Frances Childs, Holiday on Biscayne Bay, oil on board, 8 by 10 inches. Signed lower left, old label on verso.
In the winter of 1923 Frances Childs exhibited with the Miami Beach League of Artists. Childs had a “studio gift shop” in the Arcade of Miami’s Halcyon Hotel on East Flagler Street featuring, “Tropical and other Paintings in oil. Art Specialties, boudoir drawing room and library pieces.”
When the first ever exhibit of paintings occurred at the Miami Beach Chamber of Commerce in January 1923, under the auspices of the Miami Beach League of Artists, Childs was an exhibitor and a member of the League’s executive committee. A note in the Miami Herald (January 7, 1923) indicates she had, “exhibited all over the country.” The Miami Daily News (January 16, 1923) commented, “A painter who signs “Frances L. Childs” shows much talent. She must have studied under good masters of the brush. A picture of Spanish Gables at Bermuda, the old Provincetown, Mass., church, which has been painted ever so many times by the beach combing colony of artist on Cape Cod, and the three sketches which show Little River and Miami scenes, are things from a delightful brush.”
The Miami News (February 10, 1923) noted, “Mrs. Frances L. Childs is an artist of the first order and her artistic-ness is evident in every little detail of her Studio Gift Shop, that fascinating place in the Arcade that lovers of real art revel in…. There are…wonderful tropical paintings of the most beautiful colorings.”
Education: Charles Hawthorne; Gordon Ellis. Membership: Miami Beach League of Artists, 1923, executive committee. Exhibits: Miami Beach, Chamber of Commerce Building, first exhibit of paintings in building, January 15, 1923, Spanish Gables at Bermuda, Provincetown Church, Little River, and Miami scenes; Miami Beach Chamber of Commerce Building, Art Exhibit, February 1923, Boys Head with Sea Background, A Royal Poinciana Tree.
