Sketching at Salmagundi Club, NYC

To see my paintings visit my website www.janblencowe.com

Antique books from the Salmagundi Club Library. You may recognize the sketch of Rembrandt's Road to Emmaus,  in the open book. Pentalic Nature Sketch, 8.5 x 11, 130lb. 25% cotton paper,  various markers including Vision Uni-ball, Copic, Bic Mark-It, Prismacolor, Utrecht Design Markers.

A few months back I joined the Salmagundi Club Library Sketching Group, a newly formed group in an old organization.

Founded in 1871, the Salmagundi Club is one of the oldest art organizations in the United States. Housed in an historic brownstone mansion in Greenwich Village, New York City, its members have included important American artists such as Thomas Moran, William Merritt Chase, Louis Comfort Tiffany, N.C. Wyeth and Childe Hassam.

 Pentalic Nature Sketch, 8.5 x 11, 130lb. 25% cotton paper, Sepia, Caran d'Arche Supracolor II Soft pencil

Historic palettes on the walls in Salmagundi Club library, including Ralph Blakelock's, Ernest Lawson's, one of The Eight of the Ash Can School, Carl Brenner, William Henry Lippingcott 


The Salmagundi Club originated in 1871 as a sketch class in Johnathan Scott Hartley's studio and purchased this mid-nineteenth century brownstone house in 1917 as its second home.

Originally formed as the Salmagundi Sketch Club in 1871, the Club adopted its present name a hundred years ago after Washington Irving published his potpourri of wit and wisdom called "The Salmagundi Papers". The name also serves as the club dining room's famous "Salmagundi Stew".

Today, the club  is reviving the sketch class that began over 140 years ago.

Bust of Thomas Moran, Pentalic Nature Sketch, 8.5 x 11, 130lb. 25% cotton paper,Derwent, burnt sienna, watercolor pencil.

 Pentalic Nature Sketch, 8.5 x 11, 130lb. 25% cotton paper, 2b graphite pencil

This charming fellow sits atop the mantle in the library and I'm beginning to think of him as the group's mascot!

Salmagundi Club Library

New Sketches: Late Afternoon Clouds

To see my paintings visit my website www.janblencowe.com

Here's a couple more from yesterday. Still working in the Stillman & Birn Beta series sketchbook and using markers: Copic, Utrecht Design, Bic Mark-It, and Uni-ball vision pen.

 Markers are a really fun medium. They're quick, can be layered, blended with a colorless blender, and they require you to simplify, a good skill to hone for plein air painting.

New Stillman and Birn Sketchbook

To see my paintings visit my website www.janblencowe.com

Stillman & Birn have developed a new line of hardcover sketchbooks, so naturally I had to get one! This is their Beta series book, with extra heavy 180 lb. natural white paper and a rough surface. This is the 7 x 10 in. 25 page book. Sketch done with Bic Mark-It Markers and a Uni-ball Vision pen.

 I really, really like working on heavy paper, the heavier the better. Stillman & Birn says that this paper has enhanced wet strength and is suitable for mixed media. I like it because it takes markers and while the marker does show through the other side of the paper it does not bleed through to the next page. Sketch done with Bic Mark-It Markers and a Uni-ball Vision pen.

 This sketch was done with a Uni-ball Vision pen and Daniel Smith watercolors. I wanted to see how the watercolors did on this paper. It's certainly a good paper for watercolors, strong, little to no buckling as the paper gets wet, but I did find the paper slightly less absorbent than the 130 lb. paper in my Pentallic Nature Sketch sketchbook. So that answered my question of which sketchbook to use for watercolor and which for markers. But I wouldn't hesitate to recommend this one for watercolors, it's very good for that, it's just that I'm used to the way the Nature Sketch paper performs and I'll stay with that for convenience.