did it at the last minute over another painting so I hope that it holds up on display. I’m a bit nervous about it.

If you’re in the Quad Cities area, The Art by the Foot exhibit is open and it displays art made by artists of all ages and abilities from the Quad-City area. The works were collected this spring and were required to be made on boards provided by the Figge. All of the works will be on view in the Mary Waterman Gildehaus Community Gallery from June 20th to September 1st.

I have to say, I love this idea and I thought it so clever of the museum to give artists this chance. I also love that it ranges from professionals to small children. That sort of encouragement is priceless!

©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog.com, 2019

Zeus

March 27, 2019March 27, 2019 ~ thepurpledogpaintingblog ~ 7 Comments

My beautiful dog has passed away.

We are heartbroken.

Zeus in the garden enjoying the sun and smell of herbs growing.

The Pumpkin Dragon

October 31, 2017October 31, 2017 ~ thepurpledogpaintingblog ~ 2 Comments

Through triangle eyes

He glared at the night

He stared at the night

He dared the night

To try and break through

His stalwart candlelight

He had read

Of a serpent

On a medieval page

Who loathed all pumpkins

And in a serpentine rage

Would crush the life

From innocent gourds

Leaving pieces scattered about

For the rampaging hordes

He heard the leaves rustle

Crackle

And break

Oh no! It was that

Evil and Ancient old snake!

It wrapped round his midriff

And he started to shake

He found it surprisingly fuzzy

For a centuries old snake

And in that moment

As it started to lean

He realized it was only Dummy

Dressed up for Hallowe’en!

Happy Hallowe’en

From Sammy

And Zeus

Medieval Pumpkin Dragon ~ Ink and metallic watercolor, 11×9 inches

My rather shabby Latin reads “Beware the Pumpkin Dragon ~ It will eat your Eyes ~ Your Heart ~ And steal your breath ~ Beware!

©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog.com, 2017

April Showers Bring..

April 7, 2017April 7, 2017 ~ thepurpledogpaintingblog ~ 1 Comment

Much smorgasborgery.

Starting with some watercolor cherries from a Challenge on WetCanvas (in the miniature forum, thanks Lil, for the photo).

On this, I used only Alizarin crimson, ultramarine and yellow cadmium light.

Keeping it simple.

This dragon was also for a WetCanvas Challenge (in the Sci-fi/fantasy forum, the theme was wings). It doesn’t have any limbs as I am a bit of a defeetist.

Hahahahahahahahahaa..haha..ha..

*cough cough*

Ahem, pardon me.

This was done from a scanned sketch I did then I added the colors with a photo program. That’s about all digitally, that I know how to do.

My original sketch of the defeeted dragon.

Next up was this oddity. She’s a masthead that has escaped from her ship.

Metallic watercolors.

I’m still working on the linocutting. Having a great time of it.

I decided to make rampants for us. I was going to go traditional but then I thought why use a lion rampant or a unicorn rampant when you can use a Westie Rampant and a Labrador Retriever Rampant.

I intentionally left the rough bits in on this. I liked the look of them.

Meanwhile back at the ranch, everything is growing.

I love Spring!

©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog.com, 2017

Elephants and Pumpkins

October 16, 2016October 16, 2016 ~ thepurpledogpaintingblog ~ 3 Comments

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.

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.

This pumpkin in acrylic is from the same challenge. This quick study is 5×5 inches.

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!)

I found some interesting shadows on my walls.

And I fixed a staid apron by embroidering an elephant with a happy spoon on it.

Meanwhile back at the ranch..

Sampson had surgery and thoroughly enjoyed his meds.

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.

My sunflowers grew over 12 feet tall.

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!

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.

This came across our TV, then we had three very small tornadoes..

And there’s a frog living in my birdhouse. He’s been there since early July.

And I’ve taken at least one hundred photos of him,

And he is smiling in every single one.

🙂

©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog.com, 2016

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!

————————————–

Public Service Announcement

October 28, 2015October 28, 2015 ~ thepurpledogpaintingblog ~ 2 Comments

This is a public service announcement.

Do not run with apples in your mouth!.

Stop it!

Put that down!

It looks ridiculous.

Much as I appreciate the art of meditation that doesn’t look much better.

“Thpbfft!”

How rude!’

Now everyone..

Jump!

——————————————————–

Please click here for available prints.

Thank you!

May the Dog be with you.

February 22, 2015 ~ thepurpledogpaintingblog ~ 6 Comments

If you haven’t heard, it’s been a mite chilly out.

I know, I know, it’s shocking news.

I’m sorry I had to break it to you like that.

Personally I don’t mind the cold or snow.

Especially when a walk around my neighborhood looks like this.

I must admit, it is a bit rough to have this much snow and a white dog.

Of course when temperatures drop into the frostpaw levels, the dogs need to mostly stay inside.

Sometimes when I try to make them go outside even when it’s not that cold out, they simply vanish into thin air.

I don’t know how that happens.

Hmmmm.

It’s a mystery.

I recently made a bunch of ATC’s of animals for a trade.

ATC’s are artist trading cards. They are 3.5 by 2.5 inches, the size of a regular playing card.

These are in acrylic.

They will most likely appear larger on your screen then they are in real life.

And here’s a couple of ATC’s in ink.

Have a good one!

——————————-

Please follow this link for available prints.

More prints to become available soon.

Thank you!

How to take a selfie.

March 22, 2014 ~ thepurpledogpaintingblog ~ 11 Comments

Zeus tells me that selfies are all the rage.

As he is so obsessed, I decided to give him a few guidelines.

Sit! Stay! Read!

1) Know your good side. Everyone has a certain angle that makes them look great.

But watch your expression, a little whale eye goes a long way.

2) The eyes are the window to the soul so work those babies.

3) Highlight your best feature. Zeus is unusually fond of his nose.

4) Use the cropping tool to make a dramatic yet strangely coy statement.

6) Add a filter. Resist the urge to overuse filters though. I know some people who use so many filters, that even though I’ve seen dozens of photos of them, I don’t actually know what they look like.

Well I hope those are helpful.

A final word to the wise, letting your furry pal borrow your phone for a few selfies is one thing but for the love of dog don’t let him download apps especially if they, like Zeus, are a bird dog and they find out about those games with the extremely vexed birds throwing themselves at thieving porcines.

Trust me, you will never get your phone back.

Sigh.

Have a good one.

———————-

the purple dog painting blog

Art, Poetry, Photography & Other Nonsense

Labrador retriever

Hello..it’s me..

Art by the Foot Project

Zeus

The Pumpkin Dragon

April Showers Bring..

Elephants and Pumpkins

Keep Clam!

Public Service Announcement

May the Dog be with you.

How to take a selfie.

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