Long Island's 'Pen Women' group offers outlet for artists

One dips her brush in watercolor to paint a portrait of her infant great-grandson. Another blends acrylics on canvas to create a contemporary landscape while others focus on abstract, collage and narrative styles.

All are members of the Long Island branch of the Washington, D.C.-based National League of American Pen Women, who for almost 50 years have met a few times a month at various venues throughout Nassau County to create art.

“The kicker is most of us have been doing what we have been doing for nearly 50 years,” said Merrick resident Kay Ray, 91, president and a longtime member. “One comes by Uber and another comes in a wheelchair with an aide. No barrier stops us.”

The award-winning artists, ranging in age from 70 to 96, exhibit their work in museums, galleries, colleges and libraries across Long Island and Manhattan. They are some of the more than 1,600 members of the national league who are not only professional artists but writers, composers and choreographers. Founded in 1897, the prestigious organization has included the late writer Pearl S. Buck and painter Georgia O’Keeffe.

“To be a member, you must be an established professional in your field; you must have sold and exhibited work,” Evelyn Wofford, treasurer of the National League of American Pen Women, said in a phone interview. “The 17 women who founded this organization wanted to be sure the women did not just dabble in the arts. They must earn a paycheck. That is our heritage.”

The group is seeking new members of all ages, though they don’t get a lot of inquiries. It costs $65 a year to join and the organization offers discounts for student memberships. Ray, an award-winning contemporary, abstract and Impressionist painter who said she has exhibited her work at East Hampton’s Guild Hall and Lincoln Center’s Cork Gallery in Manhattan, explained that applicants are first vetted by the branch. If the local members approve the application, the candidate is recommended to the national organization, where a credentialing officer grants admission. 

For many years, the branch consisted of 35 active members, said Ray, a great-grandmother of four who joined the group in the mid-1970s and has a bachelor’s degree in art education. The branch now counts only 14 members — all of whom are artists.

Ray said the remaining members are like family.

“The friendship and understanding of each other is what makes this group so special,” she said. “We each have someone who we can relate to and understand where we’re coming from.”

Diane Hawkins, 70, a Baldwin portrait artist, said she joined the group nine years ago because she relishes the camaraderie and appreciates the guidance and perspective of the elder members.

“They are like having art mothers,” said Hawkins, who has a master’s degree in fine art and is the youngest member of the group. “From their years of experience, they can see where I’m getting stuck, and they say things I haven’t thought of . . . their work is so different from mine, and it sparks my imagination and helps me get wedded to my process.”

Art as a 'way of life'

Min Myar, 95, of Wantagh, a retired fashion illustrator, joined the branch in 1980 after she studied at The Art Students League of New York in Manhattan and the Art League of Long Island in Dix Hills. Over the years, she said her work developed into a more contemporary style. Recently, she said she began experimenting with gelli printing, a technique that creates a single textured print by using a gelatin-like plate and acrylic paint.

The great-grandmother, whose work was featured in the Heckscher Museum of Art’s prestigious Long Island Biennial in Huntington in 2018 and who has won multiple awards, said painting is not a hobby but a “way of life.”

About six years ago, after a car accident landed Myar in the hospital, art helped her heal by allowing her to work through her depression and process negative emotions.

“My sister-in-law gave me a pad and some paints, and I painted,” she recalled. “My bed was by a window, and I saw trees and the cityscape, and I painted them. The art got me through, and it helped me to fight depression. It was a godsend to be able to paint.”

‘I had two lives’

For Selma Stern, 83, painting has been her lifelong aspiration. However, for years, balancing work and family left little time for artistic endeavors. After the former English teacher moved to Wantagh 30 years ago, she began taking art classes at her local library. Within five years, she was teaching art there.

“I had always wanted to paint, but I never had the guts to start, and I was afraid to fail,” said Stern, who joined the branch in 1995. “I had two lives: an English teacher and, in my second life, I became an artist.”

Stern, who has had her work published in two books and said she also has had exhibitions at East Hampton’s Guild Hall and Lincoln Center’s Cork Gallery in Manhattan, said she primarily paints florals using watercolor and acrylics and has recently expanded into collage. “No matter how old you are, you can still learn,” she said.

Dolores Caporale, 96, of Hicksville, couldn’t agree more with the well-known adage. The retired fashion illustrator — who paints women’s figures and lyrical abstractions using acrylic, pen and ink and sometimes gouache, a water-based opaque paint — keeps a long to-do list.

“I want to take classes in life drawing,” said the great-grandmother, whose work has been exhibited at the Heckscher Museum of Art in Huntington. “I’m not finished learning.”

Caporale, a graduate of the Traphagen School of Fashion, an art and design school in Manhattan that closed in 1991, recently started experimenting with gelli printing and is working on a watercolor version of “The Last Supper.”

She said she joined the branch in 1980, and the relationships she formed with members keeps her coming back year after year.

“Knowing the ladies personally, it secures your feelings as an artist,” she said. “The women are smart and show their work in different exhibitions, and they have so many suggestions and ideas.”

A group show

Last November, the branch held an exhibition at the Plainview-Old Bethpage Public Library in Plainview. The show’s judge, Thomas Germano, professor of art and art history in the Department of Visual Communication at Farmingdale State College and a studio painter, said the group’s members are “dedicated and serious about their craft.”

“There were works that were referential pieces with an understanding of the history of art and formal issues, including shape, line, color, composition and drawing,” Germano recalled. “There were many mediums: collage, oil, drawing and watercolor, and they excelled with the medium. It boils down to the execution of the craft, and the works stood out being very good.”

These days, the members gather weekly at the administration building on the grounds of Sen. Speno Memorial Park in East Meadow to paint and draw.

4-Hour work sessions

“During the four hours, we work — we don’t talk. We’re serious,” said Ray, adding that members catch up and socialize at twice-yearly luncheons. “Some people think people up in age can’t do things. These are vital women who are still pursuing their careers in art and are working hard to reach the next level of artistic expression.”

On a recent Wednesday, after they cleaned their brushes and packed up their supplies, members gathered around a table displaying their compositions to offer each other suggestions for improvement.

“Each one brings their knowledge to the group,” Myar said. “We don’t always agree because each one has their own training and opinions. But we appreciate each other.”

And on this day, they didn’t agree with the critiques made about a member’s drawing of a live model. Ray suggested the figure’s foot needed delineating while Stern felt it wasn’t necessary.

“It [the feedback] is very helpful. We don’t fight,” Stern said with a laugh. “It’s a nice group, and you work with women with similar interests. We learn from each other and get encouraged by each other.”