Statement | Education | Press Release
Widely recognized as a leading contemporary Louisiana landscape painter, Melissa Bonin, of French and Acadian descent, a true Cajun, resides in New Iberia, Louisiana in the heart of sugar cane and bayou country. Her treatment of subject matter has been linked to works by Alexander Drysdale and Elemore Morgan Jr. Her signature bayou scenes, rendered in oil on linen, reflect the melting mistiness of the lush bayou regions of southwest Louisiana. Bonin is first known for her colorfield landscapes which are reduced to their simplest shapes and forms much like the works of Mark Rothko of the 20th century. These shapes and converging lines echo the haunting continuum of the bayou state wetlands. The artist about the painting technique of bayous and other landscapes: “There is a certain time of day, just before dark, when the human eye has difficulty seeing and imagination steps in to fill the gaps. At this time, color is at its richest and trees look like dark spirits waiting and walking in the distant cane fields. My work is a personal, poetic, and symbolic interpretation of my native landscape. It possesses a unique language of color, light and spatial relationships.” “I use oil and various media in a wet-on-wet application. My painting surfaces are done a la prima in my studio, however, sometimes I paint them fifty times, wiping them completely off between paintings in order to arrive at the desired freshness and the appearance of effortlessness. I learned this from my many years of studying ballet. My painting is done with a sense of urgency. The effect resonates a shimmering calm surface above, while holding a powerful evocative energy below.” “I want my work to exist in its own place in time. Therefore, my themes have a timeless quality. My images are a delicate balance between my love of works of old world master painters and my joy and excitement for modern painting. I like the tension these two elements create together on the same canvas. In my surfaces and applications of paint, I strive for the feeling I get when I approach ancient Chinese pottery with its beautiful colors, simplicity and fluid glazes. I love the beauty and power of the combination of the elements of water in the glazes, earth in the support and fire as the transformer. And I love the connection with the ancient past. Birds, Moss and Other Endangered Species: Bonin’s love and concern for the waterways, wildlife, and native plant life is the source of her most recent work. Bonin continues to study the endangered Spanish Moss plants which are becoming more and more rare in Louisiana. “In my moss paintings, I try to capture the feeling of the gossamer, serpentine dancing garland which constantly changes color with the changing light of day. I am fascinated with this endangered plant and know that one day, if my moss paintings survive, people may look at them and ask “What is that?” Post Hurricane Katrina, Bonin focuses on the migratory birds which travel across her homeland in the series “Forced Migration”. “The birds’ skeletal, almost x-ray qualities recall our own personal human evolution. The birds symbolize the forced migration of a people. Like the exile of the Acadians from Nova Scotia and the French from France, post hurricane, a civilization, with its native wildlife and plants, is forever changed. The change is deep within each cell of each bone of our being.” Melissa Bonin studied art under the tutelage of James Edmunds as a young painter and then William Moreland, Elemore Morgan Jr., Tom Secrest and Herman Mhire at the University of Louisiana where she received a B.A. cum laude in fine art in 1981. Naturally and shortly thereafter, because of her French and Acadian ancestry, she left for France, with an LSU scholarship for the study of fine art and then a Conseil pour le development de Francais en Louisiane or CODOFIL scholarship, to continue her studies and deepen her connection with her heritage. She remained in France for some time and then returned to the U.S. to receive a B.A cum laude in French in 1984. She has continued advanced coursework at Bennington College, The Naropa Institute and Massachusetts College of Art. She has also trained with the Kennedy Center and holds a Diplome de Langue d’Alliance Francaise and is certified by the state of Louisiaina as a Visual Arts Tester and Teacher of the Exceptionally talented, as well as, a trained facilitator for the National Coalition Builders Institute. About Bonin’s work from New York Poet Clyde Tresslar: “Ms. Bonin’s work seems to claim its
heritage from her French ancestry. One can feel the infused magic
of the impressionist’s eye tinting waters of a Louisiana bayou.
I am reminded of her oak trees, painted in the lost light of evening
for their power to evoke time, place, and spirit. No one I know
can make the paint sing in quite the same way. The sad, resilient
history of Acadiana made visible in the land and the water by a
brush that is surely dipped in its heart. Clyde Tressler, NY
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