Post 317: Art Adventures in Woodbridge

Art Adventures in Woodbridge

There are several times a year here in Woodbridge, that our local Michael's Store announces those beautiful, immortal words, "70% off all Canvases". Joy fills our little artist hearts. After a quick check at the bank account and grabbing any available coupons, we are OFF to Michael's in that mad dash to get the best pickings...

Meet Your Friends at Michael's

Literally and in some different ways! 

I get to the store and grab a cart. I really wish they had bigger carts because those wee wheeled baskets don't hold the big canvases. I make a beeline to the art section. With all of the level one, two, three canvases on sale at 70% off, it doesn't get much better than that. All those gallery-wrapped canvases - 4x4, 5x7, 6x6, 8x8, 8x10, 9x12, 10x10, 10x20, 11x14, 12x24, 16x20, 20x20 and on and on...livin' in the artist paradise... Got my ten in my hand and a gleam in my eye... (or was it Gangsta's Paradise?) 

If you get there early in the sale, the choices in sizes are best of course. I grab all my favorite sizes plus that size over there. Maybe I need two of those? I wonder if I should have borrowed a tractor trailer?

I turn to go down another aisle and who should appear? A PWAS member thinking the same way I am. I go to the checkout and low and behold, another PWAS member. Impromptu artist meeting! A quick trip? Bah! An afternoon with friends!

OR I have met an artist friend at Michael's before to shop some recommended special effects paints. New toys to play with! Interference, Dragonfly and Color Shift paints are too much fun!

OR as I go up and down the art supplies, I come across another person pondering the merits of mediums. A quick question will open up the conversation, "Oh, are you an artist?" Followed by, "What do you paint?" You know what, you tell them about the Prince William Art Society and bam, you have a new friend and fellow painter!

I did invite some of them to the next PWAS meeting on Monday, March 27 at the Tall Oaks Community Center at 7:30pm. Planting those seeds you know. 

I'm happy now as I put away all my new blank canvas purchases, oh the potential. I see the question mark hovering over their cotton surfaces wondering what they will grow up to be.

---

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

---

Local Art: Visit us at Stonebridge Open Space Arts at 15000 #140 Potomac Town Center, Woodbridge, VA - Open Wed to Sat 12-7 and Sun 12-5
The Prince William Art Society is a 52-year-old non-profit art group in PWC for the appreciation of fine art throughout the county and Northern Virginia.

Want to know how to get involved at OSA? If you are an artist (18 or older) living in Prince William County, or a are a member of a PWC art group, you are welcome to get on our next art show's emailing list. Send it to us, OR come by the gallery to find out more.

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

Thank you for visiting, and remember to Share, Follow, and Comment!

Post 294: Great Find - Varnishing Artwork Videos

Great Find - Varnishing Artwork Videos

I have been asked by several Prince William Art Society members, "Do you varnish your paintings? If you do, what do you use?" Perhaps it is because of how my finished artwork appears or just in general. For whatever reason, I'm offering these 'Great Find Videos' here about varnishing videos I have watched and found quite useful, and I will give you my answer to the member questions too.

 

Photo by Surface on Unsplash 

Acrylic Varnishing

Finding Jerry's Live videos with Emmy - every Tuesday at about 5pm have been very informative. You may want to go to Jerry's Artarama and get signed up for the reminders. The videos can also be found on Jerry's Live on Youtube - so have at it! I actually won a really nice watercolor set one time from Jerry's when watching a live show and answering a question! I often take notes because they offer so much info!

 

Jerry’s LIVE Episode #JL205: Varnishing Acrylic and Other Media Paintings

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0d6d9IcL6TU

 

I mainly paint in acrylics so this first video was of great interest to me. Nonetheless, with all the fluctuations in prices and supply chain shortages ongoing - my favored varnish to use on acrylic paintings has been Krylon Kamar Varnish. The cost of a can has increased, so do shop around. Walmart may still be the least expensive place to occasionally find it. Originally, I was finding it at about $5-6 a can, but its more now.

