Description

This newly available series of prints offers special insight into George Rodrigue’s artistic process. He designed these prints in 2011 while living with cancer. These small-scale prints were meant to be portable, allowing Rodrigue to continue to create art as he spent time away from his studio undergoing treatment for his illness.

Throughout his life, Rodrigue found solace in the act of making art. As a young boy, he contracted polio, leaving him bedridden for months. To keep her son engaged and entertained, Rodrigue’s mother purchased him a Paint By Numbers set and modeling clay, sparking his interest in art.

This suite of prints is referred to as the “P series” because Rodrigue intended to make a collection of mixed media works from the prints using puff paint. You may recall that Rodrigue’s mixed media works often consist of a silkscreen printed Blue Dog embellished with colorful, energetic painted details. Puff paints are tubed pigments that, when applied to a surface, have a thick or raised appearance. In 2011, Rodrigue did produce a collection of mixed media works using the blue versions of these P series prints.

The “P series” prints are printed on an illustration board, the same printing surface the artist commonly used for his mixed media work. With the graphic detailing around their faces, the dogs in this series call back to the early Blue Dogs of the 1990s. This shaggier appearance alludes to the dog’s origins as the loup-garou or werewolf dog and is achieved using the same three-color silkscreen printmaking process Rodrigue employed in the early 1990s.

Given the connection these prints have to pivotal aspects of George Rodrigue’s artistic journey, the Rodrigue family has decided to make these small yet significant works available to collectors.

*Price and availability subject to change without notice, sold unframed

All prints sold directly by the Rodrigue Estate are also accompanied with a certificate of authenticity indicating the number of the print purchased from the estate.