Promenade 2010
Clemenitne Hunter: A Louisiana Icon
At Promenade this year the Imperial Calcasieu Museum will showcase works by Clementine Hunter. A reception will be held September 24th from 5-8 in the Gibson - Barham Gallery. Refreshments provided by the Junior League of Lake Charles, Inc. from their Marshes to Mansions cookbook. The works will remain displayed through October 23.
No one is quite sure of the date, but it is believed that Clementine Hunter was born in December of 1886 or January of 1887 on a Natchitoches plantation called Hidden Hill. She died January 1,1988 near Melrose Plantation, where she had spent all but the first 15 years of he life. Clementine Hunter didn't begin painting until her mid- 50's. Clementine was a Creole and spoke a dialect of creole for many years until her second husband, Emanuel, taught her English. Her husband didn't encourage her painting . She had to work on the plantation as a field hand and later as a housekeeper.
Clementine's favorite subjects included cotton picking (she actually enjoyed picking cotton, she said), wash day, pecan gathering, Saturday nights, church scenes, and her favorite flowers, zinnias. Clementine painted what she knew and loved. Her works are simple. The style is known as naive or folk. "naive" means innocent and inexperienced; "folk" meaning the way everyday people would paint. Over a span of forty years Clementine produced 4,000 paintings, each one telling a story of life as she saw it in a simple and straight forward way.
