Artist Sherry Needle created the painting on our first page. She credits her sisters in the Atlanta branch with the inspiration for “Women in the Arts” but wanted the piece to be a tribute to all Pen Women.  We are grateful to Sherry Needle for allowing us to use her work as the gateway to our website.

Sherry loves being a Pen Woman in a branch  where they challenge each other and encourage new goals.  One creative exercise is designed to engage each other’s imagination.  Members bring their art, writing and music to a meeting.  Artists may take a poem or short story and create a painting; writers weave words from studying a watercolor; composers translate a sculpture into song.  This process of creative cross-pollination has produced powerful works and forged bonds among members.  Sherry is thankful for the support she gets from her fellow Pen Women and says, “I’d be there for them too.”

And Sherry has been there for her community, participating in “Art from the Heart,” a project sponsored by the Atlanta Fine Arts League of which she is a charter member. Portraits of Georgia’s soldiers lost in Afghanistan and Iraq are given as gifts to their families. With quiet reverence Sherry promised that “AFAL will make sure that all of the families who want a portrait will get one.”  (For more information visit Sherry at  http://www.sherryneedle.com/)

A fascination for art manifested in childhood, and a loving admonition from her grandmother to use her gifts or “miss your  calling” propelled Sherry toward a passion and a career.  Moving from Chicago 42 years ago, she now considers herself a Georgian, and continues to study, refine, and expand her skills.  From graphic arts and display work in museums to oil and portraiture, still life and plein air, Sherry’s creative impulse flourishes.

For Sherry, “Women in the Arts,” is an “intimate painting.”  Some of the objects in the piece were borrowed from friends in the branch. Local president Mozelle Funderburk loaned the violin; the inkwell came from a friend who found it on an annual trip to Williamsburg. Books of poetry, Women in Plays and the wit of Dorothy Parker are flanked by a photograph of an actress and a Cecilia Beaux painting. Sherry explains that Cecilia Beaux, a turn-of-the century portrait painter, influenced her work as an artist. Though Beaux was not as popular as Mary Cassatt or John Singer Sargent, her brush work, compositions and palette went beyond just creating a likeness, revealing a shared vulnerability with the sitter. Sherry marvels at the way Beaux painted white that was not white at all, at the multitude of colors revealed upon close observation. “And I did that for quite some time,” Sherry recalled, “while studying one of my favorite paintings called ‘The Man With the Cat’ during an exhibit at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta. It was such a treat to get up close and observe the fluidity of her strokes and then to stand back and revel in the conclusion. There is a depth and honesty that went beyond just a pretty portrait, a sensitivity in the compositions and the storytelling, especially with children.”

Since portraiture and figure drawing is Sherry’s main love, it stands to reason, she notes, “that someone like Cecelia Beaux would be a great influence in my life, and I felt that the painting I created for "Women in the Arts" was a good depiction of several strong characteristics of women.”  Asked why she chose purple for the background Sherry responded, “Royalty!  It felt rich and regal for us as women, the nobility we all share in the roles we take on in life from little girls to wives and mothers – as creative beings.”

“Women in the Arts” won best in show at the “Reflections” competition in the 2008 Virginia Avery Memorial Art Exhibition at the Marietta/Cobb Museum of Art in Marietta, Georgia.  It is no surprise that Sherry’s painting was singled out for excellence. 

It embodies the spirit of feminine creativity - sensuousness tempered by tenderness, with a richness of color and lyricism that is endlessly curious and joyful.  The painting shows a woman's heart - love without limits, and strength that can endure anything.  Sherry’s painting is a song that celebrates who we are and what we can be.