Missouri Botanical Garden

Sorry to be so quiet here lately. I spent a week in Cape May working for the Cape Resorts hotel group and doing watercolors of their properties. It was a neat job but a very busy one. I ended up doing 24 watercolors in four and a half days, and I've been scanning in and recovering now that I'm home. I'll post some as soon as I get the OK from them to do so.

In the meantime, I got to spend another afternoon painting in the Missouri Botanical Garden along the way. Above is the rosarian's cottage (what a great job if it came with a house like this to live in!). Below is a tree I love that I didn't at all manage to do justice to. I'm going to have to try again sometime.

Henry Shaw, the founder of the Garden and of Tower Grove Park, had his country estate right here. You can tour his house inside the Garden, and I took the time to do that this visit, now that I've read a book about his life and life's work. It was neat to see his dining room table with garden plans laid out on it. I painted his house from the back with the late afternoon sun on it.

I still marvel at how much one man can do to give great joy to so many people for so long. What a legacy.