Painting Katrina

By Phil Sandusky

"Embodied in fluent and radiant paintings of marvels and mayhem, Sandusky's vision of New Orleans is transcendent."
-Booklist

"These works comprise a unique record of the storm's aftermath, yet his rich painterly style and glowing colors give promise of recovery and rebirth."
-E. John Bullard, director, New Orleans Museum of Art

"His painterly plein-air paintings are silent moments and immediate images of despair, of what has been lost, and uncertainty. In a sense, they are historical moments burned into the city's history."
-John Kemp, Louisiana Cultural Vistas

"Plein air painting doesn't get any surer or fresher than this."
-Doug MacCash, The New Orleans Times-Picayune

Phil Sandusky is a nationally renowned plein air artist known for his cityscapes, particularly those of New Orleans. In the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Sandusky returned home, postponing repairs to his own damaged house in order to begin recording the devastation in his beloved city. The result is a collection of work that offers a vision of the beauty and fragility of New Orleans and displays the awesome power of nature. The book contains color reproductions of seventy-six of Sandusky's paintings: thirty created a year before Katrina, depicting New Orleans in better times; thirty in the immediate aftermath of the storm, focusing primarily on scenes of devastation at the lakefront and the Lower Ninth Ward; and the last sixteen painted approximately one year after Katrina, showing both the city's painstaking recovery and nature's reclamation of parts of New Orleans. Sandusky prefaces the paintings with background about his style and a compelling journal chronicling his experience exploring and capturing the hurricane devastation.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1589804775
• ISBN13: 9781589804777
• Release Date: September 2007
• Publisher: Pelican Publishing Company
• Length: 96 Pages
• Weight: 1.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 8.8" x 11.3"

Customer Reviews

Recommended

When I first glanced at the cover and title of this book, I flinched, thinking it seemed somehow exploitive. It's not. It is a truthful record, and a tremendous addition to the history of what happened. The "en plein air" watercolor technique is perfectly suited for capturing both the atmosphere and the built environment of Louisiana. As the author explains, it is not as best suited for long-distance views, but for views on the scale of a city block, it works very well. These paintings LOOK like New Orleans in a way that photographs often don't. They LOOK exactly like the wreckage looked to my eye when I came home from the evacuation. They are a solid documentary testimony and should be part of the historical record. The book also includes paintings from before the flood. This is a very worthwhile book.

An impressively compelling and highly recommended visual journal

Now that we have just seen the second anniversary of one of America's worst natural disasters, "Painting Katrina", featuring the art of Phil Sandusky, is a fitting memorial and tribute to all those whose lives were forever impacted by the force of the hurricane. Sandusky's paintings fully capture in panoramic compositions the devastation of New Orleans and the overwhelming power of hurricane Katrina. Showcasing seventy-six Sandusky paintings (thirty created a year before Katrina, depicting New Orleans in better times; thirty in the immediate aftermath of the story; and the last sixteen painted approximately one year after Katrina), reveal what has been lost, and a city's slow, painstaking attempts to rebuilt. Highly recommended as much for the quality of the art and it's subject matter, "Painting Katrina" is an impressively compelling and highly recommended visual journal chronicling an artist's experience exploring and capturing the hurricane's devastation on a beloved American city.