The Museum and the Statue of St. Louis at Art Hill

Description

I was commissioned by a young man, who soon after graduation decided to move to St. Louis to work and live. He told me that it was at this location on Art Hill that he made that decision. Sometime during his stay, he saw my art displayed at a local venue where I was the featured artist. When he contacted me, he told me he was really attracted to my bold use of color and the stylized representation of my work. He further had gone to my website and saw a different style I was developing on a recent painting and really was drawn to it. He inquired about that painting, and then I didn’t hear from him for about a year. When I did, he had decided to return to his home state and wanted to commission a painting of this location in my “newer style” to fondly remember his time in St. Louis. After discussing possibilities, and creating some compositional possibilities, we decided on this view.

While this view does exist, it is not an accurate representation of a specific time of year. One quality the patron wanted captured was the maple trees in their blazing glory. At the time I took my visuals, they were still in their late summer green. However, the flowers were in their full magnificence and provided engaging detail in the foreground to lead the viewer to the museum and the statue of St. Louis. The trees and the flowers could not be in their “full glory” at the same time. So, the broad question may arise as to what is the purpose of art? While the purposes of art are many, one may ask, is it only viable to represent what is there or can “accuracy” also be achieved in the depiction of thoughts and feelings associated with an idea or memory, even if those depictions are anachronistic or physically inaccurate? It is these competing approaches I chose to fuse, creating a lively and emotive viewing through color relationships, stylized brushwork, and the iconic imagery.