Casa Feliz

Every Sunday, from 12pm to 3pm, Casa Feliz in Winter Park hosts musical events. I’ve sketched here before and honestly it would be a worthy spot to sketch every week. I arrived early on this weekend when Alborea Dances was going to perform flamenco. It was a gorgeous, cool day, so I decided to walk around the old historic home. For the first time I slipped under an arch into the back of the building. The sun blazed bright on the brickwork and there was a large shady oak tree under which I decided to sketch. There was only half an hour or so before the flamenco dancing was to start inside, so there really wasn’t enough time to sketch. I couldn’t resist and I started anyway.

Several people approached me to see what I was working on and they were both artists. Is everyone in Winter Park an artist? One girl arrived early for a wedding that was going to happen at the Casa that afternoon. She took a multitude of photos of the building and garden for a painting she planned to do of the building. Her eye was drawn to the bright colors of the scene. I suspect the painting might be a wedding present. A tail stately woman let me know that she had painted almost an identical view to the sketch I was working on. She lived right across the street and she went back to her place to get the painting. She brought back a panoramic three foot wide canvas. The painting was done in oil with a Burnt Sienna under painting which she wiped away the lights. She said she had forgotten to paint one of the chimneys but a fellow painter pointed out the apparent flaw and she added it back in. I let her know that we were on the same page doing panoramas, since I am often bringing out the panoramic sketchbook. She let me know that there was a plein air painting group that got together every week in Winter Park. I wish I had written down the information. All I remember is that they meet at Panara’s. There is another Plein air group that meets once a week in the evenings, and they do nocturnes of the businesses on Park Avenue.

Before I could start adding color to my sketch, I heard the Flamenco Music flair up inside Case Feliz. I couldn’t resist the draw of the music. I quickly packed up my supplies and then slipped into a back door to see what was going on inside. After sketching the flamboyant flamenco dancers, I returned to my spot under the tree and I started splashing in colors.