Post 621: A Great PWAS Meeting with Otis Stanley

A Great PWAS Meeting with Otis Stanley

The members of the Prince William Art Society (PWAS) and several visiting artists, met on Monday, April 27 at the Tall Oaks Community Building at 7:30pm for their monthly meeting. We had a wonderful meeting with a special guest speaker, a time for social interaction, and got caught up on the upcoming business of the art group.

Guest Speaker Otis Stanley

Our guest speaker for April was PWAS member, Otis Stanley, who gave a wonderful talk on his life and artistic journey, finding the Prince William Art Society, learning to display art and talking about several artworks he had painted and on display. It is so inspiring to hear the story behind the artworks he creates, the feeling and the deep history found in so many of his pieces. And thank you for your service, Otis!

Many of us remember the time when we were part of the art gallery over at the Stonebridge Shopping Center (2021-2023) and were working as a gallery volunteers with Otis and his knack for getting people in to see the art... some of whom later became PWAS members! Otis is a treasure of a person and such an amazing artist.

A few pics from Ana Quispe: 

The Business of PWAS

Welcome to all of our new members - there were a lot of new faces, so great to see you! 

There are some very important upcoming dates for everyone that we discussed. 

Thursday, April 30 is the deadline to ENTER the Jul/Aug PWAS ARTfactory art show for PWAS MEMBERS! The theme is Nostalgia.

Saturday, May 2 Art in the Garden with Plein Air Artists Robert Dew and David Dillon - see the notices on the PWAS website for more info. Prince William Art Society

Saturday, May 2 PWAS Spring Tall Oaks Show at 12298 Cotton Mill Drive is our biannual show for an art show, rain or shine, right there in Lake Ridge 10-5. 

Monday, May 25 the next PWAS meeting will be when we award our Annual Scholarship to a graduating local high school senior that will be going forward and studying a career in art. Come and enjoy this wonderful celebration.

Monday, June 15 is the deadline for PWAS Members to submit their ideas for a new PWAS Logo. Watch your emails for info on this. 

July 10-Aug 9 is the PWAS at the ARTfactory Art Show featuring the member artworks with the theme of Nostalgia. This is a juried show and the deadline to enter is above, Apr 30.

Saturday, Sept 12 is the potential date for the 'new' Arts Alive art show at the Hylton Performing Art Center. More info to come on that later. Info TBD.

Saturday, Oct 5 should be the Fall Tall Oaks Art Show - dates and times and show coordinator TBD. 

Also discussed were some upcoming art classes (available on the PWAS website). 

As I like to say, miss a meeting and you miss a lot! See you at the next one!

Drop a comment below! 

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Photos: Donna Liguria, Ana Quispe

Author: Donna Liguria is the Blogmaster for the PWAS Artistry Spin Blog and Donna's Cave Paintings Blog, and an artist member of the Prince William Art Society (PWAS) in Woodbridge, Virginia. And she takes on the PWAS social media duties as well (help me!) Donna specializes in acrylic painting of landscapes, seascapes, historic locations, animals and many subjects. Visit her Website at DonnaLiguriaArt.com and her Donna's Esty site to shop her art. 

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 (typically, but check the website in case of any changes).

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.

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Post 619: PWAS Meeting Mon Apr 27 with Guest Artist Otis Stanley

PWAS Meeting Mon Apr 27 with Guest Artist Otis Stanley

The Prince William Art Society, known as PWAS (pronounced "p-whauzz") is a 55 year old nonprofit art group in Prince William County, VA that meets monthly on the 4th Monday of the month. The group meets at 12298 Cotton Mill Drive, Lake Ridge, VA at the Tall Oaks Community Center at 7:30pm. Meetings often have a guest speaker and for April, we'll feature PWAS Member Otis Stanley.

PWAS Meeting

On April 27 at 7:30 PM the Prince William Art Society will hold their monthly meeting at the Lake Ridge Community Center, 22192 Cotton Mill Road, Lake Ridge 22192. Monthly meetings feature a guest or member artist, a project, a show-and-share or our scholarship presentation. This month, members are invited to enjoy the work and philosophy of our accomplished member artist Otis L. Stanley, followed by a business meeting presenting opportunities to be involved in community arts. All members of the community are invited to attend these free meetings and art presentations. 

