Post 517: Mixed Media Class with Penny Shaw

Mixed Media Class with Penny Shaw

A Mixed Media Workshop from the Prince William Art Society art group was given by Penny Shaw on Saturday, November 2, 2024 from 12-4pm.This workshop is the 9th in a series of 10 classes offered by the group in 2024 that have been offered free to the public.

Mixed Media Art Workshop

This beginning mixed media class explored the use of various papers, permanent markers, paint pens and assorted objects to create compositions found in nature.  Students observed images of reference photos learned to break them into background, middle ground, and foreground sections.  Students were encouraged to bring their favorite nature photos to class to use as a reference image. This class was led by Penny Shaw, an accomplished Woodbridge area artist. This event was held at the Chinn Park Library.

 

Click to enlarge

Chinn Park Library is at 13065 Chinn Park Drive, Woodbridge, VA 22192 

Projects in Progress

The students enjoyed the class! It was challenging but fun. Several Prince William Art Society members were in attendance as well as area artists. 

As you can see from the mixed media on display, these are all works that will be in progress for awhile. In Penny's workshop today, she had her students begin their landscapes with the torn paper pieces that were used with Modge Podge. The papers will need to all dry about 8 hours before moving to any next steps. 

Next steps could include about anything, too. As stated above, the background and potentially the middle ground of the artwork were started but must dry before moving to the foreground and details. Anything can be added including paint, ink, pens, crayons, acrylic pens, fabric, more paper, kitchen sinks. Also we will need to trim the edges as the papers are not always attached exactly straight on the edge of the paper.

 

 

I would LOVE to see the student's pictures once they have completed their artwork - be sure and send me a photo!

And thank you Penny! A whole new world of art just opened!

Upcoming PWAS Workshops

Watch for the next workshops offered by the Prince William Art Society, they tend to fill up fast. Classes are free, but spaces are limited, and you must register at:  https://www.princewilliamartsociety.com/register. Watch the website and this blog for news on up coming events. 2025 is lining up a roster of workshops too!

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Author: Penny Shaw, Tom Payne

 

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 Liguria

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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

Post 506: Mixed Media Workshop with Penny Shaw Nov 2

Mixed Media Workshop with Penny Shaw Nov 2

A new Mixed Media Workshop from the Prince William Art Society given by Penny Shaw on Saturday, November 2, 2024 from 12-4pm. The class is free but you must register on the Prince William Art Society website.

Mixed Media Art Workshop

This beginning mixed media class explores the use of various papers, permanent markers, paint pens and assorted objects to create compositions found in nature.  Students will look at images of reference photos and break them into background, middle ground, and foreground sections.  Students are encouraged to bring their favorite nature photos to class to use as a reference image. This class will be led by Penny Shaw, an accomplished Woodbridge area artist. This event will be held from 12-4 pm on Saturday, November 2^nd at Chinn Park Library.  It is free, but spaces are limited.  You must register at:  https://www.princewilliamartsociety.com/register.  We hope to see you there.

 

Click to enlarge

Chinn Park Library is at 13065 Chinn Park Drive, Woodbridge, VA 22192

What to Bring

Students are encouraged to bring a favorite nature photo for reference and a few magazine and/or newspaper clippings for the mixed media composition.

And bring your lunch and water.

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Authors: Larry Burch, Tom Payne, Penny Shaw 

 

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.

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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

Post 218: What Is Mark Making in Art?

What Is Mark Making in Art?

By Penny Shaw

Penny describes the process of learning to draw, but actually put in proper, simpler terms, learning to make marks on a surface. She has a series of 4 classes scheduled on Thursdays in October, and you can contact her directly to sign up.

Mark Making

Earlier in my career as a beginning artist I was admonished to “draw what you see and not what you know” by my seventh-grade art teacher, Mrs. Lashley of Johns Hill Junior High. She was a firm believer in learning how to see with your eyes and elaborate on your imagery with making marks that told your story. Her teaching has served as the bedrock of my skill set for the past sixty+ years as an artist and art educator. I have used this mantra in training students how to draw or make marks that tell their stories and ideas to others.

