The following acrylic paintings are scenes from my memories of when I was a child growing up along the banks of Bayou Lafourche in Golden Meadow, Louisiana.
Large 16 X 20
Lena Gale's Tree Swing - done on a stretched canvas
Number: 103
PRICE: $30.00
For the first 12 years of my life, I lived with my parents and older brother in a small camper parked in the front yard of my grandparents Abel and Marcelite Jambon's house in Golden Meadow, Louisiana. It was parked under a shade tree where I had a swing. I spent many hours on that swing... alone.
NOT FOR SALE
Large 16 X 20
Serenading Grandma - done on a stretched canvas
Number: 94
PRICE: $30.00
I was very close to my maternal grandparents who had a front porch facing the bayou where we would sit with relatives every afternoon. My grandfather played the guitar as well as accordion. My happiest memories are of time spent on that porch.
NOT FOR SALE
Large 16 X 20
Creole Blue Moon Celebration - done on a stretched canvas
Number: 102
PRICE: $30.00
My grandparents told me stories about their Acadian and Creole ancestors and their way of life and I had them retell them to me many times. They celebrated the simple things in life and were a happy people.
SOLD
Medium 12 X 16
Polka Dot Bikini - done on a stretched canvas
Number: 79
PRICE: $20.00
I lived about 30 minutes from the beach at Grand Isle and it was the only place that we visited as a family when I was a child. As a teen, I spent every summer swimming in the Gulf and enjoying the beach.
SOLD
Large 16 X 20
Cajun Wash Day - done on a stretched canvas
Number: 98
PRICE: $30.00
Before my grandparents had a washing machine they washed clothes in a boiling pot in the back yard.
NOT FOR SALE
Extra Large 20 X 24
Rou Garou of Mandalay Swamp - done on a stretched canvas
Number: 81
PRICE: $50.00
One of my favorite stories told to me by my grandfather was about the legendary Rou Garou. We lived very close to a swamp and as late as the 1960s folks in our town were talking about the latest sighting of the swamp creature.
SOLD
Large 16 X 20
The Sunset of Childhood - done on a stretched canvas
Number: 104
PRICE: $30.00
When we are no longer young children, it is a loss of innocence. This painting depicts my feelings about the end of a stage of life that is much too short.
NOT FOR SALE
Large 16 X 20
Memories of Childhood - done on a stretched canvas
Number: 105
PRICE: $30.00
This painting is in memory of my swing.
SOLD
Large 16 X 20
Grandpa Coming Home - done on a stretched canvas
Number: 106
PRICE: $30.00
My grandfather was a fisherman and would leave for weeks at a time to go trawling in the Gulf of Mexico. His boat, the Casablanca, was docked along the bayou right in front of our camper. It was always exciting when he arrived back home with his catch of fresh seafood which he shared with all members of his family who lived nearby.
SOLD
Extra Large 18 X 2
Through The Wringer - done on a stretched canvas
Number: 107
PRICE: $50.0
I remember the time before modern washers and dryers. When I was a little girl, my mom had a wringer washing machine on the porch of our camper and my grandmother had one on her back porch.
NOT FOR SALE
Extra Large 18 X 24
The Dreaded Chore - done on a stretched canvas
Number: 108
PRICE: $50.00
When I was a child, we didn't have a bathroom in the camper we lived in so used a chamber pot which had to be emptied daily. This was my mother's chore till my brother became old enough to carry it to the outhouse. Then when I was old enough, it became my chore and remained my chore till I was 13 years old and we moved into a new house with a bathroom. I hated the long walk to the outhouse behind my grandmother's house. I was so ashamed for someone to see me carrying this chamber pot and suffered great anxiety over it. Everyone had bathrooms but us and this fact made it more embarrassing.
NOT FOR SALE
Large 16 X 20
Shared Childhood Memories - done on a stretched canvas
Number: 109
PRICE: $30.00
My brother was 4 years older than I was and was taught to take care of his little sister. He became my protector and for a few innocent years I felt safe.
NOT FOR SALE
Large 16 X 20
Jumping The Broom - done on a stretched canvas
Number: 110
PRICE: $30.00
My Cajun great grandparents lived in an isolated part of South Louisiana in the late 1800s. When they decided to get married they performed the "Jump The Broom" ceremony. When the traveling priest made his yearly rounds through the state, he traveled by boat to their area and performed the religious ceremony for them.
NOT FOR SALE
Extra Large 20 X 24
Creole Simple Pleasures - done on a stretched canvas
Number: 111
PRICE: $50.00
Creole Simple Pleasures - done on a stretched canvas
Number: 111
PRICE: $50.00
My maternal great grandparents were Creole. They lived a hard life in their little fishing community on the Gulf of Mexico but celebrated their lives on Sunday. Music, dancing, and socializing were their simple pleasures.