For PWAS member Otis L. Stanley, art is simply living. Often painting in monochromatic colors Otis creates art that reflects his experiences and culture. Acrylic paint is his choice of mediums. Never conforming to popular themes Otis would rather tread a road less traveled to invite conversation about the work. Hoping to shine a light on the common humanity of us all Otis is at peace in his lane of subjects. 

Otis has work hung in Va., Md., D.C., Pa., N.Y., N.J., Conn., La, Calif., S.C., Fla. and Tring U.K. Here is where you can view Otis' work:  @otisstanley9127 on Youtube, and on instagram he is @otislstanley.

March Meeting Collage Activity

Last month members and guests ripped, tore and glued collages to create abstracts or landscapes, portraiture, or narrative or figurative backdrops. Everyone was encouraged to take their collage home and use pen, paint or mediums of their choice on them - to alter them, add outline or detail, or simply to use the backdrop as a taking off point for another style of contrasting work. There was already a wide variety of interpretations as we left that night. See https://artistryspin.blogspot.com/2026/03/post-609-pwas-meeting-mon-mar-23-2026.html

Bring your altered collage back on the 27th to lay out on a side table to share. Anyone who missed last month can try a torn or cut paper collage (magazine scraps are perfect) on any mixed media paper, then use the dry collage as a backdrop for something going a little bit further. Then bring them in.

See you at the meeting! 

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Author: Donna Liguria is the Blogmaster for the PWAS Artistry Spin Blog and Donna's Cave Paintings Blog, and an artist member of the Prince William Art Society (PWAS) in Woodbridge, Virginia. And she takes on the PWAS social media duties as well (help me!) Donna specializes in acrylic painting of landscapes, seascapes, historic locations, animals and many subjects. Visit her Website at DonnaLiguriaArt.com and her Donna's Esty site to shop her art. 

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 (typically, but check the website in case of any changes).

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.

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Post 613: PWAS Meeting Mon Mar 23, 2026 in Pics

PWAS Meeting Mon Mar 23, 2026 in Pics

The nonprofit art group called Prince William Art Society, or PWAS, meets once a month at 12298 Cotton Mill Drive, Woodbridge, VA.That's the 4th Monday every month, except for December, at 7:30pm and the public is welcome to attend. The meetings are comprised of the usually an art topic program, some socializing with snacks and beverages and a bit of business of the art group. And you never know what creative people will come up with!

Art Project Pictures

Let's have a look at what the members were working on...

A big thank you to Evelyn Chatters for the pictures, as I could not attend the meeting this past Monday but as I always say, you miss a meeting and you miss a lot! Did you have fun at the meeting?? A fun project to do? Let me know in the comments below.

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Photographer: Evelyn Chatters

Author: Donna Liguria is the Blogmaster for the PWAS Artistry Spin Blog and Donna's Cave Paintings Blog, and an artist member of the Prince William Art Society (PWAS) in Woodbridge, Virginia. And she takes on the PWAS social media duties as well (help me!) Donna specializes in acrylic painting of landscapes, seascapes, historic locations, animals and many subjects. Visit her Website at DonnaLiguriaArt.com and her Donna's Esty site to shop her art. 

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 (typically, but check the website in case of any changes).

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.

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Post 611: Prince William Art Society Meeting Mon Mar 23, 2026

Prince William Art Society Meeting Mon Mar 23, 2026

Monday, March 23, 2026 7:30 pm at the Tall Oaks Community Center at 12298 Cotton Mill Road, join us for our Prince William Art Society monthly meeting to meet our new executive board. The meeting should be memorial with a new group of people with great ideas for the art group to succeed moving forward and reaching the group's missions and goals. 

Prince William Art Society (PWAS)

PWAS is a 55 year old nonprofit art group in Prince William County that meets on the 4th Monday of the month and meetings are open to the public. We have a good sized body of artist members at every skill level and create art in every media. We learn from each other and often by our monthly meeting programs given by other area artists. And we have fun!

Join us for a meeting in person and coming soon, we want to again offer via virtually joining the meetings. Then join us via membership at https://www.princewilliamartsociety.com/membership

See you at the meeting! 