There is a distinction between making marks and drawing. Making marks involves any mark made using any material on any surface, such as: pencil on paper, Photoshop brush mark on a screen, painting on surfaces, or scratches in clay. Mark making can be seen on many different two-dimensional or three-dimensional surfaces. The lines can describe or suggest a multitude of ideas or stories that convey emotions, directions, or separation of shapes.

 

Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash 

Drawing chief component is line and usually appear on two-dimensional surfaces. These lines can suggest tones using techniques such as stippling, smudging, hatching or cross-hatching. Drawn lines can be created with dry or wet media.

New media has allowed drawing to evolve with moving away from chiaroscuro applications of values found in the old masters rendering of still life or portraiture to looking at how lines become designs found in zentangle designs or graphic imagery. Drawn lines tell different stories from many different cultural traditions. Many people have replicated permanent tribal tattoo designs or non-permanent henna Mehndi designs to commemorate events in their lives on their bodies as well as creating decorative imagery that evolve from emotions.

I have heard many say they cannot draw straight lines. Lines, whether as a drawn element or created in mark making, do not require you to make straight lines unless it is part of the story you are telling. Creative mark making does not require you to duplicate objects you see in your environment but does require you to allude to telling your story with visual shapes that suggest you can elicit a response from the observer.

The mantra draw what you see and not what you know requires an individual to let his story evolve from what is observed to projecting imagery that tells the artist’s vision of his story. There is no right and wrong way of telling the story in drawings or mark making. The artist becomes not only the storyteller but also the craftsperson that builds upon his ability to get responses from the viewer or interpreter of his story.

Join me at Open Space Arts at the Stonebridge Gallery for an introductory class in basic drawing on October 6. 13. 20, 27. This class is designed to begin the mark making journey that serves as the foundation for telling stories using line as the main element in two-dimensional drawing compositions. Many individuals lament that they cannot draw a straight line but wish that they can acquire basic skills in how to develop drawing skills. We will explore training the eye to SEE, investigate drawing materials, learn how to do blind and modified contour lines, and do simple value drawings using drawing techniques.

Class:

4 sessions – Thursday, October 6, 13, 20, and 27 at 6:00-8:00 in the back room of Open Space Arts at Stonebridge, 15000 #140 Potomac Town Center, Woodbridge, VA

Cost: $160.00 payable during the first class to the instructor

Materials list available during first class. Sign-up by email shawonesent@gmail.com

Ages: 15 and up, any skill level

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Author/Artist: Penny Shaw
An artist member of PWAS in Woodbridge, VA

 

Author/Artist: 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/.

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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 41: Artist Interview with Penny Shaw

Artist Interview with Penny Shaw

At Clearbrook Center of the Arts on Saturday, September 18, 2021, I worked the gallery with Andrea Castaneda and Penny Shaw. What an opportune moment to conduct an artist interview with Penny Shaw, a fellow PWAS Member. So, I just have to do it...a Penny for her thoughts.

Getting to Know Penny

1. What is the best piece of advice you've been given (and would pass along)?

Do you.

2. What is your art background?

I have training in art and art education from undergraduate to graduate school with degrees from College of the Ozarks in southwest Missouri located near Branson, Missouri; University of Illinois, Champaign, Illinois, and at University Oregon in Eugene, Oregon. I have forty plus years of teaching art, from pre-school through university level. 

 

My preferred area is drawing and painting but I am a Jill of all trades - as an art teacher, you have to be. I have had to master many mediums, techniques and styles in teaching art classes from glass, clay, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, graphic design and painting to name a few. Art educators do it all with smiles in hopes of encouraging their students.

3. What does your art say?

I like color and shapes.

4. What work do you most enjoy doing?

Painting or being creative.

5. What are your greatest influences?

I enjoy all art areas but was inspired by the work of Marcel Duchamp and his exploration of unusual ways of creating art. One of my favorites of his is Nude Descending a Staircase. I revere a lot of artists with abstract influences. (Sam Gilliam, Romare Bearden, and Jacob Lawrence) It creates a buzz in me how you can take something realistic and change it to blocks of color and shapes that elicits a conversation.