NOT FOR SALE
Large 16 X 20
Cajun Life On Bayou Lafourche - done on a stretched canvas
Number: 112
PRICE: $30.00
My maternal grandfather was a fisherman all of his life. The "Casablanca" was his second boat and his pride and joy. He kept it freshly painted and in good running order. It broke his heart when he sold it but it was time for him to retire. He kept a pirogue, which he stored under his house, for as long as I can remember. He died at the age of 86.
NOT FOR SALE
Extra Large 18 X 24
Grief That Never Ends - done on a stretched canvas
Number: 113
PRICE: $50.00
I was 15 years old when the boy I was dating died in a car accident. It had a devastating effect on me and I did not know how to deal with the pain. The only thing that helped was when I went to the cemetery and sat on the steps of his tomb and talked to him. I'd pretend that he and I were having a visit. This behavior continued for many years and I sometimes stayed in the cemetery till late at night. After I married I continued this visitation and my husband would come to the cemetery with a flashlight at night and find me sitting on the tomb and take me home.
NOT FOR SALE
Extra Large 18 X 24
Pushing Back The Darkness - acrylic on stretched canvas
Number: 115
PRICE: $50.00
The day after Halloween, All Saints Day (La Toussaint), is more important in south Louisiana than in any other area of the country both as a Catholic Holy Day of Obligation and as a day of family unity. The practice dates from ancient times and was brought to Louisiana by French Catholics.
According to the custom of the people, families gathered all week to whitewash the graves and decorate them for All Saints Day. They brought picnic lunches and ate at the cemetery. Families worked on the tombs throughout the week leading up to November 1st, then began gathering around sunset on the actual day. They would come in the evening and put the candles around the graves, lighting up the whole area, pushing back the darkness.
For those living in isolated swampy areas of South Louisiana, they traveled by boat to reach tombs of loved ones who were buried long ago where there was once land and now there is water. They placed candles on the tombs and sometimes placed rosaries on the crosses.
This painting is my image of that tradition.
SOLD
Extra Large 18 X 24
1893 Cheniere Caminada - Sunday Gathering Before The Storm - done on a stretched canvas
Number: 116
PRICE: $50.00
NOT FOR SALE
Cheniere Caminada was a popular vacation resort located on the Louisiana
coast of the Gulf of Mexico. In the late nineteenth century it was very common
for upper class wives and children to travel to the hotels there and for
husbands to visit on weekends. Caminadaville was settled by Acadians who had
migrated down the bayou from the Acadian coast as well as Creoles and immigrants
from other countries.
On Oct. 1, 1893, the village of Caminadaville was wiped out by a massive
hurricane. Caminadaville was a vibrant fishing community in the late 19th
century, located on Cheniere Caminada, adjacent to Grand Isle in coastal
Jefferson Parish.
As a strengthening hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico, the Chenière Caminada
Hurricane brought a strong storm surge that flooded much of southeast Louisiana where 779 people died out of the town’s 1500 residents from the high winds and
flooding from the storm surge. The surge was up to 16 feet, with heavy surf
above it. The hurricane caused about 2000 fatalities in total, making it among
the deadliest American hurricanes in history.
I have written two books about the event which tells of some of my ancestors and their tragic deaths as well as stories of incredible survival. These books were compiled from actual accounts written in the newspapers of 1893.
The Disappearance of Alice - The Story of the Great Gulf Storm of 1893
Cheniere Caminada And The Tidal Wave of 1893 - The Incredible Survival of Claydomere Paul Lafont
Available online at all major book outlets.
Extra Large 5 ft X 3 ft
1812 Map of Lafitte's Barataria On Grand Terre Island - a stretched canvas (linen)
Number: 118
PRICE: $1500.00
NOT FOR SALE- orders only
My ggg grandmother Margarite Suzanne's first husband was pirate Vinzente Gambi, one of Jean Lafitte's Captains. Suzanne was French Creole, born in America of European parents and living in Cheniere Caminada near Grand Isle.
My grandfather Abel told me that Vinzente Gambi, always referred to by his last name, came to Barataria and Grand Terre around 1805 with Louis Chighizola. Vinzente and Louis, originally from Genoa, Italy, were driven from the Caribbean, where they had been dealing with other pirates in the slave trade off Hispaniola.
Once at Grand Terre, he became a Captain with Jean Lafitte's band of smugglars. However, he soon became dissatisfied and moved to Cheniere Caminada to set up his own operation. That is where he met and married a beautiful Creole girl.
Vinzente Gambi was married to my great, great, great grandmother Marguerite Suzanne Cheramie. They had no children at the time of his murder in 1819. Suzanne left Cheniere and moved to Donaldsonville where she met and married Henry Leon Landry and had a family.
