Anne Poor painted her fresco in the vestibule of the South Solon Meeting House in 1956, along with other permanent members of the faculty of the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture (Cummings 52). Poor’s fresco is located on either side of Willard Cummings’s group portrait and next to the doorways leading into the main area of the Meeting House. Since Poor’s fresco is painted on a curved wall and the vestibule is very narrow, only one side can be viewed at a time. Mildred Cummings, Willard Cummings’s wife, explains that Poor depicted local plants “taken from study and observation of the buds, seeds, and leaves which grow around South Solon and they are shown in various seasons of the year” (Cummings 52). Poor focused on the leaves of various plants. In so doing, she followed the tradition of botanical illustration and its purpose to “reveal a plant’s morphological structure such as the arrangement of reproductive parts, leaves, and stems with a three dimensional quality” (Wendy Hollender, National Tropical Botanical Garden).
On both sides, Poor divided her fresco into three vertical sections that mirror each other. On the left hand-side, we have first a wide band with a mostly pink background, then a thinner one with a taupe and grey background, and finally a wider section with a black and blue background. On the right-hand side, the backgrounds are, from left to right, predominantly black and blue, green, and taupe. The background colors might allude to the seasons: pink for spring, green for summer, taupe for fall, and black and blue winter.
The plants are rendered in a particularly vibrant manner through Poor’s choice of pigments. In the first band, for instance, most of the plants are depicted using black pigments. Starting at the top, we find a depiction of Pinus strobus, eastern white pine needles (Petrides 34). Interestingly, Poor chose to depict the needle-like leaves as circular bundles rather than long tight bundles, as if viewed straight on at the end of the branch. The next detail, simple lobed leaves that are not separated into leaflets is likely from a northern red oak, Quercus rubra (Petrides 88). The plant nearest to the red oak is likely a white spruce, Picea glauca, with its rounded needle-like leaves with one leaf per node (Petrides 38). Finally, at the bottom we might find again an eastern white pine tree, depicted from a different angle. Poor depicts the needle-like leaves in clusters that look just like the ones at the top, however, white spots might represent Maine’s autumn frost.
The narrow section that follows contains what looks like different elements from the eastern white pine tree. We see clusters of needles, for instance at the top, with a dark triangular bundle attached to a thick and dark vertical branch. At the bottom, we see one more cluster; this time, seen from the side of the bundle.
The inner-most sections with the black and blue background contains six distinct sets of leaves on either side. These depictions seem to be of the same plant but from slightly different viewpoints. The top and third plant in each panel, with simple leaves with teeth on the edge and prominent veins, likely belong to an American beech tree, Fagus grandifolia (Petrides 96). The second plant from the top, with lobed simple leaves, is likely from a sugar maple, Acer saccharum (Petrides 54). The fourth plant, with simple leaves with less pronounced teeth and one leaf at each node along the stem, resembles a black cherry tree, Prunus serotina (Petrides 36). The fifth and sixth plants, with simple lobed leaves that are not separated into leaflets are likely different depictions of the northern red oak (Petrides 88).
The middle section on the right side of the vestibule, contains several plants without clear defining features, which nevertheless suggest abundant and verdant vegetation. However, since Mildred Cummings mentioned that all the plants are native to South Solon, it is possible that Poor depicted aquatic plants belonging to the Sagittaria and Pontederia families, which are vibrant green and tend to begin growing early in the spring (Washburn1).
The last section on the far right side of the curved wall, contains three distinct plants. The topmost plant, with simple lobed leaves that are not separated into leaflets, might come from a northern red oak (Petrides 88). The middle plant, with simple leaves with one leaf per node along the stem, resembles a highbush blueberry, Vaccinium corymbosum (Native Plant Trust). As a matter of fact, we distinguish round berries amongst the cluster of leaves. Finally, the bottom plant, with simple lobed leaves is probably a sugar maple (Petrides 54).
By placing these depictions in the vestibule, Anne Poor brings nature inside the Meeting House. It also helps to welcome every visitor to building itself but also to the environing nature of South Solon and the Maine woods. Poor also reminds every visitor that nature preceded the South Solon Meeting House. While the area around the Meeting House might have been settled and developed over time, the native plants remain a constant presence. In that way, the fresco is a testament to the timelessness of the Meeting House.
While the style of this fresco is very different from most of Poor’s landscape paintings, her teaching at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture helps us understand her stylistic choices here. The school embraced painting outdoors en plein air—a philosophy most relevant to an art school located on a “historic … farm in rural Maine” with “over 350-acres of farmland, forests, and lakefront” (“Skowhegan School”). The campus, “serves as a critical component of the program” and the artists are open to the outdoors, providing a deep connection to nature. Poor’s fresco in the Meeting House’s vestibule reflects this belief in the potential nature has to fuel artistic inspiration, it also shows that landscapes are not the only form of plein air painting.
1 All my plant identifications were checked by Loraine Washburn, Visiting Assistant Professor of Biology at Colby College. I wish to express all my gratitude to Doc Washburn.
—Katie Roy
- Cummings, Mildred H. South Solon: The Story of a Meeting House. South Solon, Maine: South Solon Historical Society, 1959
- National Tropical Botanical Garden. “The Science of Art—Why Botanical Illustration Matters.”
- Native Plant Trust Go Botany. “Vaccinium Corymbosum – Highbush Blueberry.”
- Petrides, George A., and Janet Wehr. A Field Guide to Eastern Trees: Eastern United States and Canada, Including the Midwest. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1998.
- Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. “About.”
- Tate. “Plein Air.”
- Washburn, Loraine. Personal Communication, 22 November 2022.