Post 391: After the Workshop with Valerie Larson

Workshop with Valerie Larson 

The Prince William Art Society (PWAS) offers various art workshops about once a month all around the Prince William County area on a variety of art subjects. I recently attended a workshop given by Valerie Larson in Manassas on "Marketing Made Easy Plus Fun With Watercolor Pencils" where the attendees learned about marketing on Instagram, followed by using watercolor pencils.

Marketing Made Easy

Valerie Larson, whom many PWAS artists are familiar with, has been a guest speaker before at our member meetings. (By the way, PWAS meetings are open to the public and are held on the 4th Monday of the month at 7:30pm at the Tall Oaks Community Center at 12298 Cotton Mill Drive, Woodbridge, VA. )

See these 2 posts on PWAS Artistry Spin: Blog Post and PWAS Meeting with Valerie Larson

Valerie is well-known for her pet portraits and in her workshop, she describes her painting process, her commission process, and the in depth process of videoing, editing, and producing Instagram reels. The reels she creates are not only used to market her paint business on social media, but to relay to her clients the progress of their pet's painting.

Valerie's workshop was extremely helpful in understanding the value of Instagram reels and how she creates the reels she posts. She described the specific equipment and apps that help her design interesting posts that help promote her work and thereby generate commissions. Check out her Instagram.

There was a point where Tom and I discussed that we needed to share with our art group members the use of technology - the internet - social media use - the benefits of using the various tools that are within a keyboard or mobile phone's reach away. Sure, many of our members do post the artwork they create, but many members don't use social media at all, let alone promote their art business online. That's probably true of many artists worldwide to a degree.

We do realize that a lot of artists may not be computer savvy. Hey they've been doing important stuff like making art and making babies and working on those grandbabies! Life is all about those priorities, right!?! Technology is the least of their worries, I am sure. But perhaps that curiosity is there to learn more...

Since this workshop, I have been so inspired by Valerie and have written and posted on this blog and the PWAS Artistry Spin blog several articles I think may help artists to at least become interested in learning more about the technologies available, if not learn some art tips that may help. Am I right?

Tech Series 1 Instagram for Artists

Tech Series 2 Are You Reeling on Instagram?

Tech Series 3 How to Be Pinteresting

Tech Series 4 is on the horizon...

There could very well be more in the Tech Series to come, so follow both blogs so you don't miss out.

Sure, we may not become "influencers" but learning to use, to post our art for the world to view online has far more potential reach than a small pop up art show. 

I would be remiss not to include my own social media as well as PWAS - and Follow too, while you are there!:

https://www.instagram.com/donnaliguriaart/

https://www.facebook.com/DLiguriaArt/

https://x.com/DonnaLiguria

https://www.pinterest.com/donnaliguria/

https://www.instagram.com/princewilliamartsociety/

https://www.pinterest.com/PrinceWilliamArtSociety/

https://www.facebook.com/princewilliamartsociety/

https://x.com/PWASVirginia

Watercolor Pencils

I use watercolor occasionally. Nope, let's say rarely use watercolor - its use is certainly a different mindset than acrylic painting. I've taken a couple of watercolor workshops offered by the Prince William Art Society with Mark Murphy and Marni Maree. But this was the first time using watercolor pencils - that was different! And we used Valerie's favorite painting surface, Aquabord by Ampersand - now that's a pretty cool surface.

Notwithstanding my minimal skills as a watercolorist, here is my attempt at painting with watercolor pencils:

I know, I know...practice, practice, practice. 

The trouble I find, although I do like playing with watercolor, is that you do have to then mat and frame or package the watercolor artwork. I'll more than likely stick with acrylic as my main man, but it is nice to delve into the water world occasionally.

Let me know your thoughts on the subjects in the comment area below. Or at least follow me on Pinterest, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook!

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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. 

Photography/Video Credits: Tom Payne took most of the photos above

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