Showing posts with label PWAS Plein Air Posse. Show all posts
Showing posts with label PWAS Plein Air Posse. Show all posts

Monday, March 31, 2025

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

Monday, January 13, 2025

Post 529: PWAS Meeting Guest Speaker Robert Dew

PWAS Meeting Guest Speaker Robert Dew Jan 27, 2025

The Prince William Art Society (PWAS) meets every month on the 4th Monday of the month at 7:30pm at the Tall Oaks Community Center located at 12298 Cotton Mill Road, Woodbridge, VA. Besides covering art group business in the later part of the meeting, we'll open this meeting with our special guest speaker and fellow artist member, Robert Dew.

Plein Air Painting with Robert Dew

On January 27th the Prince William Art Society will offer a program on plein air painting by member artist Robert Dew, an active member of the PWAS plein air group Plein Air Posse. Mr. Dew will cover doing both quick watercolor sketches and more detailed oil studies en plein air and take questions from members. 

Meetings are free and open to the public, who are cordially invited to attend. Programs begin at 7:30 pm on the fourth Monday of each month at Tall Oaks Community Center, 12298 Cotton Mill Drive, Woodbridge, VA 22191

More information on the Prince William Art Society can be found on the web site:  https://www.princewilliamartsociety.com/



What is Plein Air Painting?

From Wikipedia: En plein air (pronounced [ɑ̃ plɛ.n‿ɛʁ]; French for 'outdoors'), or plein-air painting, is the act of painting outdoors.

Read more on the Plein Air Posse and Painting:

https://artistryspin.blogspot.com/2024/05/post-463-plein-air-painting-equipment.html

https://artistryspin.blogspot.com/2024/03/post-447-pwas-plein-air-posse.html


Tall Oaks Community Center off Old Bridge Road, on the corner of Hedges Run and Cotton Mill Road.


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.

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! pinterest-site-verification=3ad32cc9cfeae507ba5a382d62fcee17

Tuesday, June 11, 2024

Post 472: A Day of Plein Air Painting with Marni Maree

A Day of Plein Air Painting with Marni Maree

Saturday, June 8, 2024 9am. Nine of the Prince William Art Society members met at the Occoquan Regional Park with Marni Maree (our Plein Air Teacher) and Tom Payne (PWAS Member at Large and Workshop Coordinator) in the shade, down by the river with our plein air backpacks, sketchbooks, and a bucket.

Artists in the Great Out Doors

Some of the students were experienced plein air painters and a few were first time painters out in the wild of Occoquan. Although fish were jumping out of the water behind Marni, and the ducks a-quacking, the students listened attentively to our fearless leader's instructions.

Photo by Tom Payne of The Plein Air Posse with teacher, Marni Maree

Photo by Tom Payne of the students gathered around Marni, down by the river.

Photo by Tom Payne of  Marni instructing her attentive students.

Photo by Tom Payne of Marni giving the plein air students 3 challenges.

A Day of Painting in a Van Down by the River

A very beautiful day it was. The temperature was very comfortable, the sky was a big blue umbrella and the shade next to the Occoquan River was a big bonus too. 

Location to Paint: Occoquan Regional Park 9751 Ox Rd, Lorton, VA 22079 Lots of lovely amenities besides all the paintable views including a restaurant and restrooms!

Sidenote: Whenever I hear the phrase down by the river, I remember the Chris Farley SNL sketch of Matt Foley. Well, we weren't in a van, but we were certainly down by the river, with other folks getting their morning walk or runs in. Give a shoutout if you remember that one! Some people biking, some strolling, some with a good book on a bench. Others were on the water in various floating devices and boats. They were all fair game if they happened to appear in one of our paintings.

Supplies List 

The supply list was easy, nothing complicated and very easy to carry.

Sketchbook with watercolor paper
Ink pen (waterproof)
Mini watercolor palette (3-5 colors) 
Water brush (filled with water) 
Paper towels or cloths
Chair or stool
Photo by Tom Payne of Marni demonstrating her plein air techniques

After giving out her instructions, the students were let loose. Release the Krackin. Plant thyself in your spot. Bust out the colors and throw down!

PWAS Plein Air Painting Class Members

Now I must say, in defense of our art, for those of us that need it (me), the first step in the first of the 3 challenges was to quickly and without too much thought to the process, use only about 3 watercolors with a large aqua pen to block in the basics of what we saw in our selected paint subject. Step 2 was to let that dry. Step 3 was to then use a waterproof ink pen in our NON-DOMINANT hand and draw in the shapes of what we saw. As you can imagine, if you're right or left-handed and have to use your other hand to draw...your brain explodes.

Yet, it was a very interesting lesson.

And thank the powers that be for creative license. The photos of the plein air paintings below may or may not be done per artist and their choice to add more or not after they got home.

Donna Liguria

Donna Liguria beginning her painting, photo by Tom Payne

Photo by Donna Liguria, Reference photo for the plein air painting, view toward the Town of Occoquan and the 123 bridge
Donna Liguria's first time plein air painting (and first time drawing with my left hand, and barely any watercolor experience...)

Mark Murphy

Photo by Tom Payne of Mark 
Kayaking by Mark Murphy

David Dillon

Photo by Tom Payne of Dave

Robert Dew

Photo by Tom Payne of Robert

 

Wow! As you can see, Robert was VERY productive!

Anna Gatling

Photo by Tom Payne of Anna
Photo by Tom Payne of Anna and Marni
Photo of Anna's plein air painting

Emily Hawes

Photo by Tom Payne of Emily, whom I hear went fishing...
Emily Hawes Reference Photo
Emily Hawes plein air painting

Kathleen Gates and Joe Gates

Photo by Tom Payne of Joe and Kat Gates with Marni
Kat's Reference Photo
Kat Gates plein air painting

Sonya Cromwell 

Photo by Tom Payne of Sonya
Plein air painting by Sonya Cromwell
 

Plein Air Painting

Artists are nothing but out-of-the box creative people aren't they? And Marni gave us so many tips and suggestions that were so very helpful! I do believe we all had a terrific time and it was so nice to be out of the studio, out of the house and watching, hearing, experiencing nature -in your face- for a change. The chirps and quacks, the snippets of passerby conversation, the pitter-patter of jogging feet, as well as the ever present zoom of cars across the bridge were all a part of the flavors of the day from this spot on the river.

Photo by Donna Liguria, view of the Occoquan River toward the I95 bridge, and Robert Dew working on his painting
Visitors approaching, Photo by Donna Liguria
Noisy, nosey visitors watching us paint, and I didn't like the attitude of that art critic 2nd from the left. Photo by Donna Liguria
Lunch break with Marni, Photo by Donna Liguria

Challenge 2 was to take 2 pages of your sketchbook, breaking up into sections and doing small studies of something you see. Like close up leaves and grasses, or reflections on the water.

Challenge 3 was to do something we see but leave room on the page to write words - about the day, the location, the feeling...in a way its a diary of the day. Not sure many of us got to this challenge but it is a great way to remember the day in your art journal. Did anyone finish this task yet?

PWAS Question: Do we members that take a PWAS Plein Air Class, automatically become a part of the Plein Air Posse? Inquiring minds want to know. And second question, when can we do this again?

Free with support from the Prince William Arts Council and the Prince William Parks and Recreation


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 Liguria and each artist

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!