Post 533: A PWAS Meeting with Guest Speaker Robert Dew

A PWAS Meeting with Guest Speaker Robert Dew

The Prince William Art Society (PWAS) met on Monday, January 27, 2025 at 7:30pm at the Tall Oaks Community Center in Woodbridge for our monthly meeting. Our wonderful guest speaker was a fellow member, Robert Dew who gave a great presentation on Plein Air Painting.

Plein Air Painting with Robert Dew

Robert's presentation on how he prepares to go out and paint out-of-doors was a well-received one! He described how he set up for oil painting and for watercolor painting and emphasized that you really do not need to spend a lot on supplies - especially if you are a beginner or if you are unsure if you will enjoy the experience of taking your art process outside.

Robert spoke of various experiences in different locations and painting while on vacation, then showed the artwork created when doing so. He gave a lot of great tips and suggestions including having a much smaller painting pack while traveling and the importance of taking plenty of pictures for several quite reasonable reasons: (1) the light changes every second making the process of painting quickly and loosely rather mandatory; and (2) when traveling with a nonartist friend, partner, or spouse, they may not be too keen on spending too much time in one spot! So a quick sketch or rough outline for a subject goes into one of his art journals.

The Q&A section of Robert's presentation had a lot of great questions including his painting surfaces, papers, and how he picks interesting angles and 'views' for his subject matter. And absolutely, he loves a beautiful sunny day for painting!

 

In a recent blog post, I asked Robert how he stored all of his artwork. If you follow Robert on Facebook, he is posting new artwork ALL the time - rather amazing but as he has said, he tries to paint something every day. In the colder weather, he may be indoors more often but when Plein Air Painting, he will often get several pieces started - and will occasionally complete them at home. See these links:

Art Tips From Various Sources

PWAS Meeting Guest Speaker Robert Dew Jan 27, 2025

Bluebells and the Plein Air Posse

Interested in Plein Air Painting? Often it is best to learn by just getting out there and doing it. 

See suggestions for what you might need while Plein Air Painting but as stated above by Robert, don't invest a lot of money into the supplies unless this is definitely an art creation avenue you want to explore. Plein Air Painting Equipment and Supplies

In 2024, the Prince William Art Society started their PWAS Plein Air Posse (PPAP) group and Robert Dew and David Dillon are the leaders of this group of artists. They would be happy to extend the invitation to go out and paint to any PWAS members that would like to give it a try. Just contact them to see when and where works for everyone.

Contact Robert Dew rddew@live.com and David Dillion anarty1@comcast.net

As a matter of fact, the PPAP will be out painting at the Sunday, March 30, 2025 Bluebell Festival at Merrimac Farm located at 15020 Deepwood Lane, Nokesville, VA where PWAS will also have a table set up with artwork from our members for sale. You are very welcome to join the group of painters. Contact Robert and David if you are interested in painting there.

A big thank you to Robert Dew for this great presentation! 

PWAS Business

After Robert Dew's Plein Air Painting presentation, the PWAS members broke for snacks and beverages, mingling with the visitors and fellow members, followed by the business portion for the group. The members learned about where we are, what's going on, what art events are coming up, and so much more.

Did you enjoy Robert's presentation as much as I did? Leave a comment below.

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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 (below)! ...Remember, comments are monitored so they will not show up immediately.

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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.

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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.

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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 452: Bluebells and the Plein Air Posse

Bluebells and the Plein Air Posse

A story about the inaugural outdoor plein air painting session of the new Prince William Art Society group called the Plein Air Posse which had their first meeting and outing at the Merrimac Farm in Nokesville, Virginia on Sunday, April 7, 2024. The Bluebell Festival at this historic location made for a wonderful subject and feature for the group's artwork: Bluebells.

Bluebells and the Plein Air Posse

by Tom Payne

A crisp Sunday morning dawned on Merrimac Farm as members of the PWAS Plein Air Posse rode into Nokesville, Va. The sun was shining, the wind had died down from the previous day, and five PWAS artists were ready for a perfect day of painting among blooming bluebell flowers.

David Dillon, Robert Dew, Jess Kodad, Doreen Dauer, and Jeff Holman walked
down the trail that runs along Cedar Creek until each one found a suitable location to set up shop and begin their individual plein air painting experience.

The morning sunlight, streaming in from the east, cast long dappled shadows on the bluebells and the forest floor. Blues, greens, and browns were the colors of the day as beautiful sketches slowly appeared on the artists’ paper and canvas. Many visitors on the bluebell trail stopped to chat with the artists, offering compliments and words of encouragement. Everyone was smiling and enjoying the sea of azure blue at their feet.

Elizabeth Stathis and Donna Liguria held down the fort at the PWAS table. Lots of folks stopped by, admired the artwork, and inquired about joining our illustrious art society. We hope to see them again at an upcoming membership meeting.

One exciting highlight occurred when a photojournalist from Voice of America stopped to photograph and interview Doreen Dauer as she worked on her oil painting along the bluebell trail. 

He also stopped and photographed me as I was photographing Jeff Holman. Who knows? With a little luck, maybe PWAS will go worldwide as part of the story being done by VOA about the Bluebell Festival.

In case you didn’t know (I didn’t), Voice of America is the state-owned news network and international radio broadcaster of the USA! It is the largest and oldest of the U.S. funded international broadcasters, producing digital, TV, and radio content in 49 languages, distributed around the world. Its targeted and primary audience is non-American. As of November 2022, its reporting reached 326 million adults per week across all platforms. Very cool!

During the day, I wandered down the trail and captured photographs of each PWAS
artist hard at work and enjoying the zen magic of the glorious day. Stay tuned and keep an eye out as members of the Posse begin to share their artwork on Facebook, the PWAS website, and the PWAS blog - Artistry Spin. They don’t know it yet but I’m going to encourage the plein air artists to share their experience and insights at a future membership meeting. The Plein Air Posse is always ready to ride, in search looking for more awesome painters and painting opportunities. Enjoy today!

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

Tell us what you think in the comments below! We love hearing your feedback. Want to learn more about Plein Air Painting? Come by a Prince William Art Society meeting and join the group(s)! The Plein Air Posse is a part of PWAS. The next PWAS meeting is Monday, April 22, 2024 at 7:30pm at the Tall Oaks Community Center 12298 Cotton Mill Drive, Woodbridge, VA.

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Author: Tom Payne

PWAS Member-at-Large (2024-2025) and digital artist, photographer. If a PWAS member has a suggestion or question to pose to the PWAS Board, contact Tom.

 

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

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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!