As mentioned earlier we we started making decorative Pool Tile in 1955. The original manufacture of Mosaic Pool Art. Here is a copy of his obituary found in The Ft. Lauderdale Sun Sentinel, April 21 1989. See The manufactures Web Site at Degrootstudios.com and shop in our online store at Mosaictileartisan.com
“John W. De Groot, the artist who opened Fort Lauderdale’s first art gallery and whose painted and mosaic murals decorated several hotels and other buildings in the city, died on Thursday at Broward General Medical Center. He was 81.
His art career began when he won a scholarship to the Corcoran Art Gallery in his hometown of Washington, D.C. After Corcoran, he studied at the Art Students League in New York, then worked several years as a painter in President Roosevelt’s Works Progress Administration before joining the Richmond Times-Dispatch newspaper in Virginia as an artist-writer.
Mr. De Groot, the son of a government printer, was drawn to South Florida in 1940 by the climate and his love of sailing, said his wife, Catherine. A short time after his arrival in Fort Lauderdale, he founded the city’s first art gallery at 2400 E. Las Olas Blvd., where Banyan’s restaurant is now.
He married his second wife, Catherine, in 1952 and two years later moved his studio to Southwest 15th Terrace. He soon landed contracts to paint huge murals at the Yankee Clipper, Sheraton, Escape and other beach hotels.
Mr. De Groot switched to mosaic murals for financial reasons, his wife said.
“He sort of invented the idea of hand-cut tiles. He didn’t use the little squares like everyone else. Every tile was hand-cut and hand-glazed,” she said.
He could take a photograph or a sketch and make it come to life on the side of a building or the bottom of a pool, Catherine De Groot said.
“You could see the rhythms (in his work). He had a great talent for that,” she said.
Soon his mosaic murals were in great demand, and along with the orders came some peculiar requests. Several customers asked for oversized Miami Dolphins football helmets or huge flailing sailfish for the bottom of their pools. One, a hot dog tycoon, commissioned Mr. De Groot to build a huge hot dog, smothered in mustard, in a bun. A horse owner bought a full-sized thoroughbred, complete with jockey, for his pool, while another customer got a larger-than-life American Indian wearing a colorful war bonnet.
“Anyone who had a crazy idea, John could turn it into a work of art,” his wife said.
Not all of his tile work found its way into pools or patios. In 1974, he used more than half a million hand-cut ceramic tiles to do the egret-themed mural that still graces the side of the five-story Cumberland Building, 800 E. Broward Blvd.” (Update by Jeff Willson. Sadly it was decided that this mural was to be removed in 2012. We consulted with the building owners and sadly due to cost it was decided to remove the mural and stucco the building. Progress is just that and all good things must come to an end.)
“He went into semi-retirement about five years ago and painted and read but continued to do all the design work for custom mosaic-tile jobs. His partner, Michael Woodman, continues to run De Groot Studio.” (Update by Jeff Willson. I had the great privilege of working with and for Michael Woodman for a decade. In 2008 Michael and his wife Connie gave me Degroot Studios, just as was promised to John Degroot. Michael Woodman passed away in 2021. I lost a good friend and the world lost a good man. I am still friends with his widow Connie Woodman. She still resides in the area of the original Studio in the Shady Banks Neighborhood in Ft. Lauderdale, where it all began in 1955. )
“A daughter, Alayne Edwards of Sterling, Va.; a stepdaughter, Grace Ragsdale of Dallas; and five grandchildren also survive.
Blackburn Funeral Home, Fort Lauderdale, is handling arrangements. Memorial services are pending.
The family requests donations to Insight for the Blind Inc.”
https://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/fl-xpm-1989-04-22-8901210125-story.html
