Post 552: Amongst the Bluebells Part 1

Amongst the Bluebells Part 1

The Prince William Art Society (PWAS) had a table again this year at the Bluebell Festival at Merrimac Farm in Nokesville on a glorious Sunday in March. We had a lot of Bluebell artwork, art prints and we had about 8 plein air artists out amongst the bluebells - painting away.

15014 Deepwood Ln, Nokesville, VA 20181

Bluebell Festival Sun Mar 30, 2025

The weather man and iPhone weather didn't really live up to how Sunday, March 30, 2025 turned out. Thankfully. From "It's going to be cloudy all day" and "chance of rain" the big blue sky was doing it's best to impress all morning and didn't give way to those clouds until the afternoon. 

Last year's Bluebell Festival was on April 7 so this year's festival was a full week earlier. We heard that the Bluebells were not quite at full bloom as yet, the organizers of the event said to be sure and come back to see them - the full carpet of 'blue' that we had seen last year.

 

Photo from Katie Dugan of Kelly Haneklau, Staci Blanchard (aka The Goddess of Glitter) and Donna Liguria

Photo from Donna Merchant: L to R - Staci Blanchard, Kat Gates, Robert Dew, David Dillon, Ana Quispe, Cheryl Handley, Donna Liguria, Kelly Haneklau, Nicole Goble, Mark Clifton

PWAS Plein Air Posse

Let's see the day in pictures - I'm hoping that the artists will send me pictures of what they were working on too. So hopefully post 2 on the Bluebells.

The PWAS Plein Air Posse, PWAS Show Staff and artists represented for the Bluebell Festival consisted of:

• Robert Dew
• David Dillon
• Kathleen (Kat) Gates
• Ana Quispe 
• Mark Clifton
• Nicole Goble
• Kelly Haneklau 
• Donna Merchant
• Cheryl Handley
  
• Katie Keller Dugan 
• Staci Blanchard
• Donna Liguria 
• Jen Batty
• Mihee Rink
• Carol Noboa
• Scott Elliot
• Eric Ndofor
• Doreen Dauer
• Patty Gutledge 
• Maggie Milligan

The Bluebell visitors enjoyed looking at the all of the artwork. We talked to a lot of people and answered questions about the Prince William Art Society and told them about our PWAS members out in the field plein air painting. 

Photos by Joy Yates:

 

Robert Dew

 

Kat Gates

 

David Dillon

 

Ana Quispe

 

Donna Merchant

 Photos from Katie Dugan:

Bluebell Crew: Kelly Haneklau, Staci Blanchard and Donna Liguria

 

Kat Gates 

Photos from Donna Liguria:

 

Kelly Haneklau painting the building - not the part in front of the building!

 

Nicole Goble in the corner

 

Under the Stone House - where they throw the people that step on Bluebells

(kidding!)

Look for Amongst the Bluebells Part 2 - more great pictures coming!

 

Love this post? Let me know by dropping a comment below!

---

Author: Donna Liguria
Artistry Spin Blogmaster and an artist member of PWAS in Woodbridge, VA, specializing in acrylic painting. She paints landscapes, seascapes, animals and many subjects. Visit her Website at DonnaLiguriaArt.com, her Donna's Esty site and her Blog at Donna’s Cave Paintings.

Photography/Video Credits: Joy Yates (guest of Mark Clifton), Katie Dugan, Donna Liguria, Kelly Haneklau, Kat Gates, Donna Merchant

---

Local Art: The Prince William Art Society is a 50+-year-old non-profit art group in PWC for the appreciation of fine art throughout the county and Northern Virginia. Visit us at any of our local art shows or join us for our monthly meetings - held on the 4th Monday of the month at the Tall Oaks Community Center at 12298 Cotton Mill Dr, Woodbridge, VA at 7:30pm

Want to join PWAS? Go to https://www.princewilliamartsociety.com/membership

Have an idea for a blog post? Are you a writer and want to help with the blog? Let me know! Thank you for visiting, and remember to Share, Follow, and Comment (below)! ...Remember, comments are monitored so they will not show up immediately.

pinterest-site-verification=3ad32cc9cfeae507ba5a382d62fcee17

Post 551: Bluebell Challenge Revealed

Bluebell Challenge Revealed

At the monthly Prince William Art Society meeting held on Monday, March 24 at 7:30pm, another challenge had been sent out the the PWAS members. Those that accepted this challenge were to create an artwork about Bluebells! Timely, yes, because the Bluebell Festival is this Sunday, March 30 at the Merrimac Farm in Nokesville, VA, which some PWAS members will have art on display at. And the PWAS Plein Air Posse will be out amongst the Bluebells - painting the beauty and glory of nature.

