Going to the Dogs

Yesterday the NYC Urban Sketchers went to a location that was new to me, the Museum of the Dog near Park Avenue. Apparently it was located in Manhattan about 30 years ago but moved to Missouri. It relocated back to NYC about 2 years ago. It is in a beautiful building. There is fine are in the form of paintings, sculptures, porcelain objects and interpretive displays. The museum apparently has a 1,700-piece collection as well as a 4,000 volume library and a wonderful gift shop.

I usually check out the whole area before I pick something to sketch but when I arrived at the 3rd floor I was attracted to this pair of Harlequin Great Danes made out of glazed ceramics by the Hispania Factory from 1960. The looked so real!

There were quite a few bulldog statues and a Yorki Doodle Dandy statue of a Smoky, a Yorkshire terrier that was with the soldiers in WWII. He is in a helmet. He was credited with saving the lives of a group of soldiers. A book was written about him.

Around 12:30 there was a live presentation that was part of their Meet the Breed program. A beautiful Gordon Setter named Winston was there. His owner/breeder discussed the breed while Winston visited with his audience. I tried sketching him but he didn't stay still for long. I caught him from the back and was able to do a bit of his head. I also sketched a little girl that was very interested in playing with Winston. Later I sketched one of the statues in the cases.

Quite a few of the other sketchers were focused on the bulldogs in the display cases, so I used them as models for my last sketch. Other sketchers, like Julie, Laura and Emily are usually very cooperative and don't move around much. Our day of "Going to the Dogs" was fun.