Louisiana folk artist John Preble began his famous series of portraits of beautiful Creole women in 1985 but still feels that they are in the infancy stage. His paintings remind viewers of Paul Gauguin's work in Tahiti:  He often paints people who have dark skin, the paintings have a "dream-like" glow and like the master's, his paintings are full of emotion and admiration for the subject. Preble's work also reflects his infatuation with the beauty of the gulf south tropics where he resides - the Spanish moss, still bayous, hot swamps, hazy marshes, Native Americans, Creoles, and the ever-present mystery just below the surface. His portraits encourage an active relationship between viewer and subject by establishing straight-on direct eye contact and viewers quickly become intimate with these paintings, some of which depicts a woman with a  Mona Lisa-like smile.

 According to the artist, this series Portraits of Creole Beauties began when his wife encouraged me to paint full time. He wanted to paint some large landscapes in the Hudson River School style and was influenced by his admiration of Herman Herzog, Thomas Moran, and M. J. Heade.

Although visitors to his studio were impressed with the work in progress, he admittedly was not. The landscapes were a struggle. Each day became more painful than fun for him and he ended each day in the studio physically and emotionally exhausted.

After about six months he reevaluated his efforts about the same time as an annual art show he was preparing for. On the eve of the exhibition, on a whim he cut out a of section of canvas of a larger landscape where he had painted a Creole woman, reframing only the face. Everyone told Preble that it looked great, but it took a few weeks after the exhibit for to fully understand the importance of that small canvas. He then put aside the large landscapes and began developing his most successful current series of small paintings of beautiful, mysterious green-eyed women.

 Rejuvenated with newly-found purpose, each day in the studio became fun when John realized he had finally been truly inspired to follow his muse.  The many admirers and collectors of his work recognize the love and inspiration in each piece also.

Although most of his paintings are small in scale, he does larger works and paintings on commission. John's medium is oil on canvas using only the highest quality paints, usually painting several portraits of one face at one time, trying different techniques and "colors" on the archetypal beauty.

 His pieces are in numerous collections and have been exhibited at various museums including the Whitney Museum in NYC, New Orleans Museum of Art and the UCM, a museum of indigenous Louisiana folk art. For more information about pricing and available of Preble's extraordinary originals and prints.

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          The question of originality is one of those issues that hangs over artists like the long shadow of all who have gone before. Creating new work as distinct as a Picasso or a Pollock can be a daunting challenge, and some advocates of postmodernism still cling to the notion that it's no longer even possible. Yet, when you consider that we all experience life differently, and that we all possess our own unique fingerprints and DNA, originality seems not so far fetched after all.

        But how to go about it? Factor in that the mostly New York-based art media reinforce moribund trends that many artists feel obliged to follow in order to gain recognition, and you might end up with a bad case of the blahs, which seems a fair assessment of the state of American art today. (Any art scene where John Currin is considered a super hot artist is in trouble.) But then there are those brave souls who manage to create uniquely identifiable work out of personal experiences and homely materials. They may not be the new Picassos, but their work is at least recognizably their own. Take, for instance, Louisiana artist John Preble.

          Preble appears unconcerned that his paintings may at first suggest Gauguin's Tahiti oeuvre. His nonchalance seems apt when one learns that the cinnamon toned, bright-eyed female subjects he paints, in seemingly infinite variations, originated in his own backyard. Startled by his encounters with the hybrid progeny of generations of French, Africans and Choctaw Indians, he has painted his own versions of them obsessively ever since. Collectively known as his Camille series of Creole Indians, they have of late been supplemented with cats, still lifes and even the occasional male figure, rendered in a colorfully muted style that melds primitive innuendo with veiled hints of cubism.

          Flaming Hair is emblematic of his recent work. Here, an amber-eyed girl with pale saffron skin and spiked day-glow crimson hair peers out from one of his typically opulent gold-leaf frames. Her facial _expression is impassive, and while one can see touches of Gauguin and Matisse, the look is unique. The same goes for Lacombe Maidens in a Smoky Marsh, a pair of russet-hued, green eyed babes with raven tresses and evening dresses standing before a smoldering miasma. Their demeanor is elegant, yet their typically impassive faces look back at us as if through a window in time, like witnesses to an improbable history.

          Preble cranks these things out, and he'd be the first to admit that he's not always consistent, but the best ones are distinctly interesting. As are his Animatronic Boxes, bizarre novelty constructions such as his Death of Robert Johnson, a kind of scale model Delta blues environment in a display case replete with juke joints, animated musicians, dancing patrons, even fluttering angels, all of which come to life with the plunk of a quarter in a coin box. Preble maintains an entire museum of such things, the UCM Museum, near his St. Tammany Parish home, and one can only be impressed at the way he has transformed his flair for curiosities into a uniquely creative, if unlikely, lifestyle.
                                                Erik Burkhardt, Gambit Weekly, 2/10/04

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