Stories come to life on artist’s canvas

This Thursday and Friday, Tri-parish residents can view the lively works of renowned Donaldsonville artist Alvin Batiste free of charge at the E.D. White Historic Site in Thibodaux.

On both days from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., residents can experience what makes Batiste such a sought-after artist in south Louisiana by viewing his paintings and watching him paint live.

Batiste, 40, is one of those artists who can paint directly from photographs and sketches. He also has the ability to improvise whenever the occasion arises. He said he likes to focus on different aspects to help diversify his paintings whether it is African-American and Southern life or colonial architectural structures and landscapes.

Over the years, Batiste has taken folk art to a new level of public understanding and appreciation in Louisiana. He has managed to capture the hearts and imagination of people from every demographic.

However, it’s only been in the last decade that he has become a growing celebrity. Seeing his works painted live, it only takes viewers minutes before they are compelled to examine the wisdom that flows onto a canvas.

In recent years, he has been compared to African American artist Clementine Hunter, one of Louisiana’s most famous female artists and one of the most important folk artists of all time. During the 1940s through the 1960s, Hunter did some of her best work on canvas. She is known for her portrayal of a dying plantation life, including picking cotton, gathering pecans, washing clothes, baptisms and funeral scenes.

Batiste’s self-taught style is marked by a wide range of images and scenes deriving from a myriad of allegories handed down to him by his mother, Lillian Little Batiste.

“Most of my paintings tell a story about life, whether it’s on the plantation or working in the pecan and cotton fields,” he said. “I used to listen to my mother and find the stories she told me to be amazing. I started taking those stories and putting them on paper as I saw them in my mind.”

Batiste’s mother passed away in 1997. He eulogized her in his works by capturing her essence in his “Big Mama” series.

“I began to put more ladies in my painting that did some of the same work my mother used to do. They were not her, but they resembled her life and the things she went through,” he said.

But long before her passing, her tales were his inspiration. At an early age, he used to sketch pictures of his six siblings playing and mother working around the house.

Around age 7, he said his mother saw a few of his drawings and realized he had talent. From there, she would encourage him to hone his craft as an artist.

The words she spoke to him stuck with him: “If you continue to draw and become real good then maybe someone will discover you one day.”

Batiste continued to sketch well into the late 1980s. In 1992, after watching some professional artists on Louisiana Public Broadcasting, he decided to try his hand at painting. He went down to Rossie’s Frames and Things in downtown Donaldsonville for his painting supplies and went to work.

Rossie’s was the place where he got all his supplies for years. The storeowner, Sandra Imbraguglio, was intrigued by Batiste’s work. That same year, she offered him a gig painting in the shop window on Saturdays.

“Before I started painting at the shop, I was a private artist,” he said. “I didn’t know how I would like painting where people can see me. But Mrs. Sandra said I had talent and I could do it.”

He started out painting every other Saturday. Then more tourists started stopping by the shop asking about him. Within a few months, Batiste was painting in the store window every Tuesday through Saturday.

In 2001, his career as an artist was taken to new heights. While painting in the window at Rossie’s, Oscar award winner Billy Bob Thornton approached him about painting his first CD release cover, Private Radio. Thornton was in Donaldsonville filming the 2002 movie “The Badge.”

“They were filming in the area and some of the people that was working on the movie came into to the shop,” Batiste said. “They looked around and liked my work. They went back to the set and told Billy Bob that there was an artist who paints art in the window. He came the next day and he liked my work too.

“He said, ‘I really like your work and I am going to let you do my CD cover for me’,” Batiste said.

In 2004, Sandra Imbraguglio passed away and her children David and Cindy Imbraguglio, inherited the shop. They admired Batiste’s addition to the shop and asked him to continue painting in the window.

Folk artist Alvin Batiste tells stories of African-American and Southern life in each of his paintings. He will be painting Thursday and Friday at the E.D. White Historic Site in Thibodaux. * Photo courtesy of ALVIN BATISTE