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Louisiana Legends
Between 1990 and 1993 artist George Rodrigue painted sixteen portraits on three canvases of Living Legends for Louisiana Public Broadcasting. The 1990 honorees and Rodrigue’s tribute painting launched...
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Courage for Our Friends
After ten weeks in Houston, George Rodrigue and I returned today to New Orleans for a quick reorganization of our lives. Not only is this homecoming brief, prior to next weekend’s opening events for...
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Dogs in Space
“I dropped the Cajun influence, just painting a Blue Dog, and I wondered, What does that mean?” –George RodrigueIt was the painting Loup-garouof 1991 that altered the Blue Dog concept for George...
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Cow Dogs
Every once in a while a new silkscreen provokes a collective gasp--- from our staff, from collectors, even from George Rodrigue himself, as though surprised by his own artwork. It first happened in...
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Painting (and Living?) Again
George Rodrigue and I returned to New Orleans early August as though our old lives were a dream.It’s hard to believe we threw parties in this house, I mused, as we settled into our sofa and BBC...
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The Acrylic Landscape
George Rodrigue, known worldwide for his Blue Dog canvases, began painting in 1968 not bright-colored dogs but near-black trees. His devotion to the Louisiana landscape remains an anchor within his...
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Harouni Paints Rodrigue
Recently artist David Harouni painted a portrait of George Rodrigue, a special request by mutual friends Kerry and Tiffa Boutte of New Orleans. Known for his powerful painted Heads, usually his own,...
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Blue Fall in Louisiana
“When they showed me my body, it was blue,” explained George Rodrigue to a friend this week. “Nothing dark, no patches, they were all gone.”I overheard him on the phone and my ears picked up, not...
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Walker Percy, Sylvester Stallone and the Blue Dog
During his forty-five year career, George Rodrigue has painted more than one hundred portraits, everything from his family to U.S. Presidents. One series in particular, however, stands out as a...
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The Patchwork Gift
In 1978 George Rodrigue tackled a 5x7 foot canvas, piecing together a group of women at a church quilting party, a common Acadian gathering during the 1940s and 1950s. The ambitious project includes...
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Going Home Again....for Art
In 1952 in New Iberia, Louisiana, George Rodrigue (b. 1944) remained sick in bed for six months.I explained this week to a group of young students on the Florida Panhandle that he suffered from polio,...
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Sunshine and Love: New Paintings
After six months away from his easel, George Rodrigue returns this fall to his instincts, painting throughout the quiet nights in solitude. The canvases, dominated by a Blue Dog and oftentimes a...
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Paintin' Shrimp Boats and Pickin’ Crabs
“Shrimp boats is a-comin’; there’s dancin’ tonight!”*After many months indoors, George Rodrigue and I ease cautiously yet eagerly this fall into adventure. Here in south Louisiana, diversion awaits...
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I'm a Writer!
“All I see is that you’re writing with a pen. Yay!!!”Author Patty Friedmann cheered the hand-written word after seeing the photo below. It was December 2010, and I scribbled on the pages of a...
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A Cajun in Carmel
Blue Dog artist George Rodrigue finds inspiration on the Monterey Peninsula-It was twenty-two years ago that artist George Rodrigue (b. 1944) opened his gallery in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California. One...
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Yoga: One Essay Only
“Yoga relaxes me,” says George Rodrigue. “The minute Wendy starts her practice, I fall asleep.”Recently a friend asked me why I never blog about yoga. For fifteen years the practice infiltrates every...
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Blue Dog Oak (Old Friends)
George Rodrigue’s newest painting, Blue Dog Oak, reunites his favorite subjects in acrylic colors blended adeptly, as though oils. Unlike his dark oaks of the early 1970s, Rodrigue’s trees today glow...
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Some Like It Hot
George Rodrigue’s newest artwork, Some Like It Hot, pays tribute to Marilyn Monroe, a golden icon of the silver screen and public fantasy. He frames her with a bold design of color and shape,...
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The Daughters of André Chastant
Like ghosts of Evangeline, André Chastant’s daughters float brilliant in white and framed within the landscape of southwest Louisiana. The painting, a combination of photograph and imagination, is my...
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George Rodrigue's Creature from the Black Lagoon
In the early 1950s, it was the movies more than television that made the biggest impact on mainstream American culture. Today during school visits, I describe this environment to students, imagining a...
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