The Pen & Brush Art Day Extravaganza

I recently discovered  the organisation The Pen & Brush, Inc. which was established 117 years ago and is still going strong today. They are an international membership organisation for woman in the arts and yesterday they held a one day event which included both visual and literary artists. They are located a short walk from my apartment in Greenwich Village, New York which is very convenient in an absolutely beautiful building, anyway, I digress. It was a great event with a lovely variety of work and I was just sad that I couldn't stay for longer as I had to go and do important things like selecting and decorating our Christmas tree!

Here's a shot of my knotted gun study hanging in the gallery.

Work Permit - tick!

Finally, the best birthday present - my work permit! So it's full steam ahead and I'm feeling newly energised and inspired. I spent this morning struggling with and learning how to take satisfactory photographs in order to have prints made. It's so difficult only because I really don't know how to use our camera to it's full potential. I think I finally succeeded but only after carting everything up to the roof terrace for better light and then having to battle with the wind - eventually I had to drag my dutiful husband up to be my assistant! This one is now at the framers and should be ready to hang next week.

Knotted Gun Study 2, 30x30, charcoal on paper

I ended the day by resining (is that a word?!) two of the close up flower studies in preparation for installing them in the florist shop, suddenly it was dark and so I will have to finish the rest tomorrow. God that stuff stinks!

Knotted Gun Done

I finally sat myself down for a whole day and did nothing else but sketch this gun.  I think I was scared of messing it up because at nearly 4 feet across I was intimidated by the scale of it and so had been avoiding it for a while.  Anyway, I needn't had worried as it's pretty damn good if I do say so myself!  To see the finished product click on the link - Knotted Gun

Sketching the Gun

Study for Knotted Gun, 16x23, charcoal on paper

Sat down to sketch the knotted gun sculpture today from a few photographs I have taken. I thought I'd better start with some rough sketches having not used charcoal for about 10 years and even then it was never my favourite medium.  I am thrilled with the result, now I'm going to attempt to draw it again and three times as large!