Art Guild Helps Celebrate State Bicentennial With Special Exhibit

The Sainte Genevieve Art Guild’s exhibit marking Missouri’s bicentennial ranges from wonderful depictions of some of the state’s flora and fauna to works that tap the state’s rich history and artists’ personal experiences in the Show Me State.

“The theme produced gorgeous paintings of the rolling Ozark hills and scenes along the state’s side roads and byways,” a Guild spokesperson said. “And the theme evoked more personal aspects of the Missouri experience. Many of the works have special meaning for the artists.”

A number of the works in the exhibit feature Missouri’s flora and fauna, including the State tree (the Dogwood) and native sunflowers and Queen Anne’s Lace. Two members painted Missouri grapes, whose rootstock famously saved the European wine industry in the mid-1850s from devastation by an introduced mite.

Artist Virginia White depicts Missouri’s famous mules, the State bluebird, and Dogwood. Photographer Amy Patterson found inspiration in the flight of local hummingbirds. Sculptor Anna Kirchner created a native fish and Carolyn Bach sculpted an Ozark Hellbender, Missouri’s official endangered species, saved from extinction by the St. Louis Zoo and the Missouri Conservation Department.

Other artists tapped some of Missouri’s most appealing places : Crown Tiger Sanctuary, (Dianne Dickerson), the St. Louis Arch (Iris Vincent), Cedar Hill Mill (Cloice Lindwedel), and Dillard Mill (Dean Burns).