Helen Spach, Miami. Watercolor, 10 1/2 by 13 1/2 inches, signed lower right.
Helen Spach taught art at Miami’s Citrus Grove Junior High for 5 years, Miami Senior High for 24 years and at Miami’s Terry Art Institute. She came to Miami in 1917 from Perry, Oklahoma, where she was born in the Cherokee Strip before Oklahoma became a state. Spach graduated from Miami Senior High in 1921 and the University of Miami in 1944. The Miami Daily News, June 28, 1942 noted her exhibit at the Service Men’s club in Bayfront Park. “This exhibit, all Florida watercolor scenes, and all the work of Helen Spach is attracting much favorable attention by the hundreds of service men who spend their leisure time at the club. Biscayne Bay, Miami Beach’s famed ocean and beach and the Miami river are inspiration for most of the landscapes…Trained entirely in Miami is the boast of this Miami artist, who has lived here 25 years. Two of the artist’s pictures have won the Seymour award given annually as first prize in watercolor at the Miami Art League’s exhibit at Miami Beach Library and Art Center.”
Helen Spach, Miami. Watercolor, 11 1/2 one half by 15 1/2 inches. On the back, painted at the Ringling, November 26, 1948.
Born: April 24, 1903, Perry, Oklahoma. Died: June 20, 1992, Miami. Education: Miami High School, 1921; University of Miami, 1944, with Richard Merrick and Denman Fink. Membership: Dade County Art Teachers Association; Florida Painters Association; Miami Art League; Florida Federation of Art; Associated Artists of Miami. Exhibits: Miami Woman’s Club, 1st Annual Artists’ Salon, February, 1929; Miami Woman’s Club, 2nd Annual Artists’ Salon, February, 1930; Miami Woman’s Club, February 1933; YWCA annual banquet, May 27, illustrations of YWCA activities; Studio Guild Beaux Arts Ball, September 7, 1938, exhibit of art in the Green room, third prize, watercolor for Slack Season at Donovan’s; Federal Art Project recognition, 1938, drawing displayed in national exhibit in Washington, D. C.; Miami Art League, Miami Beach Library and Art Center, December 1938; Miami Federal Galleries at Mimi Woman’s club, February 1939, works of University of Miami art students, Overseas Highway Bridge at Pigeon Key; Miami Art League at Burdines, March 1939, with other members including Ernest Lawson; Miami Art League, at Miami Beach Art Center, December 1939, honorable mention, watercolor, Still Life with Coyotes; Miami Beach Library, with Richard Merrick and Clarence Wooten, November-December 1940, first prize, watercolor; Miami Art League at Miami Beach Public Library, November 1940, 1st prize, watercolor; Studio of Associated Artists, 111 N.E. Third avenue Miami, January 1941; Florida Painters Association, Miami Beach Library and Art Center, April, 1941; Washington Storage Art Gallery, May, 1941; Miami Art League, November, 1941, Miami Beach Library, 1st Prize, watercolor, Matheson Wading Beach; Florida Painters Association, 2nd Annual, Miami Beach, December, 1941; Service Men’s Club, Bayfront Park, Miami, July, 1942, twenty-one watercolors; Miami Art League, Associated Artists Gallery, Leamington Hotel, November, 1942, honorable mention, Boats; Miami Art League, Miami Associated Artists new gallery, 1822 Biscayne Blvd., April, 1943, watercolors; Miami Art League, Burdine’s Department Store, November, 1945; Dade County Art Teachers Association at Lowe Art Gallery, University of Miami, June 1955, a watercolor, Pigeon Key, (Pictured in Miami Daily News, June 12, 1955).
