Prince William Art Society (PWAS) is a group of local artists in Prince William County in Northern Virginia dedicated to an appreciation of the visual arts and fine crafts of local artists and this is their Blog, Artistry Spin. Find information about and by PWAS, our events, our Scholarship Program, our artists, our art shows and exhibits plus much more. Many of our artists display art at locations all around Prince William County, Manassas and beyond.
Here's another blog post from the Prince William Art Society members, where I ask a question and await to see who answers. The question posted was, "What have you been up to this summer so far?" I wondered and asked the members to send me what they've been up to, any new artwork, taking
any classes, going somewhere for a vacation, or just plain taking a
break. Let's have a look what the artist's days have been filled with.
PWAS Member Bettie Sperty
What I have been up to this summer is a good question.
I have recently been wondering where the months of June and July went! Mainly because I don’t feel like I’ve really done anything! What I have done is spend a little time in my vegetable garden, took a couple of visits to N.C. to see family, helped work on the granddaughter’s treehouse in our back yard, had her come visit us for a couple of weekends, dog sat a few times for two different dogs, attended a few meetings.
As for creativity, I did make some pottery pieces to use as paint brush vases/holders, I painted a friend’s cement dog to look like her real dog and now painting her giant cement crab, worked on knitting projects and just this past weekend got to spend 3 days at our friend’s place on the water in Southern Maryland.
Not very exciting but not too shabby either. - Bettie
PWAS Member Robert Mira
As far as what I’m doing for the next 30 days, I've started to learn and
practice drawing. It’s an art which I thought I could never do but
practicing every day has provided some positive results as far as I’m
concerned.
I’ve learned how to have better control when creating lines, how to see
things in a basic form, get better at figure proportions, etc…
My goal is to later on bring those skills into my paintings. Here are some samples:
PWAS Member Donna Liguria
I had to pause myself and think back on where has the summer gone....already! The Best of the Region at the ARTfactory seems like ages ago, yet its only the end of July. Like Bettie, I grow a vegetable garden although much smaller. And I love all the great home-grown tomatoes and fresh basil. BLTs, roasted tomatoes, pesto...good eats.
Through those many rainy days we had, I've inventoried and reordered my giclee art prints, and got those packaged. I've been updating my Etsy shop and sold a few things there, and shipped those orders out. I've attended a workshop with Valerie Larson and I've described that on my blog here Donna's Cave Paintings. I did get started on the Tech Series talked about in the workshop post, here is what I have so far:
I've completed a commission for the DC Four Seasons Series I did, and this one is called, "A Capital Summer". And it was picked up by the client just before the Fourth of July.
I've also packaged the DC Four Seasons Series as a print package available on Etsy. I have "Cherry Blossoms, An Annual DC Event" (Spring), "A Capital Summer", "Lincoln Memorial in the Fall", and "White House Having a White Christmas" (Winter).
And I'm waking up each morning to multiple colors of Morning Glory flowers which find their way onto canvas and watercolor paper. I have a blog post on that here. Other than that, I've been applying to a few of the area Art Calls, so awaiting the verdict on those.
Let's see if we can go to a Part 2 on What PWAS Members Are Up to This Summer. PWAS Members? Send me your stuff by July 31! When I get 3-5 replies, we'll do a part 2. Visitors...post a comment below!
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).
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.
The Prince William Art Society (PWAS) Artistry Spin
Blog will explore the use of technology and its impact on the world of art.
There are so many tools and resources that can benefit the artists to not only
create artwork, but to inspire them, to share their work with the world and to
potentially sell their artwork. We'll review and offer suggestions on some of
the top trending tech on the web, popular for artists, and those wanting to
find out more about art, and perhaps, YOUR art.
Why an Art Blog?
A blog is a good way to promote your art, your knowledge of art, your art business, and your art website without being overly in your face. As you may know, people buy art more often if they can relate, they can connect to the artist - by learning your story, the story about your artwork, and how it makes them feel. A blog can document the story of you and each piece that you create.
A blog is another outlet for being creative,
especially if you enjoy writing. You really don't have to write a book, you be
you and communicate your message in a way that is comfortable to you, in the
language you use every day. Share what you know about your medium, why you
painted the subject of the artwork, how you felt or what happened in your life
that you poured into the work and so much more.