PWAS Bluebell Challenge

The first PWAS Challenge back in October, was about Limes, and the story about that one can be found here PWAS Lime Challenge Revealed

Thus, this second PWAS Challenge with the subject of Bluebells.

And for the next challenge...is to a PWAS member... if YOU want to do the next PWAS Challenge? What do you need to do? Here are some steps that I have taken in the past but you are welcome to come up with your own idea and how to present it. I would suggest contacting the PWAS Board to clear the idea first though - and because it needs to be included in the program for that month.

A Challenge for the Members

Step 1. We need a subject for the challenge.

     The Bluebell Festival itself was the inspiration for this challenge. The Prince William Art Society will have a table at the 2025 Bluebell Festival and we will also have some PWAS Plein Air Posse artists out in the fields and forest, painting away on Sunday. 

Bluebell Festival 2025

The Address to get to the Festival is Merrimac Farm at 15020 Deepwood Lane, Nokesville, VA. 

Date and Time: Sunday, March 30 from 10 to 3

    Notes: Get there early. Wear boots.

Sponsored By: This annual festival is sponsored by the Prince William Conservation Alliance and the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources.

 

 

So back in January, each member was challenged to create something bluebellish - and bring the artwork to the meeting on March 24. (Obviously, you have to give the artists working in various mediums time to CREATE!) The artwork could also be entered into the Bluebell Festival and offered for sale.

Step 2. We needed a way to vote for our favorite.

    For this year, I used simple pictures of a bluebell that I cut out and each bluebell was a vote for the members to place in front of/on their favorite piece. The piece with the most paper bluebells, wins. AND it was hard to pick a favorite as they were all to wonderful! Great job everyone!!

Step 3. Should we have something for the winner?

    For the Lime Challenge, I gave out an inexpensive sketch book to the winner. For this challenge, we had a Michael's gift card!

Step 4. Should we have something to go with the challenge as far as food/drink?

     For something fun to do, I thunk, something fun to eat! I thunk and I thunk. And I also considered if I felt up to cooking or baking this time. The heavens opened and lightening flashed -  Blueberry Poptarts! Toast 'em and good to go!

Step 5. Take pictures! 

    We must show off the fun we have at a PWAS meeting! The pictures make for blog post fodder!! The PWAS Members were invited to place one mini bluebell paper on their favorite artwork. White the members were busy with the PWAS Meeting Program (see PWAS Meeting in the Bag), I counted the votes and....

And we have a winner!

 

Our brand new member Maggie Milligan was declared the winner of the 2025 Bluebell Challenge! Congratulations!!

It was another fun challenge, and I hope the PWAS members enjoyed it. We do hope to see you this weekend at the Bluebell Festival - where you may see some of these bluebell artworks in person. Let's hope for a beauty of a day too!

Got an idea for the next challenge? Drop a comment below if you do and we'd LOVE for you to present it! Like, share, follow folks!

---

Author: Donna Liguria
Artistry Spin Blogmaster and an artist member of PWAS in Woodbridge, VA, specializing in acrylic painting. She paints landscapes, seascapes, animals and many subjects. Visit her Website at DonnaLiguriaArt.com, her Donna's Esty site and her Blog at Donna’s Cave Paintings.

Photography/Video Credits: Donna Merchant and Donna Liguria (the Donna Team)

---

Local Art: The Prince William Art Society is a 50+-year-old non-profit art group in PWC for the appreciation of fine art throughout the county and Northern Virginia. Visit us at any of our local art shows or join us for our monthly meetings - held on the 4th Monday of the month at the Tall Oaks Community Center at 12298 Cotton Mill Dr, Woodbridge, VA at 7:30pm

Want to join PWAS? Go to https://www.princewilliamartsociety.com/membership

Have an idea for a blog post? Are you a writer and want to help with the blog? Let me know! Thank you for visiting, and remember to Share, Follow, and Comment (below)! ...Remember, comments are monitored so they will not show up immediately.

pinterest-site-verification=3ad32cc9cfeae507ba5a382d62fcee17

Post 550: PWAS Program in the Bag

PWAS Program in the Bag

Monday, March 24, 2025. The Prince William Art Society (PWAS) meets once a month on the 4th Monday of the month. Our art group typically meets to not only discuss what we have going on - with the plotting and planning of our art events but we often have a guest speaker talking art. But occasionally, we do take a detour. 

Mixed Up Media

For our program portion of the meeting on Monday, March 24 at the Tall Oaks Community Center in Woodbridge, every one grabbed a chair around a table. We had cards in front of us to create on and a bag placed above the card. Each bag contained various batches of "you-name-it-you-create-it" media. From colored pencils, markers, gel pens, charcoal, watercolor...anything could be in the bag. 