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Author: Donna Liguria is the Blogmaster for the PWAS Artistry Spin Blog and Donna's Cave Paintings Blog, and an artist member of the Prince William Art Society (PWAS) in Woodbridge, Virginia. And she takes on the PWAS social media duties as well (help me!) Donna specializes in acrylic painting of landscapes, seascapes, historic locations, animals and many subjects. Visit her Website at DonnaLiguriaArt.com and her Donna's Esty site to shop her art. 

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 (typically, but check the website in case of any changes).

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.

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Post 606: A New Beginning Feb 2026 PWAS Art Group Meeting

A New Beginning Feb 2026 PWAS Art Group Meeting

The Prince William Art Society (1971), AKA PWAS, is an art group in Prince William County, Virginia with monthly member meetings. Because PWAS is a nonprofit 501(c)3 organization, we have a volunteer Executive Board and various volunteer committee "staff" if you will, that are periodically voted for or assigned. The meetings also may feature various guest speakers, art talks, art projects or scholarship awards, or a simple "show and tell" section.

PWAS Meeting Monday, February 23, 2026

The Prince William Art Society meets on the fourth Monday of the month at 7:30pm at 12298 Cotton Mill Road, Woodbridge, VA - that's at the Tall Oaks Community Center on the corner of Cotton Mill and Hedges Run. The public is welcome to attend. Many artists do that first before they officially join. The meeting began with the current board describing their board positions and what they do. A ballot was given out and each current PWAS member voted for the positions.

PWAS Munchies Meets and Greets

Part of every PWAS meeting is simple socializing with our wonderful artist friends. And we do that with beverages and snacks while getting caught up with each other. Many of us haven't seen each other for at least a month, and/or we meet and greet the new members and guests. We use Signup Genius to manage our "who is bringing what" volunteers each month. Does anyone ever say "No" to a good cookie?

PWAS Member Show and Tell

One of the favorite monthly programs for the PWAS meetings is "Show and Tell" artist adult style. Each artist brings a piece of art they are working on and shows it to the group and tells about it. Pictures from Show and Tell are below.

Volunteer Art Group Members

Every art group Executive Board out there has plans and goals for their membership and plan out their year accordingly. It takes work to achieve those projects. Volunteering to take a position, a task or project, to manage an art show or any of the numerous things that an art group either MUST DO or SHOULD BE doing is an honorable thing for any person to do. And as we have various members that are a part of other art groups all around Northern Virginia - we KNOW that getting volunteers is so very unfortunately a daunting task for ALL the groups.

Its great to have lots of members, but any and all art groups also need the people to volunteer to get things done. The beauty is though, that no one has to do anything alone, they can and should recruit other members to help them or to delegate, take care of the tasks in that project. We thank all of the PWAS Members that volunteer, past and present, to continue the work and the dreams of Prince William Art Society.

We voted, thus we have the results. 

2026 - 2027 PWAS New Executive Board

President: Ana Quispe

Vice President: Tinnetta Putney

Secretary: Staci Blanchard (interim)

Treasurer: Eric Ndofor

Member-at-Large: Ginnefine Jalloh

Community Liaison: Evelyn Chatters

CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL! 

We know that the new Board will meet with the outgoing Board members in about mid March to hand over the reins to our art group Board. And each one would be more than happy to help and answer questions to help the new Board get comfortable. A HUGE, HUGE thanks to our outgoing Board: Sandra McClelland Lewin (VP and interim President), Bettie Sperty (Secretary), Tom Payne (Member-at-Large), and to Staci Blanchard (as the PWCAC Rep) and Eric Ndofor (Treasurer) for continuing.

Let's Show and Tell

Ok, now for some pictures...Each person that brought in their art told a little bit about their pieces and some questions were asked.

 

Mark Murphy 

 

James Roberts 

 

Patty Gulledge 

 

Evelyn Chatters 

 

Gabriella Munoz

 

Robert Dew 

 

Kat Gates

 

David Dillon 

 

Sandra McClelland Lewin 

 

Donna Liguria 

Not all of the members brought in Show and Tell art (awwwww).