Blogs are search engine optimization food for your art. Google and other search engines plow through the internet gobbling up new content, categorizing what it finds. By adding those sweet keywords and keyword phrases and building your blog content, the search engines will find you and will understand how to catalog your data.
Social media - your Facebook and Pinterest postings, are more limited on the content you post, perhaps by character count, the number of images, who can see your posts, etc. They are meant to be short blasts of info that the viewer can quickly digest. Blog writing means you can post as much info as you like to get your point across, and often all the pictures you took of an art show you are in.
Your art websiteis your personal and professional online art gallery, a showcase, and an art shop that shows who you are and what you have created, and perhaps what is available for purchase. Your social media links direct traffic to your website and vice versa.
Your art bloggives you the space to share your story and your artistic journey in much more detail. That said, you should have a page or at least a link on your website that directs the viewer to your blog.
You'll Need to Pick a Blogging Platform - Check out the tools and features of various blogging software and think about what you want to get out of it - now and into the future. See if its free, a free trial to try, or what the pricing options are. Not many are totally free as there may be hosting fees, domain name fees, or have more features and advanced SEO tools in the pricing levels.
There are more out there of course. These are often recommended blog platforms for their ease of use with templates, intuitive interfaces, drag-and-drop features, etc. making setup fairly pain free.
Do some research to spot layouts you like to get an idea of what your want on your site.
You'll need aNamefor your blog, and specify theURLfor your blog.
Do you need to register your blog and get hosting?
Select the themeand layout you like. Templates are often available. Customize the colors, the fonts, what goes where and more.
Consider sidebars, pages, and other optional features. Be sure and check the Mobile and Computer view of your blog.
Provide a keyword rich description for your blog.
Create a Draft post, get a post started. You should always have at least one photo on a post.
Publish the postand have a look at it live.
Promote the blog. This is not Field of Dreams in that if you build it, they will come. You have to let your art public, friends, family, the world know that you have a blog and you just posted on it.
Can you make money with your blog? Some offer this functionality in several ways.
Just be aware that once you chose a design theme, there are some changes you may not want to do later as it might be too drastic a change. I once altered a theme layout on one of my blogs and some of my posts were temporarily no longer with us. Talk about a mad scramble toward recovery!
An option I like in Blogger is that I can create a Post Template so that whenever I begin a new post, I have my fonts and layouts, signature areas and info already added to the starter post and can then just adjust titles and the body as I like.
What Should I Blog About?
Anything you want to. But a main focus area for consistency is better and in this scenario we are talking about an ART blog. Are you passionate about art? That should show in what you write about.
Create a list of Blog Topics of interest to you, a sort of blog idea list and add to it when another light bulb appears overhead. Sometimes I even have draft posts for blog ideas that I write up over time and publish when I feel its says what all I want it to.
Write about specific art pieces and the STORY behind the piece.
Blog about your goals and what you want to do in the future with your art talent.
Blog about shows you get into and want to apply to.
Write about what artwork and art series you have in progress. Before and After makes for good posts - we all want to see how the artwork turns out.
Have a favorite art tool? Why do you love a certain paint brand?
Obviously, any art shows you have coming up and attend. Pictures of art receptions and definitely your solo exhibits all document your art journey.
Locations, people and places, pets and favorite art subjects that inspire your artistic self are what you post about.
Places you go to paint - do you plein air paint? Do you take art classes?
Your art studio.
This is just a starter idea list, but blog posts themselves make for great topics, pins, links to add to Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, Twitter, etc. By sharing to all your social media, you're helping to promote your art and YOU!
When Should Blog?
Whenever you can! Find a schedule that works for you and stick to it as best you can. Posting at least once a week is often recommended. You can schedule posts in advance to perhaps post every Monday, or whenever you like. Content is King on the internet, so having fresh content regularly is search engine fodder as well as good your art fans.
Well, what do you think? I like that I have a way to say something that I may not always be able to articulate on the spot, but can put together my thoughts on various art subjects and then post them out
to the world. There are stories about many of the art pieces that I have and I want to tell that story too. Maybe blogging will work for you, so will you be starting an art blog?
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).
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.
The Prince William Art Society (PWAS) Artistry Spin Blog will explore the use of technology and its impact on the world of art. There are so many
tools and resources that can benefit the artists to not only create artwork, but to inspire them, to share their work with the world and to potentially sell their artwork. We'll review and offer suggestions on some of the top trending tech on the web, popular for artists, and those wanting to find out more about art, and perhaps, discover YOUR art.
