Reviews and Comments
Sensualist painter stokes her bayou fire
Review from The Times-Picayune August 27, 2004"She captures tree bark with long, serpentine strokes, reproduces tangled strands of moss with jittery spaghetti squiggles, and suggests the bright spots of light bursting through the leaves with buttery circular blotches. Bonin never becomes bogged down in detail as she races across the canvas."
Click here to read entire Times-Picayune review(Times-Picayune site will open in new window)
Bonin's Style Goes With Lousiana Flow
Review from The Times-Picayune Jan. 25, 2002"'Oil and Water,' New Iberia artist Melissa Bonin's exhibit of paintings at Mario Villa Gallery, is quite good. What's even better for Louisiana art lovers is that it embodies one of those wonderful century-spanning, art-historical parallels that are so interesting to explore -- and you can do the exploration just by crossing the street. I'll explain in a minute."
Click here to read entire Times-Picayune reviewComments from New York Poet Clyde Tressler
"Ms. Bonin's newest work seems to claim its heritage from her French ancestry. One can feel the infused magic of the impressionist's eye tinting the waters of a Louisiana bayou. I am reminded of her oak trees, painted in the lost light of evening, for their power to evoke time, place, and spirit. No one I know can make the paint sing in quite the same way. The sad, resilient history of Acadiana made visible in the land and the water by a brush that is surely dipped in its heart."
Taped Interview
Robert Trudeau
Shreveport artist Robert Trudeau interviewed Melissa Bonin for the Northwest Louisiana Art Gallery website when Melissa opened the new Bisteneau Gallery there in April, 2004, with a one-woman show.
Click here to listen to the interview in MP3 format
Click here to listen to the interview in Real Audio format