6. Does the place you live influence your art?

Yes, well anywhere you live does. When I was in southwest Missouri, I worked my way through college by selling watercolor paintings of trees, water, and nature subjects found in the Ozark foothills. I participated in art festivals there. I pushed to learn how to make crafts and found this experience was more enjoyable and created a thirst for problem-solving.

7. What keeps you going and why do you do what you do?

I enjoy bringing out the creative spark in people. I have been retired the last five years and I invite people to join me for painting virtually or in person. I have a virtual paint class that people join which is not dependent on the weather. I also invite friends to join me for paint sessions outside weather permitting.

8. What is your scariest experience in your art life?

Social commentary from the news had a bearing on my early life as an artist and what I was painting. As you mature your focus changes. Social commentary had its moment but events of the real world overwhelmed me because of the negative messages. There were a lot of things happening in the community that influenced my art and I needed a new voice. I changed to working with abstraction after a time.

There is so much beauty in the world, we should be thankful that we are citizens of this nation and have the opportunity to see the diverse settings from coast to coast.

9. What themes do you pursue?

I have started embellishing my painting with line art to help direct the eye to flow through the paint to see what is there.

10. What item in your art studio could you not do without?

A palette knife. It allows you to touch the canvas and is synonymous with elementary school sensory play with finger paints. I always want to go back and touch it. I like the textures. I can scrap it down or build it up. You can have rough or thinly painted areas, much more so than a brush. Too thin and it streaks. Palette knife can be thinned by smearing. There are so many things you can do with it.

The palette knife is an extension of your hand - that's what a tool is anyway.

11. Can you describe a funny experience you've had in your art life?

I once had a friend that asked me to help with a child's birthday party. She wanted me to do the face painting. Of course, when you do face painting, you are not painting the child's whole face, you are usually painting a small animal or whiskers around the eyes and nose like they are a kitten or puppy. I had some imagery of animal features or butterflies that I knew I could paint.

Along came this child who wanted me to paint her as a unicorn. She wanted a horn painted coming off her forehead. She wanted to BE the unicorn. Unicorn painting wasn't something I was prepared to do and the child insisted that I could do it. I tried to talk her into an optional "special friend" to the unicorn.  The kid wasn't having it. She wanted me to turn her into a unicorn. Here I was sitting there thinking this child is going to be crying any minute...

12. How did you get involved with the gallery and PWAS?

There was a Fall Art Show at Tall Oaks Community Center. A friend of mine in Dumfries told me about it, so I stopped in. I stopped by to check out the Prince William Art Society show and met Jim Gallagher. That was 3 years ago. I joined right away.

 

 

Penny working with an acrylic pour as a demonstration. She prefers working pours on larger canvases, but for the purpose of a demo, smaller canvases are used. Larger canvases are sometimes hard to maneuver into her car and many of her pieces are done as diptychs, triptychs, or multiple panels to fill the wall areas of her clients.

Penny's preferences when varnishing or using resin on her acrylic pour paintings leans more toward a matte finish. She wants to see the rawness of the color in its original form on the canvas which allows the viewer to see the textures and clarity of the colors.

Penny enjoys working out on her patio when the weather cooperates.

Penny at her one-man show at Jirani’s Coffee Shop in Manassas, Virginia - below, followed by some examples of Penny's artwork.

"Joy Rising" Diptych 48x48 Acrylic 

 

 

 

"Exploration I and II" Diptych 36x24 Acrylic

 

 

"Swept Away" Diptych 24x18 Acrylic

It was a nice afternoon with Penny and Andrea and it worked out well as a method of "getting the interview". So, who's next for the artist interview in November?
 

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Local Art: Visit us at Clearbrook Center of the Arts at Tackett's Mill in Lake Ridge, VA on Saturdays and Sundays from 1 to 4 – it’s free to see the artwork! Want to join PWAS? Go to https://www.princewilliamartsociety.com/membership

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

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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 Blog at https://donnascavepainting.blogspot.com/.

 

Author: Penny Shaw - thank you for your revisions!

 

Photography/Video Credits:
Penny Shaw's Photos