One of Lafitte's most rebellious and unruly partners, Italian Vinzente Gambi had a long criminal history that preceded him prior to his arrival in New Orleans during the early 19th century. Within several years, he had become one of the major pirates active in the Gulf of Mexico and was claimed to have personally killed dozens of his victims with an ax. He was one of the first men to be approached by Jean Lafitte when he first began to organize the warring factions of the pirates of Grand Terre Island and the Bay of Barataria.
Gambi was one of the hundred or so Baratarians who followed Lafitte after receiving his pardon from President James Madison. He was going to be given command of the Victoria, however he left almost immediately after - moving to Cheniere Caminada - due to a falling out between him and the Lafittes when Pierre Lafitte sued him in a civil suit over a $250 loan on July 2, 1817.
During the next four years, he engaged in outright piracy, continuing to loot and sink a number of ships before he himself was apparently killed by his own men.
Catching up to Gambi once more, his schooner was captured in December 1819 by Daniel Patterson in what is thought to have been the last pirate ship active in the western Gulf of Mexico. Patterson learned from the crew that they had killed Gambi after learning that he had kept several thousand dollars owed to them they had taken from their latest victim. As he slept on deck during the night, his head resting on a spar, one of his men decapitated him using "the very bloody ax which he so often used", according to news reports published around 1819, including a colorful story by the Opelousas Courier.
The buccaneers and sea rovers of 19th century Louisiana clung tightly to an area they claimed as their "kingdom by the sea," an untamed wilderness of marsh and cypress and mosquitoes leading out into the Mexican Gulf. They had few problems navigating barges and skiffs through the seemingly endless miles of coastal terrain around Barataria's three islands — Grand Terre, Grand Isle and Cheniere Caminada.
Extra Large 18 X 24
Jean and Pierre Lafitte - done on a stretched canvas
Number: 119
PRICE: $500.00
NOT FOR SALE - orders only
The Lafitte brothers migrated to the Barataria area around 1804 from Hispaniola. By 1808 they were involved in smuggling. Jean and Pierre established a blacksmith shop in New Orleans that served as a depot for smuggled goods and slaves brought ashore by a band of privateers. From 1810 to 1814 this group formed the nucleus for Lafitte's colony on the secluded islands of Barataria Bay south of New Orleans. The bay is located beyond a narrow passage between the barrier islands of Grande Terre and Grand Isle.
Holding privateer commissions from the republic of Cartagena, Columbia - Lafitte's group preyed on Spanish commerce, illegally disposing of its plunder through merchant connections on the mainland.
The Baratarians, as Lafitte and his men came to be known, fought with distinction in the Battle of New Orleans from December 1814 to January 1815. After the battle, President James Madison issued a public proclamation of pardon for the group. Jean left Grande Terre for Galveston, Texas in 1817 and Pierre stayed in New Orleans for a few more years then traveled to the Yucatan where he died in 1821. It is believed that Jean died in battle off the coast of Cuba around 1823 at the age of 41.
Extra Large 18 X 24
I Once Was Lost - done on a stretched canvas
Number: 120
PRICE: $50.00
NOT FOR SALE
For a very long time during the late 1960s and 1970s, my life consisted of sleeping all day and staying out all night. I drank too much and smoked too much and took too many pills. I was young and pretty and had many boyfriends. I thought that was an exciting way to live. It was a way of life that I had fallen into and took a long time to find my way out of.
Eventually, I decided to change the way I was living and enrolled in a vocational school. Some years later, at the age of 30, I entered college where I spent the next 13 years obtaining 3 degrees. I often think of those lost years and wonder if I would do it differently if I had another chance... but I don't.
14 X 19
Full Moon Calls The Rou Garou of Mandalay Swamp - printed with ink jet printer on linen then painted with acrylic
Number: 126
PRICE: $30.00
One of my favorite stories told to me by my grandfather was about the legendary Rou Garou. We lived very close to a swamp and as late as the 1960s folks in our town were talking about the latest sighting of the swamp creature.
SOLD
Medium 11 X 14
Baratarian Vincent Gambi - done on a stretched canvas
Number: 131
PRICE: $20.00
My ggg grandmother Margarite Suzanne's first husband was pirate Vinzente Gambi, one of Jean Lafitte's Captains. Suzanne was French Creole, born in America of European parents and living in Cheniere Caminada near Grand Isle.
My grandfather Abel told me that Vinzente Gambi, always referred to by his last name, came to Barataria and Grand Terre around 1805 with Louis Chighizola. Vinzente and Louis, originally from Genoa, Italy, were driven from the Caribbean, where they had been dealing with other pirates in the slave trade off Hispaniola.
Once at Grand Terre, he became a Captain with Jean Lafitte's band of smugglars. However, he soon became dissatisfied and moved to Cheniere Caminada to set up his own operation. That is where he met and married a beautiful Creole girl.
