[Clipping: Sharing the Thrill of Flight] Part: 1 of 2
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14NW I SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 2011 ( THE MIAMI HERALD NW
VISUAL ARTS
SELF-PORTRAIT BY ERIK SPEYER
BY HOWARD COHEN
hcohen @aMiamiHerald.comErik Speyer likely has
captured on canvas
much of the Miami
River's comings and goings
for the past 40 years.
There's the tugboat in the
rain, in need of repair and
worked on by 13 Russian
sailors.
"They were so happy to
find someone who spoke
English," recalls Speyer, 71.
The wind caught a canopy
and sent it flying, and Spey-
er and the sailors scrambled
to reattach the fabric.
One, a "fantastic ship
from the 1930s" with large
rivets and overlapping
plates, also caught Speyer's
eye and bled onto his can--
vas. So did a woman sitting
under a tree with a big, flop-py hat. "She owned the boat,
she comes to look at it, a
7,000-ton.freighter!" Speyer
says, chuckling.
"Some of these places
where they tie up and get car-
go or offload cargo are disap-
pearing because of new, fancy
yacht clubs; a lot of colorful
places are gone," Speyer says.
"But this is still one of the
busiest ports in Florida and a
great place to paint."
Speyer, a retired Navy cap-
tain and former executive di-
rector of the Miami Science
Museum through the 1980s,
figures he has the area cov-
ered. "I'm the only one who's
painted on the river. I never
saw anyone else."
What fellow artists are
missing are views and slicesV
V
THRkwOU'GH
In his latest project, artist Erik Speyer aims to
capture in watercolor 100 Miami scenes in 100 days.
r v x..A VIEW OF THE VISCAYA GARDENS
of life that paint us as definite-
ly Miami. Speyer's latest proj-
ect is to create 100 original
watercolors portraying Mi-
ami in 100 days. He's already
completed more than 80, and
he figures he'll reach his goalby the end of November. The
public is welcome to check
out his work at his Bird Road
Art District studio.
So far, he's captured the
Tuscan feel of Viscaya, the
picnic-table crowds at Shor-ty's BBQ in Kendall, the
storm clouds over the Mi-
ami skyline.
People, too. There's Jimbo
from the famed Jimbo's on
Virginia Key. The postwom-
an who has delivered Spey-TUG BOATS IN THE RAIN ALONG THE MIAMI RIVER
er's mail in South Miami for
27 years. The parking-lot at-
tendant who watches over
the cars and customers at
Kinko's and Barnes & Noble
in Coral Gables.
"People walking on thesidewalks of Miami are al- trait is done off a snapshot.
ways fun," he says. Yes, he'll "The dead giveaway is if
ask your permission before someone is walking and
he paints you, and some- their foot is in the ai."
times he'll work off a photo- The paintings are done in
graph. Speyer clues you in to everyday locations such as
how you can tell when apor- parks and beaches, restau-PATRONS AT PICNIC TABLES AT SHORTY'S BBQ IN KENDALL
A FREIGHTER CHUGGING DOWN THE MIAMI RIVER
STORM CLOUDS BRUISE MIAMI SKYLINE DURING RUSH HOUR
ONE OF MIAMI'S PERSONALITIES
rants, residential streets,
businesses. Most are com-
pleted in about three hours.
"You see something and
you have to do a painting of
it, there's no choice,"the art-
ad flexibility has to bebuilt
into the artist's psyche. "If
you don't get to do it, it's
really disappointing. Some,
like the tugboats in the rain,
started as a sunny painting.
You have to capture some-
thing. The watercolor kit
you travel with is very small,
so you can do watercolors
anywhere and can catch a
sunset very quickly."
Unlike oil paintings, wa-
tercolors are less cumber-
some, and their style gives
way to spontaneity.
"They are all done in one
day," Speyer explains. "You
can't go back to the painting, it
doesn't work.You can't recre-
ate the same situation as the
light changes quickly. You can
sketch in shapes and shadows
very fast and stick with that,
because even if in an hour the
sun looks better, you'can't
change it or it willmess up the
whole thing."
Argentina-born SpeyerINSPIRATION: Erik Speyer
paints on the beach.
grew up in Denmark and
moved to the States at age 12.
He met his wife, Jo Beth,
while he was attending the
University of Florida, and the
couple have been married for
47 years, having raised two
sons. They are grandparents
to five. After college, Speyer
went for flight training in Pen-
sacola andwas soon painting,
even while serving as a Navy
pilot in Europe in the 1960s.
The family moved to Mi-
ami in 1971, and he never
stopped painting with wa-Check it out
Erik Speyer's '100 Water-
colors' can be viewed at
his studio, 4180 SW 74th
Ct., Miami, in the Bird
Road Art District. Call
305-332-6727 or visit
www.erikspeyer.com.
tercolors. South Florida and
its vast waterways and per-
sonalities seem a natural
habitat for his talents.
"I went across the Atlantic
four times on freighters in my
youth. I have this fascination
with them," he says. "Rarely is
there shade on the Miami Riv-
er, and it's brutal.But Itake ev-
ery opportunity to keep anSUNDAY MORNING AT A.D. BARNES PARK
eye on the river all the time,
and it's fun. Tugboat [cap-
tains] wave at me; I got to
know them. I got to know te
people who built the original
wooden tug boats. The things
that happen to you on the riv-
er are so much fun - and all
over Miami."
His view of Miami is
spreading the world over.
Speyer recently received a
call from Thailand request-
ing one of his watercolors.
He sold a painting in Swit-
zerland. One of his works
hangs in a bank in Zurich.
"The Miami River is get-
ting to be known all over the
place."
For more on pop culture,
follow' @HowardCohen on
Twitter.I
I
.: ::
.
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:
'RNW MiamiHerald.com SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 2011 1 15NW
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[Clipping: Sharing the Thrill of Flight], clipping, November 6, 2011; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth877488/m1/1/?q=%22~1%22~1&rotate=90: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting National WASP WWII Museum.