This biography from the Archives of AskART:
|  The following, submitted August 2004, is from the artist.
Gerald A. Bienvenu was born in New Orleans on August 4, 1936. He attended public schools in Louisiana and Mississippi, and graduated from High School at St Stanislaus College, Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. He was nicknamed Jerry, and went by that until he opened his ad agency using his given name. He has lived in New Orleans, Louisiana, Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, and in Indiana and Arkansas. He now resides in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
Bienvenu paints landscapes, seascapes, cityscapes, old buildings, and portraits. His work is impressionistic, but is realistic in nature. He works exclusively in Watercolor.
His work is in the permanent collection of the Mississippi Museum of Art, Jackson, Mississippi
As a youngster, Jerry was always sketching and drawing. At school, his teacher's soon recognized his talents and put him to work doing holiday decorations on the blackboards. After graduation, he joined the Marines and put in two years of active duty in South Carolina, Florida, and in Panama.
A civilian once again in 1957, Gerald decided to try his art skills as a commercial artist. His cousin, Larry Bienvenu, was in charge of advertising at Werlein's music in New Orleans, and Larry's influence seemed to have guided Jerry, as he was called then, into the world of art where you could actually make a living.
Jerry's first job was as a layout artist for the yellow pages, which was then called the L.M. Berry Company. The 20-year-old was soon on the road, living in a hotel, doing layouts all night for the salesmen to sell the next day.
He worked at the yellow pages for 18 months, and during that time he filled out a request for a government job as a technical illustrator, He soon received a letter in the mail giving him a GS-5 rating, but since there were no jobs available at the time, he forgot about it until Keesler Air Force Base asked if he would be interested in a civil service position as a GS-5 technical illustrator. Since this position started at a salary of $4,040 per year, he could double his salary!
Gerald spent the next seven years at Keesler AFB, and in 1967, Gerald started a part-time venture called "Commercial Art Service", which was, as the name indicated, a service which provided artistic talents to firms and people who needed them. Because of him working in his bedroom at night, his wife Gayle learned to sleep on her side so the light from his drawing board didn't keep her awake. In 1969, Gerald moved to a downtown office building in Gulfport, Mississippi, where his art service became a full-service advertising agency, called..."Bienvenu & Associates".
Gerald's desire to advance, and frustration with having to "explain" the basics of marketing to his clients, led him to close the agency in 1975, accepting a position as Senior Writer with the newly-formed Keller-Crescent advertising in Evansville, Indiana. He left Keller-Crescent after 7 years and the family returned to the Mississippi town of Bay St. Louis, where he decided to give painting his full-time attention.
In 1959, just before his marriage, he started painting watercolors, inspired by a book called "Ways With Watercolor" by Ted Kautzky. Completely caught up in the magic of making water color do what he wanted, he completed his first series of paintings, the first two he still has and shares with his watercolor students as a way of showing them where he was at one point in his life. They are always inspired.
Sometime around 1965, Gerald found that some of the photographs he had taken might have potential to become a painting. Excited by this, he quickly saw that his photography could easily circumvent hours of painting "pleine aire" in the field. He began field-trips with his camera & sketch pad, and his ability to remember how he felt about what he photographed; although the slides spoke for themselves when he was back in his studio, beginning his next painting, based on his last field trip.
A true artist, Gerald denies that he is "cheating" by working from his own photographs. His work bears no resemblance to anyone trying to duplicate the photograph, and he points out to his students that he, and they, are only using the photograph as "reference".
A part-time painter, and an artist who took the time to find himself, Gerald decided to take up full-time painting in the early 80's, and found galleries who were delighted to purchase his work at wholesale. He was soon taking orders for specific paintings, boats, French Quarter, or old buildings that dotted the southern landscape, and selling them before the paint was fully dry.
SPECIAL AWARDS:
NATIONAL WATERCOLOR SOCIETY NATIONAL EXHIBIT, Dec. 99, Won a place in their traveling show for "Abandoned".
