Miami Beach Art Deco Festival

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Art Deco Weekend is the longest running free community cultural festival in Miami Beach with over 85 unique events. I will be going to sketch live music, the Art Deco marketplace, the antique promenade, the classic car show, the free dance classes, the Woman’s Suffrage Centennial Parade, the Art Deco Dog Walk along with special exhibitions and other unexpected pop up events.

I will be giving 2 sketch demos where I will sketch on the large leathery round leaves that can be found in the beach front park. The leaves are so strong that they can be sent through the mail as post cards and I want to try sending an Art Deco post card back to my studio through old fashioned mail.

Street performances can pop up at any time so the sketch opportunities are endless. I will have fun sharing what I love to do sprinkled in with some of the vibrant local history that makes this area so exciting.

Art Deco Weekend

Posted on by Thor

Orlando Urban Sketchers, Miami Urban Sketchers, and Tampa Urban Sketchers, will be a part of Art Deco Weekend in trendy South Beach Miami  this year. You can sketch with us at the Miami Beach Historic
District to capture the essence of the 1920 Era in your
sketchbook. This event is FREE. All ages and all drawing levels and skills are welcome.

The Art Deco Weekend festival by the Miami Design Preservation League is thrilled to include for the first time the Urban Sketchers in their official program with a series of Sketch walks, Urban Sketching
demonstrations and “Drink and Draw” events. Join us as we draw the
architectural gems of the Miami Beach Historic Art Deco District and
capture the essence of the 1920s Art Deco Weekend Festival Events.

A Sketchwalk is
an interactive walking tour run by urban sketcher leaders, where participants stop to pull out their sketchbooks and capture the scene in
a drawing. These on location from observation sketches tell the story
of place, time, and community. Equipped with inks and colors, urban
sketchers use their personal drawing techniques, interpreting their view
through their own styles. At each walk, through a ceremonious
“Sketchbook Throwdown”, the incredible variety of work captured is
shared and discussed, providing inspiration and a fascinating show and
tell for all.

The primary leading instructors are; James Richards,
Thomas Thorspecken, Gaston McKenzie and Greg Bryla, together with
instructors members of the FL USk chapters.

I will be hosting two demos, called, Leaf Something Behind.

Location: Versace Mansion – South beach park, opposite the Villa Casa Casuarina (1116 Ocean Dr., Miami Beach, FL 33139).

Description: As artists our goal is to leave something behind with the sketches we create.

Using found object Grape Leaves to do a pen and ink sketch of the active festival street scene.

On the beach front there are Sea Grape trees that have large round leathery leaves.

We will hang out in the beach front park or on the street as I do a sketch of the scene in pen and ink on one of these leaves.

The leaves can be mailed as post cards and I plan to test this out with the finished sketch.

Should
you like to do a leaf sketch yourself, I can’t guarantee there are
enough lying on the ground, but there were plenty last time I visited.

What to bring:
Bring your sketchbook and sketching supplies of your choice. As this
event is OUTDOORS be prepared with drinking water, portable chair/stool,
and appropriate clothes for the weather.

Where: Sketch walks commence at the Urban Sketchers tent (1001 Ocean Drive, Miami Beach, FL 33139).

21st Annual Car Show at the Art Deco Weekend.

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On day two of the Miami and Orlando Urban Sketchers crawl at South Beach in Miami, most artists were set up a block away sketching an Art Deco building on Collins Avenue. I wasn’t thrilled about just sketching a building, so I walked towards the crowds and commotion on Ocean Drive. I decide to sketch a long line of cars on display. Two Mini Coopers were at the front of the line. Pam Schwartz joined me and also sketched one of the cars in front of the Sury Hotel. The owner of the second Mini Cooper in line looked over my shoulder and was pleased to see his car in the sketch.

Pam was still busy when I had finished and I decided to rest in the shade of a palm tree and watch her work. I was amazed at how many people stopped to look over her shoulder. That must happen while I am working as well and I seldom notice. One young girl in ballet tights stopped to watch and she stood right in front of Pam blocking her view.  I have had people do that as a joke as if posing might get them in the sketch, but I think this girl was oblivious to the fact that she was blocking the scene Pam was sketching.

