Painting in studio (working from photo taken at Faust Park)

SUMMARY OF PLACE:: This log cabin is at Faust Park in St. Louis county. The park includes a historic village that seeks to preserve the area's vernacular architecture and history. The structures include a variety of building and architectural styles, spanning a period from 1840 to 1888. The Missouri Plein Air Painters visited the park on Aug 14, 2005. The group paints at the village at least once a year because of the interesting structures and the beautiful period-specific wildflower gardens found there. On weekends during the summer, historical reenactors in period costume provide tours and perform a variety of demonstrations in the village. Early Sunday morning, I found an arrangement of wild flowers on a secluded picnic bench, likely assembled by a reenactor the previous day. The arrangement seemed abandoned and simply left for the enjoyment of passersby. I couldn't resist moving the vase to a bench in front of an old log cabin.
INSPIRATION:: The drab, gray log cabin made a superb background for the brilliant orange-red wildflowers. I was also intrigued by the contrasting nature of the subjects: the fleeting wildflowers compared to the permanence of the log structure. Lastly, the log cabin and the wildflowers meld together well as both depict Americana. It is ironic that the piece unintentially turned out to be an abstract rendering of the American flag.