February 7 - March 29, 2025
Opening Reception   Saturday February 7 | 1-4pm 

Conversation with E.G. Schempf | 2pm

American rest almost always includes travel. Seeing something we don’t normally see and being somewhere we normally aren’t piques our interest.

Today these journeys are remembered through t-shirts, kitchen magnets, and hundreds of photographs in our phone. E.G. Schempf’s collection of wood slice souvenir paintings, conversely, came from an era where American tourism was redefined.


In the 1920s and 30s the travel industry around automobiles began to take shape. Henry Ford's affordable Model T meant more people could move themselves. For the adventurous travelers, "Auto Camping" at "Auto Camps" was an option if they were okay roughing it. Roads were largely overseen by individual states during this time, but memorable thoroughfares like Route 66 (1926) facilitated interstate travel. Earlier works in E.G.'s collection harken back to this moment.


Americans were on the move and had money in the years after the Second World War. The Federal Highway Act, a landmark bill championed by Dwight D. Eisenhower, established and formalized interstate travel. Between 1956 and 1992, when the Act was marked complete, Americans saw the addition of over 42,000 miles of paved road.


Travelers could now move unencumbered across a growing, comprehensive road system. Helping cement the American “road trip” were the new or growing amenities meant to serve all the newlyweds, families, and retirees. Their first need was lodging. The number of motels (a melding of “motorist” and “hotel”) grew significantly in the 1950s and 60s. Drive-through restaurants emerged during the same span and were widely adopted by the 1970s. The number of gas stations rose to meet increased demand. Each one of these pieces helped travelers get to their destination, but there is one more piece.



Tee Pee Curios, Tucumcari, NM. Photo by E.G. Schempf


Mementos remind us of a specific time and place, and what’s a vacation without a souvenir? As the country became more accessible, cottage industries around travel souvenirs cropped up. Curio shops were found in towns, lodges and alongside the road for vacationers to pick up keepsakes and take home. In E.G.’s collection we see how a memento can both capture and shape a memory. Despite coming from a wide time range and various artists – the oldest example in the collection dates from 1894 –  large vistas, expressive lighting, and scale are commonly employed to build a feeling of rustic idealism. Whether the traveler witnessed these bucolic scenes is secondary. The painters provided the view and feeling the buyer wanted to remember. There are exceptions however, as in the case of the fire painting examples in the collection. In these works, we see the total power nature can exert. When human elements are introduced to the wood slice paintings they are often in service to the artist's depiction of enveloping landscapes. Dwarfed by a large canyon, vast seascape, or snowcapped mountains, bridges, ships, and roads are often intentionally made to feel small.


A special note should be made about the paintings’ substrate. Painting on wood cuts, with their irregular edges and bark, only heightens the painted natural themes. E.G. explained that their slant helps lessen the impact of contraction and expansion the wood experiences, but it also helped the painters. The ovular shape we see repeated in the collection lends to panoramic scenes where the viewer can traverse the paintings with their eyes in a way that a circle shape couldn’t match. In these charming works, the buyer is transported back to their trip or uses them to start a conversation about their past vacations.


While E.G.’s wood slice souvenir paintings are unique in their material, they fit into a larger history of travel paintings. Before automobiles, wealthy European travelers often embarked on extended trips through the continent. The Grand Tour included many exciting sites, many of which their patrons wanted to remember. It isn’t uncommon today to see these examples. For instance, the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art holds paintings from the 17th century  that were made for travelers to remember their vacation. At that time , a souvenir painting was as much about signifying status as it was remembering a vacation. The aforementioned idealism in the wood slice paintings also taps in to America’s Hudson River School paintings

with memorable artists like Thomas Cole and Asher Durand. These paintings played an important role in encouraging expansion west, or Manifest Destiny.

From E.G. Schempf


I had recently graduated from art school when I acquired my first log slab painting, which I found in a thrift store for fifty-seven cents. After that initial purchase, several friends - having noticed my interest - began bringing me similar paintings they had discovered in antique stores and garage sales. With the emergence of eBay, I was able to actively seek out and acquire particularly strong examples of these works. Over time, the collection expanded into what it is today.


I have never been able to determine with certainty the origins of this form of expression. However, I have encountered early European examples, primarily from Germany, France, and Sweden. Most of these European works employ a form of decoupage, in which a postcard or printed image is affixed to the wood slab, and paint is then applied around it to extend the scene. Through the addition of foliage, sky, or landscape elements, the artist creates the illusion of a setting larger than the original image.


The earliest painting in my collection is dated 1894 and was painted in California. Several others are dated to the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s. My collecting has focused primarily on landscapes. While some works include architectural elements, most depict pastoral scenes or mountain views.


Individually, these paintings can be described as folk art. However, the majority were created for sale, typically in locations frequented by tourists, and can therefore also be understood as souvenirs. Many were painted for pleasure by naïve or self-taught artists; others were produced by professionally trained painters. In most cases, however, they were made with the intention of being sold as keepsakes.


During the early years of automobile tourism, log slab paintings offered a quick and accessible means of producing a souvenir—one that captured scenic views in an explicitly “out-of-doors” manner. They served as tangible reminders of the rustic landscapes and natural environments that travelers had visited, occupying a unique position at the intersection of folk art, commercial practice, and the emerging culture of American tourism.