Sketching at Sotheby's

The NYC Urban Sketchers recently met at Sotheby's on Madison Ave and 75th Street. This was the weekend group's first visit to their new location which was the old Whitney Museum. When we arrived we found out that only the second floor was open for sketching. Installations were being done on the third and fourth floors. The area that was open wasn't very large, but it had some interesting art. Luckily it was a fairly warm day (50°) so some of the sketchers headed outside to sketch the neighborhood...otherwise it would have been wall-to-wall sketchers.

I began with a sketch of my friend, Anna who was sketching the blue bust of Venus. As I finished sketching Anna more sketchers arrived, so my sketch expanded to include them too. On a pedestal near me on the right was a sculpture of ropes made of wool by Olga de Amaral called "Eslabon en Torsion." 

More and more sketchers came along. At the end of the day at show-and-tell there were 43 sketchers. Like I said, it would have been very crowded there if we were all inside. I moved my stool and was facing Marc Chagall's "Femme Centaure et Ane Vert Sur Fond Rouge." Of course there were a number of sketchers between the painting and my seat, so I included them.

Here are a few photos from the day.

Morgan Library

On Saturday the NYC Urban Sketchers met at the Morgan Library and Museum on Madison Ave and 36th Street. It was founded to house the private library of J. P. Morgan in 1906. It includes manuscripts, books, 3 Gutenberg bibles, prints, drawings, etc. In accordance with his will, J.P. Morgan's son made the library a public institution.

The original library still stands but a more modern part was added to house the museum which has changing exhibits. I wasn't sure there would be much there that was sketchible, but I was suprised. The library itself is overwhelming, basically from the sheer number of books. I did a narrow, vertical sketch so that I could include some of the ornate ceiling, the books and display case, as well as some people. The room is kept rather dim (to protect the books I would assume) so I was never quite sure what colors I was using. Supposedly there are restrictions on what art materials you can use. I worked with watercolor pencils and when I wanted to add water I went out into the lobby to do so. I added the ink there too. 

At lunch other people said they had used wet media and the guards were fine with it. So when I did this second sketch in J.P. Morgan's study I used the watercolor pencils but did add water with my water brush and added ink with my pen. This room was even darker than the library so when I finally went out into the lobby I darkened some of the colors because everything looked too pale.

If I had more time I would have done a sketch in the modern addition to the museum. It had some really interesting views of the different levels and the neighboring buildings.

In the morning before the library itself opened I sketched this panel with two cherubs that was over the door of the Polish General Consulate. It was around the corner from the Morgan Library.