Bayouland Activities
May 31, 2013
Luke lands at Riverside
June 4, 2013
Growing up in tropical Panama, Nadjah Bergeron was surrounded by color and artistic influences. Her mother painted in oils and her grandfather drew maps. Bergeron drew a little, but was advised to train for a career – and she did, becoming an industrial engineer, although she is not practicing that specialty at this time.
Those artistic influences lay dormant through her education and move to the United States until a couple of years ago, when Bergeron’s daughter, then-3-year-old Isabella, brought home a collage she’d been working on at her grandmother’s home.
“I’ve always wanted to paint but didn’t have the courage,” Bergeron said, but she was struck by the color combinations in a painted square. In that moment, she wanted to pick up paint and a brush to work with colors.
“I didn’t go to school for painting or art. It was always in my heart to do something,” she said. Now, she draws inspiration from color combinations found in magazines, on television and in nature. Creating her works in layers – first with modeling paste applied with a palette knife to create texture, then applying paint on top of it, finishing with a varnish and even adding bits of glass for another element.
Instead of oil paints like her mother uses, Bergeron works in acrylic paint because it dries faster and gives her the flexibility to paint with her hands, using brushes only for detail. Painting with her hands gives her fluidity and, occasionally, cuts from the sharp edges of the dried modeling paste.
“When I start painting, I like to work until I’m done with it. I like to see the results,” she said. “I only paint … when I cannot wait to see what it looks like … I do believe that art and spirituality are connected. Painting is like meditation for me – I get like in a trance … I feel, I move and things just happen.”
Bergeron’s work is all about bringing together harmonious colors with interesting texture, a theme in her exhibit at PPG, a fine art gallery in downtown Houma, until June 8. A couple weeks later, she’ll be one of the artists featured in PPG’s grand opening exhibit.
The exhibit, highlighting artists represented by the gallery, will open June 22, said Stephanie Donaldson, co-owner and founder of not only PPG but also Purple Penguin Art Company in Thibodaux and Houma. In Houma, the gallery and art studio share 300 Belanger Street.
“I really want the gallery to be a place for Houma to show and establish and emerging artists,” Donaldson said, and the energy of the downtown is conducive to her concept. Donaldson and her gallery curator, Re’ Howse, are working to help create a synergy where music, plays, art, clubs, and businesses promote each other and their events, building downtown Houma into a destination point, according to Howse.
The Purple Penguin concept, Howse said, is to adapt the classes to students’ and teachers’ interest – art which then can be potentially shown in the gallery. Donaldson has worked to make the environment welcoming to any level of artist, creating such events as date nights, field trips for school children and scheduling classes for community and church groups. Already, classes in painting; hand-built, thrown and raku pottery; and glass fusion are offered.
“I feel like everyone can benefit from creating art. It’s an experience that everyone should experience,” Donaldson said. “We’re really trying to build a community of artists to come in and teach the classes” as well as exhibit. Interested artists are encouraged to email a description of their art background and images of their work to crazyre@ppgfineartgallery.com for consideration. That philosophy is echoed through Donaldson’s welcoming of Bergeron as her new partner in PPG.
“It was a dream come true,” Bergeron said. Stephanie and I “realize we have the same goals and intentions – to help bring more art to the community, to help other artists.”
The gallery’s next exhibit, Initiative 3: Inception, opens June 22 with a reception from 6-9 p.m. and live music by Moses Nightshead and Company; it closes July 27.
Nadjah Bergeron explains her technique to a PPG visitor. The gallery, opened by the Purple Penguin Art Company, celebrates its grand-opening exhibit beginning June 22 at 300 Belanger St., Houma. Bergeron is one of at least a dozen exhibitors scheduled to show.