If it takes a village to raise a child, it takes an entire community, a whole county, and truckloads of creative people to run an art group! We look forward to the Prince William Art Society continuing to make its mark in and around the Woodbridge, Prince William County areas and beyond for 2026-27. Good luck NEW PWAS BOARD, Let's get busy!

Throw some congrats and thank yous in the comment area below! 

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Author: Donna Liguria is the Blogmaster for the PWAS Artistry Spin Blog and Donna's Cave Paintings Blog, and an artist member of the Prince William Art Society (PWAS) in Woodbridge, Virginia. And she takes on the PWAS social media duties as well (help me!) Donna specializes in acrylic painting of landscapes, seascapes, historic locations, animals and many subjects. Visit her Website at DonnaLiguriaArt.com and her Donna's Esty site to shop her art. 

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 (typically, but check the website in case of any changes).

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.

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Post 602: Snow is Cancelling the PWAS Meeting Set for Monday, Jan 26

Snow is Cancelling the PWAS Meeting Set for Monday, Jan 26

The Prince William Art Society meets once a month on the fourth Monday of the Month but NOT this month! The upcoming snow storm is threatening inches and inches of snow so the artists are staying home and trying to dig out.

PWAS Art Meetings

Typically the art group meetings are held at the Tall Oaks Community Center at 12298 Cotton Mill Road, but the Board has elected to cancel the meeting. The next meeting will be held on Monday, February 23, 2026 7:30pm and we look forward to seeing you then.

 

Tall Oaks Community Building in the Spring 

Paint While Being Snowed In

Need some ideas to paint? We should do a snow challenge...10x10, or any size? What do you think?

15 Fun Winter Painting Ideas for Cold Months 

What to Know About Painting Snow 

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Author: Donna Liguria is the Blogmaster for the PWAS Artistry Spin Blog and Donna's Cave Paintings Blog, and an artist member of the Prince William Art Society (PWAS) in Woodbridge, Virginia. And she takes on the PWAS social media duties as well (help me!) Donna specializes in acrylic painting of landscapes, seascapes, historic locations, animals and many subjects. Visit her Website at DonnaLiguriaArt.com and her Donna's Esty site to shop her art. 

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 (typically, but check the website in case of any changes).

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.

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Post 590: PWAS Meeting Recap 11/24/25

PWAS Meeting Recap 11/24/25

Monday, November 24, 2025. The Prince William Art Society met for their monthly meeting at 7:30pm at the Tall Oaks Community Center at 12298 Cotton Mill Road, Woodbridge, VA. Our guest speaker was Christine Dixon.

Christine Dixon

Christine gave the members a view into her creation process of the wonderful original artworks. She brought examples of her works, which were absolutely beautiful and shared information on her painting surfaces, varnishing, planning the subject matter, and much more. 

Her art bio info is found here: https://artistryspin.blogspot.com/2025/11/post-586-pwas-meeting-nov-24-guest.html 

And a few pictures from the meeting: 

The PWAS Meeting takes a break after the guest speaker, along with some snacks and a beverage. It is always a good few minutes of mingling with the members and learning what everyone is up to. The meeting continues afterwards with reports from the various PWAS officers on our finances, updates on our art shows, social media, website, art class news, etc. Members often ask questions, so Q&A can be a part of a meeting as well. 

Meetings are open to the public, so very often we meet new artists from around the area that want to learn more about PWAS. November is in fact the last official "meeting" of the year as the December get together is always a private member only (plus one adult) Christmas party. All members are to bring a pot luck dish and we ALWAYS have a great time. There is a Signup Genius link for the party that was sent out to members.

Now, I'm off to visit the family for a day or two, so Happy Thanksgiving Everyone! See you for the Christmas party!

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Author: Donna Liguria is the Blogmaster for the PWAS Artistry Spin Blog and Donna's Cave Paintings Blog, and an artist member of the Prince William Art Society (PWAS) in Woodbridge, Virginia. And she takes on the PWAS social media duties as well (help me!) Donna specializes in acrylic painting of landscapes, seascapes, historic locations, animals and many subjects. Visit her Website at DonnaLiguriaArt.com and her Donna's Esty site to shop her art. 

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 (typically, but check the website in case of any changes).

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.

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