The Ann Norton Sculpture Gardens welcomed an SRO Veterans Day crowd to its outdoor garden theater for an Artist Talk with eminent sculptor Edwina Sandys, the daughter of MP Duncan Sandys and the granddaughter of Winston Churchill. Pictured above, Sandys reaches to touch a small model of her work War and Peace, commemorating the 30th Anniversary of taking down the Berlin Wall.
My Latin 101 and Latin 102 classes finally proved useful. The Palm Beach season has begun its annual philanthropic and social convergence amid streets cluttered with even more than ever concrete trucks and bulldozers. Just when I hear one more time that there really is nowhere else in the universe except Palm Beach, I see more lights are on at The Bristol condominium on West Palm Beach’s South Flagler Drive, the waterfall is tumbling, and a Jane Manus sculpture is installed under the portico. Could there be more PBers seeking relief from the spiraling buried utility line assessments ?
I feel ready for 2020, having found two suitable neckties at the Church Mouse.
13 November 2019 – 6 pm
3rd Annual Polly Jessup Series – Interior Design Lecture
Preservation Foundation of Palm Beach
311 Peruvian Avenue
On the most blustery and rainiest of November nights, the Preservation Foundation of Palm Beach welcomed a gathering of its staunchest supporters to the 3rd Annual Polly Jessup Series for a Distinguished Interior Design Lecture honoring Jennifer Garrigues. Having honed her design skills, first as a fashion model for Christian Dior, James Galanos, Hanae Mori, and Jean Muir of London, she later combined it with a love of architecture and interiors at the New York School of Design. From her earliest projects at NYC’s Carlyle Hotel to her today’s client list of US CEOs and their counterparts abroad, Jennifer Garrigues, Inc. is a full-service design firm for residential, commercial, and hospitality projects. Congratulations Jenny!
Jennifer Garrigues.Amanda Skier, executive director for the Preservation Foundation, and Pauline Pitt, chairman of the foundation’s board of trustees.Beth Dawdle and Gil Walsh.Dragana Connaughton.Vera Chapman and Irene Goodkind.William Roger Cummings.A look around the room before the lecture.
11 November 2019 – 11 am
Veteran’s Day @ The Ann Norton Sculpture Gardens
Artist Talk with sculptor Edwina Sandys
After several off-weather days, it almost felt like Fall was in the air when I arrived at The Ann Norton Sculpture Gardens.The Ann Norton’s CEO Cynthia Kanai with Edwina Sandys’ 2019 work War and Peace.Gigi and Harry Benson.Erik de Bourbon-Parme.Col. Robert “Bobby” Spencer and Mary-Ann Hensen.ANSG board member Jonathan Cameron-Hayes introduced Edwina’s talk.Local Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts formed the color guard. Reminds me of yesterday when I was a Cub Scout and my Mom was our Den Mother, never knew how she survived.A film about Edwina’s Berlin Wall sculptures played in one of the exhibition rooms.Tim Van Damm and Ron Wagner.Dale Coudert.Richard Evans.War and Peace and Angel of the Sea and Sky photographed in the sunlit gardens. Set on a block of stone from the Berlin Wall, Sandys added quotes around the base of War and Peace. Above, “An Iron Curtain has descended across the Continent.” Winston Churchill, March 6, 1946.War and Peace, 2019. “Ich bin ein Berliner.” President John F. Kennedy, June 26, 1963.Along with garden members, guests, and veterans, students from the neighboring Palm Beach Day Academy attended the event. With her work featured throughout the gardens, Sandys provided timely insight into her Berlin Wall series of artworks made from stone fragments from the wall that she acquired in 1990.A classroom in the greenhouse and potting shed. A great spot for kids to learn.The Ann Norton Sculpture Gardens – Historic Home – Artist’s Studio – Gallery.
From Billionaires Row to South Flagler Drive
Sydell Miller, right, will soon be departing La Reverie, her six-acre ocean-to-lake Montsorrel-inspired Billionaires Row approx. 85,000-sq.-ft. showplace, replacing it with a $42.5 million 24th-floor condominium apartment at The Bristol in West Palm Beach. There she will be joined by other former Palm Beachers unable to resist The Bristol’s towering allure. Miller is pictured above with David Miller, left, and Diana Bell, center, at a reception for Friends of the Uffizi Gallery held at La Reverie.La Reverie, Great Hall. According to published reports Sydell Miller has pocketed a record-breaking more than $105 million for La Reverie, selling it to New York hedge fund manager Steven Schonfeld (Forbes #18).
Among the scaffolds and concrete trucks
Au revoir Plaisance, Summer 2019. Decades ago, when Philip and Mary Hulitar bought the Philip Armour house on North Ocean Boulevard and before they modified it into a more thematic Palm Beach house, it was a highly-regarded post-WW II Midcentury Modern. Ironically, when a nearby homeowner recently wanted to build a 21st-century modern oceanfront, it was deemed unsuitable because there were no other Modern-styled houses within the 200-feet restriction.230 North Ocean Boulevard, under construction. Reportedly, the Jon Bon Jovi cottage.The Rose-May Apartments became the Algemac Hotel, became Bradley Place Hotel, has become the White Elephant.
Via Flagler nears completion; lights out for Testa’s
Finishing touches at the Via Flagler development of Royal Poinciana Way.Lights out at Testa’s.
13 November 2019
Reception at Pat Nix’s Studio
Worth Avenue
Despite the rain and offshore winds, artist Pat Nix opened her historic apartment in the Worth Avenue Glenn Hodges building to host a reception for visiting museum director Howard Taylor of the San Angelo Museum of Art.
Pat Nix and her newest work inspired by Albrecht Durer’s 16th-century Feast of the Rose Garlands.Howard Taylor.
La Goulue at Palm Beach
Royal Palm Way at County Road
La Goulue, Palm Beach. Just a few delays … someday soon.La Goulue, Bal Harbor. One of my favorite haunts for many years, until it closed, leaving me only the memories of the souffles, and the profiteroles. Or, was the attraction those late afternoon floor shows when the latest oligarch’s extended-base Rolls-Royce arrived from Little Moscow, and out he popped with his latest Natasha wearing the shortest shorts, tallest high-heeled boots, and biggest daytime diamonds.
Summer reading
Air Epstein, flight manifest.Air Epstein, flight manifest.
Of all the places in the world …
I finally stopped along I-75 near Gainesville to explore the wonders at Micanopy, a Central Florida landmark located near where author Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings encamped and wrote her Pulitzer Prize book Cross Creek. On a walk down Main Street, I was snowed by the the museum-quality fashion artifacts at the Winters Past boutique (“Our business is mostly online and the rents here are reasonable”). Lunch at The Yearling Restaurant entertained by a flavorful blues guitarist and dazzled by a sour orange pie. With the temperature 100F + or -, my visit to Rawlings’ Old Florida cottage was brief.
Micanopy offers a time-out from today’s 21st-century virtual world, tin roofs, a tangle of moss-draped oak trees, and open porches in a 19th-century setting.A welcome shaded ambiance.A fascinating history, from plantations to trading post to antique shops.WINTERS PAST offers a curated collection of vintage fashion from Deco to Disco.Herlong Mansion B & B, for those in want of expected comforts.
A more rustic touch.The spirit of Muddy Waters is alive and well at the Yearling Restaurant.“Aristocrat.” Slot machine raids were once a common Florida phenomenon.
First Edition @ $65.Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings’ “Cross Creek.” Note: The cottage is not actually on Cross Creek but in the village of Cross Creek.Cross Creek, 1942.A writer’s calling.
