Art Deco Weekend Classic Car Show

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Art Deco Weekend is the longest running free community cultural festival in South Beach Miami. Orlando Urban Sketchers, Tampa Urban Sketchers and Miami Urban Sketchers teamed up to offer free demos and sketch walks during the festival. The Breakwater Hotel was one of the buildings that was on the sketch walk I hosted. Walking up and down Ocean Avenue I became infatuated with this car parked in front of the Breakwater.

The owner sat in a lawn chair behind his car and other car owners chatted with him for the longest time. A guy and his girlfriend sat on the grass in front of me while I sketched. When they got back up, the guy asked what I was doing. I think he suspected I might be drawing his girl. When he saw the sketch of the car he offered a compliment. He turned to his girlfriend and brushed her butt with his hand saying, “Your dirty.” He did this three more times, laughing as they walked away. At the outdoor patio across the street, guests were enjoying drinks and “The Best Cuban Food” at Havana 1957 Cuban Cuisine South Beach which is also known as the “Cathedral of Cuban Mojitos.” Now I kind of wish I had ordered a drink to sip while I sketched.

Waldorf Towers Hotel

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The last stop on the sketch walk I hosted was the Waldorf Towers Hotel (860 Ocean Drive Miami Beach FL) built in 1937 by architect Albert Anis. A curious and unique feature of this building is the round watchtower on the upper right hand corner. It seems like this might be a good place to look over the street scene below but the glass blocks under the tower verified that you couldn’t actually stand up there and look out the windows of the tower. It was purely decorative.

The structural system is concrete block stucco and has 44 rooms built at a cost of $75,000. The building is nearly symmetrical in it’s primary and secondary elevations. The only exception is rounded corner. The building has continuous eyebrows (horizontal banding) with a slightly projected central bay with a stepped ziggurat parapet roof line. There is vertical ribbing at corner and a central bay and fluted columns support the porch. There is multi-colored terrazzo floor designs with glass block ornamentation in lobby.

With the sketch walk finished and the sun setting we all “threw down” our drawing to see what everyone had done during the sketch walk. It is fun to see the wide variety of styles and then we all posed for photos. This walk was a collaboration between Orlando Urban Sketchers, Tampa Urban Sketchers and Miami Urban Sketchers. A few people also joined us because they heard about it during the Art Deco Weekend.

Beach Patrol Miami Beach

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Pam and I went on a sketch walk with
Gaston McKenzie of the Tampa Urban Sketchers group at Art Deco Weekend in Miami Beach. The Beach Patrol Headquarters were built in 1936 by Robert Taylor.  Backside of the building is a prime example of Tropical or Nautical Deco, a style that mimics the lines of 1920s era ocean liners with port holes and ships railings. It would make sense to see people lounging on the top deck.

The MiMo (Miami Modern) facade along Ocean Drive fronts the Oceanfront Auditorium which is home to the Miami Design Preservation League’s Art Deco Welcome Center, designed by Leonard Glasser in 1954. In the center is a nautical flagpole flying the flags of the U.S. and Miami Beach. Inside are public bathrooms and concessions for visitors. The Urban Sketcher’s tent was just a block away, so this became home base any time I needed to rest. A woman rushed into the men’s room one time screaming as she rushed towards a stall. Maybe she was rushing to get her son, or maybe she just had to go, but staff forced her to leave. It seems Miami beach would be the perfect place for unisex bathrooms.

It started to rain towards the end of the sketch so Pam and I ran for cover where many of the other sketchers were huddled under a sea Grape Tree. The large leaves of this tree offer good cover since the leaves are so large acting like mini umbrellas.

Casa Casuarina: Versace Mansion

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Orlando Urban Sketchers, Tampa Urban Sketchers and Miami Urban Sketchers teamed up to offer workshops ad demos at the 3 day Miami Beach Art Deco Weekend. My first demo was titled, Leaf Something Behind, and my plan was to sketch the Versace Mansion on one of the large circular Sea Grape leaves that can be found all around the beach front properties of South Beach.

Before the demo, I decided to sketch the mansion on good old paper to get used to it’s proportions and patterns before the challenge of working on a leaf. For this weekend I brought along some gouache paints in a new palette. I immediately fell in love with the option of being able to put down pure bold opaque colors wen needed. I decided while doing this sketch that opaque white might be needed when I decided to work on Sea grape leaves. These leaves are leathery when they dry out and rather study. A tour guide had told me that they can be sent through the mail as post cards.

One of the event staff go carts was parked in front of the mansion as they needed to drop off water and other supplies to the VIP dance area behind me. All around me people were in a hurry to set up their tents to be ready for the crowds that would decent on the festival over the weekend. Rain threatened multiple times during the morning, but the showers were short lived squalls and I put the umbrella up and continued to work.

Art Deco Weekend VIP Reception

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Art Deco Weekend is held in Miami Beach each year. Art Deco Weekend was created nearly 43 years ago by the Miami Design
Preservation League (MDPL) to showcase the beautiful Art Deco buildings
of South Beach, saving it for future generations. MDPL’s early work was
the catalyst that created the vibrant, world-class city we live in
today.

This year, Orlando Urban Sketchers, Tampa Urban Sketchers and Miami Urban Sketchers were invited to offer sketch tours and demonstrations during the festival. Day 1 was problematic. It rained much of the morning as we tried to set up the tent. Tensions were high and sketch equipment got muddy. The Florida Urban Sketchers had a tent where guests could try their hand using watercolors and it became mission central for  sketch tours.

Pam Schwartz prepared historical information cards abut each of the Art Deco buildings that were being visited on the sketch walks. She teamed up with James Richards on the first sketch walk and was the historical tour guide before artists sketched the scenes. Day 1 there were two sketch walks and three demonstrations. I gave a demonstration sketching the Versace mansion using as my canvas the large Grape Leaves that are so prevalent beach side in Miami Beach. This turned out to be a fun experiment and others grabbed leaves to try sketching themselves. The leaves are thick and leathery and I was told they can be sent as post cards through the mail. I may try to mail one of the sketches back to Orlando.

In the evening there was a VIP reception for board members. It was insanely windy. Women’s hair and palm tree fronds blew horizontal. Michael Arenella and his Dreamland Orchestra performed on stage. The wind blew into the microphones creating extra sound effects. The dancers were all amazing. That is because they were mostly a local dance group. We had several drink tickets and Pam ordered several sangrias. I usually like sangria but this stuff was pure alcohol or rocket fuel. I could not down my drink.

Art Deco Weekend

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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).