New Orleans Artist Carlos Lopez and His Oyster Paintings

“The Nesters”

“Why, then the world’s mine oyster.” Shakespeare said this first in “The Merry Wives of Windsor.” New Orleans artist Carlos Lopez has made the oyster his world, too, not in prose but in his large and lustrous oil paintings of the not-so-simple oyster shell. 

Lopez’s paintings of the shucked shells of the locally popular bivalves appear as though he dipped his brush in a pool of luminescent mother of pearl and brushed in bright and polychromatic fluid strokes across the canvas. The mundane shell, once used to pave roads along the Gulf Coast, takes on a stunning place in his oversized canvases. With his added touches and accompanying imagery, they become storytelling centerpieces in his uplifting still life paintings.

“Love Swing”

“These days,” he says, “I think it is the challenge to use a simple object, like an oyster, and completely redesign the mundane into something people will want to appreciate. The story, the character, the image, I think the drive is the challenge. My favorite image is quiet and solitude. Less chaos, shadows, soothing textures. I want people to sit in a quiet space and feel the quietness that comes across in my paintings. Usually, with a surrealistic twist.”

Lopez, born in Honduras and now living in the “eclectic” Gentilly Terrace neighborhood of New Orleans among “retirees, artists of all forms, and newlyweds young and old,” has created art all his life, beginning with doodles as a child before he could read or write. As to formal training, he studied art in Honduras and later at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts and the University of New Orleans. But, he says, his “real training” took place with the late renowned artist and mentor Auseklis Ozols at the New Orleans Academy of Fine Arts. A close look at Lopez’s oyster shell paintings truly reflects that training at the academy.

“The Master Weaver”

But why oyster shells? Lopez says he singled out the oyster shell as the focus for his still life paintings shortly after the 2010 Deep Water Horizon oil spill off the Louisiana and Mississippi Gulf Coast.  

“It was a shock to the Gulf of Mexico and messed with wildlife,” he says. “People started losing their business and it struck a chord with me. I used oil from the actual spill in the first painting of a shell I did. It has since morphed into the challenge it is today. To take a simple object, paint it in a way that gives it expression, sometimes emotion, and hard to replicate in style. I like to put my spin them, sometimes adding other objects like nests, flowers, birds, insects, clouds and shadows, all to hopefully convey a visual story that doesn’t need to be explained.”

“Madame Garlique”

Over the years, Lopez’s “oyster paintings” have changed from ecological statements, as he says, “to my happy place and just a love for the culture and city here in New Orleans … I live in a city that celebrates diversity, appreciates culture and respects traditions.” 

In a way, these painting are, he says, a “reflection of myself, they are my models.” They are, he continues, “the glue to the story I am trying to convey … They are an expression of my thoughts and my state of mind.” In addition, he wants viewers to see themselves, their lives or just something that offers meaning to them.

“The Bride”

“Each painting,” he says, “reflects a different thought, a different meaning, a different personality.”

Lopez is represented by Gallery Orange on Royal Street in the New Orleans French Quarter.

For additional information, visit carloslopezart.com.

Exhibits

Cajun | The Rookery: Christie Blalock
Sculpted landscape paintings by Christy Blalock, through Aug. 15. Historic City Hall, Lake Charles. cityoflakecharles.com

Central | 39th September Competition
Juried international contemporary art competition, July 10 through Oct. 10. Alexandria Museum of Art. themuseum.org 

NOLA | Herman Leonard: Images of Jazz
Work by famed post-WWII jazz photographer, through July 12. Ogden Museum of Southern Art, New Orleans. ogdenmuseum.org

North | Trismegistus: In the Garden
Solo exhibit by Monroe artist Drék Davis, through Aug. 26. Masur Museum of Art, masurmuseum.org 

River Parishes | South Arts Southern Prize & State Fellowships for Visual Arts
Touring exhibition featuring artwork by fellowship recipients, through Sept. 6. LSU Museum of Art, Baton Rouge. lsumoa.org