Teche Federal Bank to build new facility in Thibodaux
October 20, 2006Beverly Brunet Trahan
October 23, 2006“Laissez Le Bon Temps Roule!” is shouted from the dining room of Southdown Plantation House art exhibit of Dan Junot.
The Thibodaux artist uses the French phrase to entitle his work because, “Almost any occasion is a Cajun excuse to ‘Let the Good Times Roll,'” he said. “This promises to be a fun exhibit, one tourists as well as locals are sure to enjoy.” The art will be on display through Nov. 30, and includes paintings of Cajun life and culture.
Junot’s art reflects the Cajun carefree, insouciant lifestyle and celebrates depictions of Mardi Gras, Cajun weddings, crawfish boils, and everyday scenes of Cajun towns and countryside.
Visitors will view landscapes, surrealisms, and still-lifes in acrylic, gouache, pen and ink, casein, watercolor, conte crayon, and collages by an artist whose formal training in art includes a mere semester of basic design at Northwestern State College in 1960.
Southdown offers an irreplaceable opportunity to experience the wonder of a true talent and self-taught, natural born artist, and at the same time, enjoy the Cajun traditions we all know too well come to life in the artwork.
Junot began painting and drawing around age 10 and learned by reading, listening to, and observing other artists. Local artists Allen Bourgeois and Lulu Ameen particularly influence him. Junot serves as an active art teacher and judge for local art clubs and organizations.
Junot’s “Take Highway 1 South from Thibodaux to Grand Isle” was seen at the Wetlands Acadian Culture Center from December 2005 to March 2006. It was a pre-Katrina photographic study, and the journey can still be taken online by visiting www.danjunot.com.
Admission to view the “Laissez Le Bon Temps Roule” art exhibit is $1 during regular museum hours. Full admission for the complete museum tour is $5 for adults and $2 for children. The museum is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., with guided tours beginning hourly.
There will be a free opening reception with artist Dan Junot on Sun., Oct. 8, from 2:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Southdown Plantation is located at 1208 Museum Dr. (near the corner of Hwy 311 and St. Charles Avenue) in Houma.
For more information about the exhibit or other Southdown Plantation events, contact the Southdown Plantation House/The Terrebonne Museum at (985) 851-0154 or e-mail southdown@mobiletel.com. Visit them online at www.southdownmuseum.org.