MISSISSIPPI WATERCOLOR SOCIETY NATIONAL EXHIBIT, Sept, '99
Won a purchase award from the Mississippi Museum of art
for "Gingerbread".
MID SOUTHERN WATERCOLORISTS NATIONAL EXHIBIT, April, 2000
Won Jetset Printing Award for "Lakeshore Church"
NEW ORLEANS ART ASSOCIATION, May, 1990
Won Virlane Foundation award for "Another Spring"
ONE MAN EXHIBITIONS
CHI OMEGA SORORITY, Tuscaloosa, Alabama, February, 2003
FOLEY COMMUNITY CENTER, Foley, Alabama, October, 2002
BAMA THEATER, Tuscaloosa, Alabama, October, 2002
REGIONS BANK, Conway, Arkansas, July, 2000
ARKANSAS RIVER VALLEY ART ASSOCIATION,
Russellville, Arkansas, June 2000
MISSISSIPPI MUSEUM OF ART, Biloxi, Mississippi November, 1993-June, 1994
FOLEY COMMUNITY CENTER, Foley, Alabama, October, 1987
OLD NATIONAL BANK, Evansville, Indiana, January, 1980
GROUP EXHIBITS:
NATIONAL PARK ACADEMY OF THE ARTS, Jackson Hole, Wyoming, September. 2003
NATIONAL PARK ACADEMY OF THE ARTS, Jackson Hole, Wyoming, September, 2002
NATIONAL PARK ACADEMY OF THE ARTS, Jackson Hole, Wyoming, September, 2001
NATIONAL PARK ACADEMY OF THE ARTS, Jackson Hole, Wyoming, September, 2000
AMERICAN WATERCOLOR SOCIETY, NATIONAL EXHIBIT, New York, NY, April 1988
THE ARTIST MAGAZINE, Cincinatti, Ohio
December, 1999, Finalist in Landscape Catagory
NATIONAL WATERCOLOR SOCIETY, Los Angeles, California, December, 1990
SALMAGUNDI CLUB, New York, NY, May, 1990 Annual Non-Members National Exhibit
MISSISSIPPI WATERCOLOR SOCIETY NATIONAL EXHIBIT, Jackson, Ms.
October, 2000
NEW ORLEANS WATERCOLOR SOCIETY NATIONAL EXHIBIT, New Orleans,
Louisiana, January, 2000
HILTON HEAD ART LEAGUE NATIONAL EXHIBIT, Hilton Head Island,
South Carolina, May, 2000
MID SOUTHERN WATERCOLORISTS NATIONAL EXHIBIT, Little Rock, Arkansas, April, 2000
MID SOUTHERN WATERCOLORISTS NATIONAL EXHIBIT, Little Rock,
Arkansas, March, 1997
MISSISSIPPI WATERCOLOR SOCIETY NATIONAL EXHIBIT, Jackson, Ms.
September, 1990
SOUTHERN WATERCOLOR SOCIETY NATIONAL EXHIBIT, Mobile, Alabama,March, 1990
NEW ORLEANS WATERCOLOR SOCIETY NATIONAL EXHIBIT, New Orleans, La, May, 1990
AUDUBON ARTISTS NATIONAL EXHIBIT, New York, NY.
April, 1990
MISSISSIPPI WATERCOLOR SOCIETY NATIONAL EXHIBIT, Jackson, Ms.
September, 1989
LOUISIANA WATERCOLOR SOCIETY NATIONAL EXHIBIT, New Orleans,
Louisiana, May, 1989
HOUSTON WATERCOLOR SOCIETY NATIONAL EXHIBIT, Houston, Texas,
April, 1987
Gerald is a signature member of the following associations;
MID SOUTHERN WATERCOLORISTS, (MSWS)
MISSISSIPPI WATERCOLOR SOCIETY )MWS)
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