Following various prompts read out by Emily Hawes or Donna Merchant, periodically the bags would be moved to the right, the cards to the left. Sort of a musical chairs with the artwork. Anyway, we all shared the creation of whatever happened at the table we were sitting at. 

The variety of creativity was literally off the card.

It was a program we actually participated in - which is the point. And talking with our fellow artists. And meeting our new members too!

Here are some pictures captured...

Photos from Tom Payne 

 Photos from Donna Liguria

Photos from Donna Merchant

All that and a blueberry poptart too! (See the Bluebell Challenge Revealed blog post coming tomorrow.)

We love having a change of pace, it does make the meetings even more fun. Thanks Emily and Donna!

After some time spent being creative, and the presentation of the Bluebell Challenge winner, the business talk portion of the meeting ensued. Updates, info, art shows, art grants, 2 art shows at the ARTfactory in May and June and so much more.

Miss a meeting and you miss a lot! 

Did you have fun? I did!

---

Author: Donna Liguria
Artistry Spin Blogmaster and an artist member of PWAS in Woodbridge, VA, specializing in acrylic painting. She paints landscapes, seascapes, animals and many subjects. Visit her Website at DonnaLiguriaArt.com, her Donna's Esty site and her Blog at Donna’s Cave Paintings.

Photography/Video Credits: Tom Payne, Donna Merchant, Donna Liguria

---

Local Art: The Prince William Art Society is a 50+-year-old non-profit art group in PWC for the appreciation of fine art throughout the county and Northern Virginia. Visit us at any of our local art shows or join us for our monthly meetings - held on the 4th Monday of the month at the Tall Oaks Community Center at 12298 Cotton Mill Dr, Woodbridge, VA at 7:30pm

Want to join PWAS? Go to https://www.princewilliamartsociety.com/membership

Have an idea for a blog post? Are you a writer and want to help with the blog? Let me know! Thank you for visiting, and remember to Share, Follow, and Comment (below)! ...Remember, comments are monitored so they will not show up immediately.

pinterest-site-verification=3ad32cc9cfeae507ba5a382d62fcee17

Post 549: Announcing the PWAS Member Call for ART!

Announcing the PWAS Member Call for ART!

Updated: April 1, 2025

For current Prince William Art Society (PWAS) members only: the PWAS at the ARTfactory Call for Art for its members is now open! This call will give the PWAS members the opportunity to display their best artworks in the Prince William Art Society Art Show at the ARTfactory May 15-30, 2025. The ARTfactory is located at 9419 Battle Street, Manassas, Virginia, with the Art Reception scheduled for May 17th. 

Where and How to PWAS Members Apply?

See the Art Call at PWAS at ARTfactory. This art show submission software may be new to some of you, so take your time and READ the directions. Better yet, print the page out!

ONLY current PWAS members will submit their best artworks - or you can go ahead and quickly join or rejoin!  PWAS Membership There is a $15 entry fee for up to 4 entries, which is quite reasonable.

The size limit has been updated to a minimum of 256 square inches (Height x Width = square inches) to a maximum of 40" x 40". 

This PWAS Art Show Art Call is open from March 22 to April 12, 11:59pm so get your artwork submitted ASAP! Then mark your calendars for all of the important dates - especially the notification date, drop off, pickup dates.

Need Help Applying?

Please see How to Apply to an Art Call

AND you don't want to miss out on our next Art Call coming April 1, 2025...for artists in Prince William County, Stafford, Loudoun, and Fairfax County...

 It's going to be a fun spring and summer!

---

Author: Donna Liguria
Artistry Spin Blogmaster and an artist member of PWAS in Woodbridge, VA, specializing in acrylic painting. She paints landscapes, seascapes, animals and many subjects. Visit her Website at DonnaLiguriaArt.com, her Donna's Esty site and her Blog at Donna’s Cave Paintings.

 

Flyers: Kelly Haneklau and Sandra McClelland Lewin

---

Local Art: The Prince William Art Society is a 50+-year-old non-profit art group in PWC for the appreciation of fine art throughout the county and Northern Virginia. Visit us at any of our local art shows or join us for our monthly meetings - held on the 4th Monday of the month at the Tall Oaks Community Center at 12298 Cotton Mill Dr, Woodbridge, VA at 7:30pm

Want to join PWAS? Go to https://www.princewilliamartsociety.com/membership

Have an idea for a blog post? Are you a writer and want to help with the blog? Let me know! Thank you for visiting, and remember to Share, Follow, and Comment (below)! ...Remember, comments are monitored so they will not show up immediately.

pinterest-site-verification=3ad32cc9cfeae507ba5a382d62fcee17