History of the Rodrigue Oak

It was on his return drives from art school in California in the mid-1960s that Rodrigue formed the basis of his artistic style. He chose a symbol, the Louisiana oak tree, which would stay with him his entire career.

He thought about the tree’s significance to his ancestors. The oak was a great comfort to the displaced Cajuns after the Grand Derangement. As they made their homes in the swamps and countryside of southwest Louisiana, it was the oak tree that came to symbolize their growing stability in a new land. Its branches shaded them from the hot summer sun; its mass protected them from storms; and its moss filled their chairs and mattresses.

Rodrigue pushed the oak forward and cut it off at the top, so that the light shines from beneath its branches, showing hope to a displaced people. Over his career, including today, Rodrigue would paint hundreds of oak trees in this fashion.

Belle Terre 1974 20x24