Original Water Color 14 1/2" x 11 1/2

Born and raised in Bucks County Pennsylvania, Martha Sauer came to Key West in 1936 during the Great Depression while the city was clawing its way out of its economic malaise by encouraging tourism with the help of the Federal Emergency Relief Administration, later called the Works Progress Administration or WPA.
 

"My mother and I stopped by accident in a travel agency in Miami," Sauer remembered, "We saw these watercolors by (FERA artist) Avery Johnson with scenes of Key West. It was such a dear little town. So I said, 'Let's go to Key West,' and we did."
Although she has captured Key West scenes in dozens of her watercolor paintings and drawings, Sauer also has traveled extensively with her husband, Attorney Robert F. Sauer, in Mexico, the Caribbean, Europe and across the U.S., never forgetting her sketchbook and paints.

"My aim is to transmit to paper the delights of nature and the out-of-doors, the sun's heat and the deep cool of shadow." she explained. "My paintings are not puzzles. I like what I see and try my best to present the scene so others may share in the enjoyment of it."

The Key West Art & Historical Society was especially proud to exhibit Martha's works, which span so many years and such a range of scenes, some of which now are history.

"Martha Sauer represented a Key West cultural development that began with the imported artists during the Depression years and influenced virtually every artist now producing in our community," said Claudia Pennington, Executive Director of the Key West Art & Historical Society. "She was one of our real treasures."
Norman Aberle, museum curator explained, "When you look at the skillful and colorful way Mrs. Sauer wields her brush, you will start to understand the true nature of what, for lack of better words, might be called 'Key West Impressionism.'"

Besides her early training with WPA artist Townsend Morgan, whose Key West engravings still are prized by collectors, Sauer has studied with many famous watercolorists. Among them are Tom Hill, Tony Van Hasselt, Judi Wagner, Morris Shubin and Milford Zornes, as well as John Pike, Zoltan Szabo, and Robert E. Wood, all now deceased.
Today her works hang in private collections in Switzerland, Japan, Great Britain, Canada and the U.S. During her long artistic life she has been exhibited in one-person shows at the Institute of Cultural Relations in Mexico City, the Telfair Museum of Art in Savannah, GA., Lake Worth, Miami Beach and Key West, where she long has been associated with the Key West Art Center, the place where she began her career.