Vinzente Gambi was married to my great, great, great grandmother Marguerite Suzanne Cheramie. They had no children at the time of his murder in 1819. Suzanne left Cheniere and moved to Donaldsonville where she met and married Henry Leon Landry and had a family. They had Leon Raphael, who had Alcide Raphael, who had Julio, who had Hamilton, who had Pat Landry who resides in Grand Isle.
One of Lafitte's most rebellious and unruly partners, Italian Vinzente Gambi had a long criminal history that preceded him prior to his arrival in New Orleans during the early 19th century. Within several years, he had become one of the major pirates active in the Gulf of Mexico and was claimed to have personally killed dozens of his victims with an ax. He was one of the first men to be approached by Jean Lafitte when he first began to organize the warring factions of the pirates of Grand Terre Island and the Bay of Barataria.
Gambi was one of the hundred or so Baratarians who followed Lafitte after receiving his pardon from President James Madison. He was going to be given command of the Victoria, however he left almost immediately after - moving to Cheniere Caminada - due to a falling out between him and the Lafittes when Pierre Lafitte sued him in a civil suit over a $250 loan on July 2, 1817.
During the next four years, he engaged in outright piracy, continuing to loot and sink a number of ships before he himself was apparently killed by his own men.
Catching up to Gambi once more, his schooner was captured in December 1819 by Daniel Patterson in what is thought to have been the last pirate ship active in the western Gulf of Mexico. Patterson learned from the crew that they had killed Gambi after learning that he had kept several thousand dollars owed to them they had taken from their latest victim. As he slept on deck during the night, his head resting on a spar, one of his men decapitated him using "the very bloody ax which he so often used", according to news reports published around 1819, including a colorful story by the Opelousas Courier.
Extra, Extra Large 3 1/2 feet X 4 1/2 feet
Lafitte's Buried Treasure - done on a homemade stretched linen canvas
Number: 140
PRICE: $1200.00
NOT FOR SALE - orders only
My ggg grandmother Margarite Suzanne's first husband was pirate Vinzente Gambi, one of Jean Lafitte's Captains. Suzanne was French Creole, born in America of European parents and living in Cheniere Caminada near Grand Isle.
My grandfather Abel told me that Vinzente Gambi, always referred to by his last name, came to Barataria and Grand Terre around 1805 with Louis Chighizola. Vinzente and Louis, originally from Genoa, Italy, were driven from the Caribbean, where they had been dealing with other pirates in the slave trade off Hispaniola.
Once at Grand Terre, he became a Captain with Jean Lafitte's band of smugglars. However, he soon became dissatisfied and moved to Cheniere Caminada to set up his own operation. That is where he met and married a beautiful Creole girl.
Vinzente Gambi was married to my great, great, great grandmother Marguerite Suzanne Cheramie. They had no children at the time of his murder in 1819. Suzanne left Cheniere and moved to Donaldsonville where she met and married Henry Leon Landry and had a family. They had Leon Raphael, who had Alcide Raphael, who had Julio, who had Hamilton, who had Pat Landry who resides in Grand Isle.
One of Lafitte's most rebellious and unruly partners, Italian Vinzente Gambi had a long criminal history that preceded him prior to his arrival in New Orleans during the early 19th century. Within several years, he had become one of the major pirates active in the Gulf of Mexico and was claimed to have personally killed dozens of his victims with an ax. He was one of the first men to be approached by Jean Lafitte when he first began to organize the warring factions of the pirates of Grand Terre Island and the Bay of Barataria.
Gambi was one of the hundred or so Baratarians who followed Lafitte after receiving his pardon from President James Madison. He was going to be given command of the Victoria, however he left almost immediately after - moving to Cheniere Caminada - due to a falling out between him and the Lafittes when Pierre Lafitte sued him in a civil suit over a $250 loan on July 2, 1817.
During the next four years, he engaged in outright piracy, continuing to loot and sink a number of ships before he himself was apparently killed by his own men.
Catching up to Gambi once more, his schooner was captured in December 1819 by Daniel Patterson in what is thought to have been the last pirate ship active in the western Gulf of Mexico. Patterson learned from the crew that they had killed Gambi after learning that he had kept several thousand dollars owed to them that they had taken from their latest victim. As he slept on deck during the night, his head resting on a spar, one of his men decapitated him using "the very bloody ax which he so often used", according to news reports published around 1819, including a colorful story by the Opelousas Courier.
The buccaneers and sea rovers of 19th century Louisiana clung tightly to an area they claimed as their "kingdom by the sea," an untamed wilderness of marsh and cypress and mosquitoes leading out into the Mexican Gulf. They had few problems navigating barges and skiffs through the seemingly endless miles of coastal terrain around Barataria's three islands — Grand Terre, Grand Isle and Cheniere Caminada.
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