I've also been asked, "Do you feel like artwork should be varnished?" Empathic "YES!" from me. I feel like it protects the artwork from wear, tear, sun, dust far better than not having it. You do want varnish with longevity of the artwork in mind and non-yellowing. 

 

I DO RECOMMEND taking your art photos BEFORE you varnish though. The camera will often pick up the shine and you will have to deal with that in Photoshop. 

Can you paint over the varnish, touchups, changes? Yes, with the Kamar Varnish. Then respray.

As far as the color changing after you varnish, I LOVE IT. I love the intensity and depth that a good varnish brings out. That's me. You do you.

Oil Varnishing

Jerry’s LIVE Episode #JL203: Varnishing Oil Paintings

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pr83mBD9LlU

 

I haven't oil painted in awhile, but I hope to try it again in the near future. I'll be rewatching this video when I do. 

What do you use, if you varnish? Why?

Great Find Videos - do you, as a PWAS member, have a suggestion for a video you have found? Send me the link and the reason why we need to share it on this blog.

---

Author: Donna Liguria
An artist member of PWAS in Woodbridge, VA specializing in acrylic painting. She paints landscapes, seascapes, animals and many subjects. Visit her Website at https://DonnaLiguriaArt.com & her Blog at https://donnascavepainting.blogspot.com/.

---

Local Art: Visit us at Stonebridge Open Space Arts at 15000 Potomac Town Center, Woodbridge, VA - Open Wed to Sat 12-7 and Sun 12-5
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.

Want to know how to get involved at OSA? If you are an artist (18 or older) living in Prince William County, or a are a member of a PWC art group, you are welcome to get on our next art show's emailing list. Send it to us, OR come by the gallery to find out more.

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

Thank you for visiting, and remember to Share, Follow, and Comment!

Post 257: The Cost of Art Supplies

The Cost of Art Supplies

As prices go up and up, how are you changing what you do, artistically? A question put to the PWAS membership recently and a few that responded are below.

How has the cost of art supplies affected what you do as an artist?

There could be various approaches to this question and the most obvious is to perhaps raise prices to reflect price increases in materials to create a painting. Others may change a certain brand which in a way is something to consider as the artist gets to explore new ways, methods, mediums or alternatives when they create what they do. How has the increasing prices of art supplies affected you, or has it?

 

Photo by JACQUELINE BRANDWAYN on Unsplash 

1. Donna Liguria

I really like using Kamar Varnish by Krylon for my paintings. Not long ago, by a few months as of the writing of this post, I could find the can at Walmart for a little over $5 a can. It could be found at Hobby Lobby or Michael's for a few dollars more, or I had also purchased it on Amazon in a 6-pack too quite reasonably. I saw it at Walmart a few weeks back and it had gone up to over $8 a can. As of today, October 26, 2022, on Amazon it is $25.74 (last week) for an 11oz can! (GULP!) And oddly enough, I just looked today (Nov 5, 2022) and it was $19.99... I'm just not paying that although I really like the product. 

 

I currently have other supplies that I can use for now, along with a few cans left from the 6pack of varnish I had purchased. If prices stay up, I may have to change and the finish would be a different look than I would have liked, but I'll see how it goes. As I am sure many artists will say, we are ever more looking out for supplies on sale. I'll also keep an eagle eye out for those marvelous Michael's 70% off canvas sales and I'm really hoping for a VISA Gift Card for Christmas!

2. Ann McCarty

I have curtailed as much spending as possible. Tubes of paint are not replaced until completely empty and I will shop around for the best price. Pretty much, I am working with what I have. 

Sales at shows have diminished, making it hard to justify the spending.

3. Otis Stanley

The cost of art supplies has not affected my output or what I do as a painter. I look out for art supply sales and purchase in stock.

4. Linda Nedilsky

Holy cow, yes!  Most things have gone up 25%. The dilemma is that everyone is hurting, so should an artist increase his prices, possibly decreasing sales, or increase by 25%.