Social Media and Pinterest
Social Media is a pain. Social Media takes time out of your day. Social Media can be a glorious way to be discovered by people that never knew you, or that you are an artist, anywhere in the country - unto the world and galaxies beyond. So, social media can be seen as a necessary evil, but I've covered that in other PWAS Artistry Spin blog posts (see https://artistryspin.blogspot.com/2025/06/post-585-tech-series-1-instagram-for.html). Choose your pain and stay in your lane whether it be Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter / X, TikTok, or Pinterest (or other route).
For this blog post, the next online platform for artists that we will look at is Pinterest in this tech series. Be sure and see the first two in the series as well.
What is the difference between Instagram and Pinterest? Yes, both are visual platforms.
"Instagram is primarily a social networking site for sharing photos and videos, focusing on real-time updates and connecting with a community.Pinterest, on the other hand, functions more like a visual discovery engine and search engine for inspiration, with users curating content for later use and potentially discovering new ideas from others' boards." - AI Overview
So that looks like it could be a very interesting spot of visual artists to be in to me.
Pinterest is a good place to find out about art, artists,
and all things interesting about art and art ideas - besides all those scrumptious looking recipes.. Discover art because
Pinterest is basically a search engine that can be used to find art –
potentially YOUR art, via photos (mainly) rather than by video or reel as on Instagram.
When you follow someone’s profile or a board on Pinterest,
the pins they create will begin appearing on your home feed – and vice versa when they follow you.
It’s a good thing to be followed, but a better thing is to have the traffic
Pinterest sends to your feed. Having quality optimized content in your consistently posted pins
gets you in a position to be searched on and found.
You can create a personal account or a business account
which is good to know before you begin as your art can be a business
account.
"Pins" are the bookmarks that save the ideas,
tips, images, products, and videos of interest to you and that you share with
others. What I really like about it is to include a link that goes to whatever you want the viewer to see or do.
Create a Board - sort of like pinning a note on your bulletin board, you can position and categorize the pins you collect in a very organized way. Check out the PWAS Pinterest page here. Hey, while you are there, give a follow!
As an artist (potentially trying to sell art), you may want a few of these sample categories, thinking ahead on the pins you may want to collect and add to your board and for your potential followers that may want to save and share as well:
Acrylic Paintings
Art Shows
Watercolor Paintings
Art Business
Oil Paintings
Art Supplies
Prince William Art Society
You get the idea. You can create up to 2,000 boards. AND you can follow up to 50,000 users.
A pin must scream loudly over the zillions of other pins so
that users Stop and Scroll. Followed by them clicking on the link you provided
to learn more – which could lead directly to your website, your art for sale,
anything you want them to learn about you. We want your Pins to be shouting, "Check ME out!".
1.1. Create a Pinterest account,
individual and/or business with your artist Name
a.Profile
Details Name is 30 characters
b.Bio
is 160 characters
2.2. Get the app for your phone, as that is the main way that most people view Pinterest.
3.3. Plan your Pin, Pin schedule – daily
(and time of day), weekly, monthly and how to make your "Pinteresting".
a.Target
Audience - who are the people most interested in your art?
i.Remember
most users are on mobile
b.There's
a Problem - popular Pins identify an issue
c.Solve
the Problem - popular Pins solve an issue
d.Benefits
to the viewer - popular Pins identify the "What's in it for me?"
iv.Your
branded Pins for your business – consistency in visuals so that your pins might
be easily recognized as belonging to you. You can do that via consistency in:
1.Color
Palette
2.Background
3.White
Space on Edges
4.Add
your URL on the overlay
5.Margins
1/4 to 1/2 inch
6.Use
easy to read fonts – only a couple of changes in font types, set with a
hierarchy in the elements and alignments. No need to get so fancy that a viewer
can’t read it.
b.Pin
Title – 100 characters, a clear Keyword rich headline
c.Pin
Description - optimal length of characters is 100-150 is where the main
focus is but you are allowed up to 500. Ensure the beginning of the description
has main keywords.
i.Pin
File Size - 1000x1500 pixels with an aspect ratio of 2:3 width to height
ii.CTA
– include a call to action in every pin
iii.Include
relevant hashtags # (they are a part of the 500 character count)
d.Pin
Link – where do you want the viewer to go to learn more? *THIS is important!
