Thoughts on Vizcaya

 Hi Sketchers!

I travelled yesterday with Anna Maria to meet up with the Miami Urban Sketchers at Vizcaya, The Deering Estate and Museum.  Many Thanks to The Miami Urban Sketchers for allowing us to tag along.  The grounds were lovely.  I set to sketching right away and in three hours had a finished watercolor and second sketch in pencil of the landing that is now inked and waiting for some paint.  It was humbling to paint in a location where John Singer Sargent made watercolors a 100 years ago.  My painting was done perhaps a 100 feet from where Sargent did one of his paintings. of the Landing.  Next time I go I may work from the exact spot.  Growing up in Orange County NY and and spending many summer vacations on Cape Cod I have painted where Winslow Homer painted and where Edward Hopper painted.  There is something about painting at locations where these giants painted that makes them extra special.  I still paint like myself and don't try to copy any styles, but I somehow feel their presence like they left a mark on the landscape.

Sargent's painting of the landing at Vizcaya

My sketch is a closer detail of the small building over the bridge.

I'm hooked on the place.  I plan to go back a couple of times this summer. to paint in watercolor and then work in oil from those studies in the studio while its really hot out this summer.

Keep Making Art!

Carl