We stopped at the cafe in the hotel in front of us and ordered a huge iced margarita to split. A parade of giant puppets began to dance its way down the street. They were about 15 feet high. There was a merman whose arms dangled listlessly at his sides but he danced and leaned over to look at the crowds. Charlie Chaplin walked arm in arm with Marilyn Monroe.

Other artists started to explore the festival, and we watched them sketch as we sipped our drink. All the artists gathered in about an hour to share their work in front of a courthouse about two blocks away. The Miami Urban Sketchers had a rubber stamp that could be used to place the Miami Urban Sketch logo on each sketch. We then took a huge group photo and walked across the street to a vintage silver streamlined diner. Sitting near the couple from Puerto Rico, I got to learn about their struggles after hurricane Maria.

Art Deco Weekend at Miami South Beach.

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Art Deco Weekend at Miami South Beach.

The second sketch opportunity of our sketch crawl moved several blocks north. I became fascinated by two trees that were blown over at an angle. The two trunks spiraled around each other like a DNA helix giving the trees the appearance of being one. Most of the sketchers sketched more art deco hotels on Ocean Boulevard. From my vantage point sketching the tree, I could see several sketchers in the distance as they worked. We only had about an hour to sketch so I wanted to pay attention so I could finish about the same time as everyone else. Knowing me, I might get lost in the process and just keep working as everyone else packed up to leave.

I noticed the artists starting to gather and put their sketchbooks on the ground so everyone could see what had been sketched. There was some amazing talent in this group of  artists from Orlando Urban Sketchers and Miami Urban Sketchers. We walked towards a light in the ocean side park so photos could be taken of us as a group. We all held up one sketch along with the Orlando and Miami Urban Sketcher’s logos.

More than a dozen of us went to, Naked Taco, a local Mexican restaurant to chat and share stories about the experience. The server started up all off with free shots. Pam Schwartz and I split a queso dinero which feature crispy grilled chihuahua and manchengo cheese. This wasn’t what I expected being crispy chunks of cheese instead of creamy melted queso. I ordered a naked maarguarita. The margaritas were expensive and the servings small. My dish has hot peppers on top which made me spit out my first bite. Once I dissected the Dish and removed the offending peppers, the dish was fine. In Miami beach, a 20% tip is written in to the bill.

Artists were gathered from around the world. The couple next to me was from Puerto Rico, other artists were from were from Columbia, Argentina, Guiana, Vietnam, China, Israel and a gentleman from Virginia happened to be in Miami so he joined us as well. He had to  be the most enthusiastic artist I  have ever met, It is always fun to meet new artists exploring someplace new.

Art Deco Urban Sketch Weekend in Miami.

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The Orlando and Miami branches of Urban Sketchers collaborated to host a sketch crawl at Miami’s 41st Annual Art Deco Weekend on January 21st to the 14th. It is a long drive to Miami and when Pam Schwartz and I arrived, the sketchers were already finishing up a sketch of a beach side life guards station. Pam and I went down to the beach to dip our toes in the ocean.

When the gathering of several dozen artists moved to a new location, we joined them. I sat down to sketch the Edison and Breakwater Hotels. A vintage orange and white car was parked in front of the hotels. As the sun set, the Art Deco hotels lit up, creating an amazing bright contrast to the dark ultramarine sky.

Pam and I were seated next to a small courtyard where a pink ribbon was tied across the top of a staircase. It turns out we were at the event’s ribbon cutting. South Beach’s mayor came out to cut the ribbon to officially open the Art Deco Weekend. A man started taking to Pam saying that I would sketch so much better if I was high. He opened his palm and offered her some marijuana buds. She declined.

The crowd gathering for the Mayor got in the way of my seeing the scene I was sketching. I patiently looked between people and around butts to draw what I could see at any given moment. The Mayor invited the artist who painted the poster for the Art Deco weekend to the stage. The mayor in a three piece suit, announced the artist saying, “This is how an artist dresses for an event like this.” He got a few laughs from the crowd. The artist, Michael Young from Kansas City, was in khaki shorts and a t-shirt.