e.Pinterest
Board – organize your own boards to reflect your art areas of
interest.
i.Board
Name is 50 characters
ii.Board
Description is 500 characters
f.Pin
Tags – select the appropriate tags. For an artwork, look up the subject of the art piece. Here are a few of the "Art Topic" ones I've found:
Posters,
Prints, & Visual Artwork
Wall Galleries
Virginia
Contemporary
Artist
Watercolor
Artist
Acrylic
Painting
Mixed Media
Painting
Oil Painting
Wall Hanging
Wall Painting
Wall Art
g.Select
Product – if needed
h.Publish
OR schedule it to post later
i. Set a day aside for monthly social media scheduling to save time for yourself - so you don't have to necessarily live pin every day.
5.5. Create Templates of your
branded art business pin styles – about 5-6 different types to repurpose,
repost, repin – to help you save time and effort.
6.6. Research the Tools to use to make Pin Making easier. You know....work smarter not harder.
a.Canva
b.You
can use many of the suggestions from these 2 PWAS Artistry Spin blog posts to help:
Let's answer some common questions about Pinterest.
How Often Should I Pin?
Now we get into the meat and potatoes. Quality over quantity. Five to eight quality content pins
posted daily have the longest lifespan, save rates and engagement according to those that do the stats. You may want
to begin with 3-5 daily and watch your analytics to find your best engagement
topics, times, and sweet spots.
What Time of Say Should I Pin?
You need to find what works for you but the statisticians that study these things say that Weekday evenings are better than am posts. And Sunday afternoons are better than say a Friday evening or Saturday - folks must be too busy to scroll?
8-11pm for Recipes and DIY projects – try 3-4 pins in peak times
to test
Patience, Grasshopper. Pin consistently, often, and let people know you are ON Pinterest (friends, family, other followers elsewhere) by including your Pinterest icon on your website, art store, other social sites, posts, comments, email subscribers, sky writing....
Post Ideas and Suggestions (I’ll be updating these so stay
tuned)
Your original content to drive traffic
to your own website, blog, Etsy store, online store
Your Studio Tour
Lessons Learned after a project or art show
How you prepare for an art show
How you create a Go Kit for an art Show
Seasonal Art
Gift guides featuring your art and
art merch
Fresh How to guides, instructional,
tutorials
Latest Art
Pet Portraits
Art Product Tips
Your art merchandise for every
single item you sell
Find what doesn’t belong in my
studio
A Day in Your Artist Life
Caption This or Title This Painting
Art Motivation and Quotes
Celebrate Something – a milestone,
an anniversary, an art sale, an art award
Behind the Scenes
Before and After – great for artists
Productivity Tips
Nostalgia Pins
Re-pin other people’s pins into your
own board of interest to your own target audience
What NOT to do
How to info
Pin Video content too!
Create infographics about anything
art
Ooops I spilled the paint
What should I add to this painting?
Drop a Selfie of you doing something
Have your logo in the photo
Create a pin for an art commission
you’d like to offer
Create a pin for your art
merchandise
Create different overlays for the
same blog post and create different pins
And
For Further Reading About Pinterest - as you can see, I believe in
doing the research. I don't think you need to pay for a class or a
"social media expert" when all the info is already - out there. Out
there should be an AKA (as known as) the internet.
As
I have pointed out in other blog posts on Artistry Spin, when I do
research for topics with timely advice and how to information, it makes
sense to observe the date an article or post was published so that you
have the best info available. Prices change, websites are updated,
features are added with upgrades to their functionality, so newer
content plain makes sense.
Now, go forth and Pin Me! Let me know if you get going on Pinterest or Instagram so we can follow each other! And follow this blog too. Comment? Do you have any tips to add? Add one below and find the Blog Echo!.
BLOG ECHO: Find the quote reference for a 1970s TV series and post the quote and Series Name in the comments below...
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.
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.
BLOG ECHO: A new feature on some of our blog posts. I'm looking for a specific reference to a movie, a TV show or series, a quote, or common saying 'hidden' in the blog post. Find it and pop it in the comments below with the show or item it is referencing to see who gets it first!
The 1970s TV series Kung Fu, Master Po says "Patience, Grasshopper"