For now, I am just keeping my prices the same. We will see how that pans out. 

5. Elena Cheney Jochum

The Cost of art supplies affected me early on, especially when I was in high school. I had to work since I was 15 just so I could afford supplies. It was one of the reasons I did not study Fine Art for my undergraduate degree. My family couldn't afford to help me with supplies back in 2008, especially larger canvases or oil paints. I was able to go to MICA in 2015 to receive a Post BACC in Fine Art, but I was able to afford my supplies by then. I ended up pursuing a career in graphic design and that helped pay for the tools I needed to use more traditional media. Basically I ended up pursuing a completely different major in psychology and then a career in graphic design instead of fine art, just because the cost of supplies and art education was too high for me.

 

 

Rising costs on your art supplies, how are YOU handling those costs?

---

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

---

Local Art: Visit us at Stonebridge Open Space Arts at 15000 Potomac Town Center, Woodbridge, VA - Open Wed to Sat 12-7 and Sun 12-5
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.

Want to know how to get involved at OSA? If you are an artist (18 or older) living in Prince William County, or a are a member of a PWC art group, you are welcome to get on our next art show's emailing list. Send it to us, OR come by the gallery to find out more.

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

Thank you for visiting, and remember to Share, Follow, and Comment!

Post 195: Shopping for Art Supplies (or Anything) on Amazon, Smile for PWAS!

Shopping for Art Supplies (or Anything) on Amazon, Smile for PWAS!

I have used Amazon Smile for some years now to donate to some things dear to me. Well, there is a new Smile in town - the Prince William Art Society!

PWAS Has an Amazon Smile Link

Starting up my "art biz" in the last couple of years - especially with these last couple of years (!) meant that a lot of my shopping for those art supplies were done online and as well as offline. I was hitting some of the usual art supply warehouses like Jerry's Artarama, along with Michael's and Hobby Lobby. And often, the best price research and purchase led straight to Amazon. We sure didn't have to leave the house and the box(es) arrived so fast!

 

With back to school on our doorsteps, Halloween on the radar, Christmas season coming shortly, the latest Firestick TV thingies being a must have, and art supplies an ongoing - MUST HAVES, I hit Amazon. Hard. OH, and darn, we just missed Amazon Prime Day, too. Start the "if onlys" here, my local art group could have made a mint off of me for the stocking up and things I needed. 

 

Nonetheless, as shopping online is just so dang convenient, BEFORE you go shopping on Amazon, consider going through this link:

 

https://smile.amazon.com/?ref_=smi_ext_ch_23-7300705_dl 

 

You don't have to do ANYTHING, Amazon does it all. A lot of items on Amazon are Smile-able. Which mean Amazon takes a small piece of the purchase and donates to the Prince William Art Society because it is a non-profit organization. You just do your thing on Amazon as usual and PWAS does the donate. Pretty snazzy, right?

On our website, I added the Amazon logo at the top and the bottom of the website, for your convenience...hint, hint:

 

https://www.princewilliamartsociety.com/

 

 

 

 

So, have fun finding your Amazon must haves, whatever it may be. Just know, we'll all get a smile.

---

Author: Donna Liguria
An artist member of PWAS in Woodbridge, VA specializing in acrylic painting. She paints landscapes, seascapes, animals and many subjects. Visit her Website at https://DonnaLiguriaArt.com & her Blog at https://donnascavepainting.blogspot.com/.

---

Local Art: Visit us at Stonebridge Open Space Arts at 15000 Potomac Town Center, Woodbridge, VA - Open Wed to Sat 12-7 and Sun 12-5
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.

Want to know how to get involved at OSA? If you are an artist (18 or older) living in Prince William County, or a are a member of a PWC art group, you are welcome to get on our next art show's emailing list. Send it to us, OR come by the gallery to find out more.

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

Thank you for visiting, and remember to Share, Follow, and Comment!