After the Meeting with Bettie Sperty
The Prince William Art Society had a meeting this past Monday, October 24, 2022, and the program speaker was Bettie Sperty. For those that have been in PWAS for awhile or have been to the Open Space Gallery at Stonebridge, you may recognize some of Bettie's work and her use of shiny, glittery things in a lot of her art pieces.
The Next Day at Michael's
Who among us does not love shiny objects? I found Bettie's program mesmerizing! So enchanted was I by all the shiny surfaces I found myself researching the products that Bettie described...oh, I should have taken notes at the meeting! Besides, I'm working on Christmas flavored paintings!
So via text and a phone call here is the gist of the day-after convo:
Smartphone Text to Bettie: "I'm researching some of the paints you were describing last night."
From Bettie: "I'm heading to Michael's now to use my coupon."
Me to Bettie: "I'll meet you there." (Thank all the power's that be for an un-used Christmas gift card that can be used any where - in hand and on way to Michael's)
An art store is like a Toys-R-Us for adults. Get two artists together and see the gleeful adventures and discovery...Especially in the paint aisle(s).
If it wasn't on the shelf, oh mighty Amazon, a life preserver to an artist.
We were profoundly disappointed to hear that they are no longer carrying the Martha Stewart paints we were looking for. (Oh gloom and despair and agony on me.) But the discovery of the (new) Dragonfly paints brought forth all the "ooooo's" and "ahhhhs" and made up for the loss of the MS specialty gold paint.
Bettie's Supply List
Under discussion was of course, all the products she used and described from her program and my thoughts ran to, we need a supply list. Our thoughts also were in agreement to a Gold Leafing workshop, a Michael's shopping workshop excursion, and more. For now, the Christmas list...well, Bettie's supply list.
Art Supply TOYS List
- Gold Leaf, Bronze, Silver, and Variegated Leaf - plus adhesive
- Golden Interference Fluid Acrylic - many colors
- Martha Stewart's Gold Acrylic paint
- FolkArt Color Shift paint - lots of colors
- E6000 Glue
- FolkArt Dragonfly Glaze - some awesome colors
- Various glittery powders
- Assortments of "jewels", beads
- The Ultimate Tool for an artist, a Toothpick
As far as applying Gold Leaf as we don't have a workshop on it scheduled (YET), I discovered this fantastic video by Nancy Reyner on YouTube - it is packed with some very good all around art tips and well worth a view.
Ok fellow artists - you have your mission, go forth and create something shiny.
Hmmm, next stop Hobby Lobby, if I can find that other gift card!
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: 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 join PWAS? Go to https://www.princewilliamartsociety.com/membership
