Meet these up-and-coming St. Landry Parish artists

Ilea McGee often draws her artistic inspiration from different musical genres, whereas Ke’Shawn Collins normally uses spontaneity for the brilliantly colored acrylic paintings that often take him just a few hours to complete.

The two St. Landry Parish artists introduced their work during a well-attended public showing Monday night at a shared Opelousas Museum and Interpretative Center exhibit in the downtown business district.

Collins and McGee, who both graduated from St. Landry public schools during different decades, have full-time occupations, but each said exploring their creativeness on canvas provides a welcomed outlet that has long been available to each of them.

FOR SUBSCRIBERS:Palace Theater, one of Louisiana's most endangered sites, slowly being restored

Museum curator Patrice Melnick said showing the selected drawings and paintings for McGee and Collins represented an attempt to introduce each as emerging local artists, whose talents merited wider exposure.

Melvin McGee, who attended the showing with his wife Enez, remembers when their daughter Ilea started drawing characters with whatever sharpened object was available and then applying a substantive story to the drawn subject that appeared on paper.

“Ilea would start writing these little stories that had characters in them and afterward she would start drawing illustrations to fit what she wrote. Mostly (the stories) turned out to be what you might call fairy tales. She was intense about her work even back then and that hasn’t changed,” Melvin McGee added.

Collins remembered becoming serious about drawing and art when he was emerging from elementary school classrooms.

“I guess it became something serious to me about the time I was 11. My younger brother Keon, was a better drawer than I was, but I thought if he could do something like that I would try to do it too. It became something that was competitive I guess and after a while, I felt I could also do what my brother did,” Collins said.

Collins said the paintings he chose for the exhibition were eclectic, ranging from portraits of Bob Marley, Barack Obama and various hip-hop musical artists, to vividly colored wildlife.

Placed on an easel was Collins’ latest painting, a portrait of a reclining leopard that took just four hours to complete.

“You could say that I’m somewhat of a speed artist. I woke up (Monday) at 2 a.m. and by 6 a.m. I had the leopard completed. Sometimes I work off an idea and just keep working at it until it’s completed,” said Collins.

Collins said his talent began to explode in seventh-grade when he transferred to the Magnet Academy for Cultural Arts in Opelousas.

“You could say that when I got to MACA, that kind of sharpened the edge. I had some great teachers there who inspired me and motivated me even more,” said Collins, who works at the Wal-Mart distribution center between Port Barre and Opelousas.

McGee said that she remembers drawing as early as four years old, but gave her Beau Chene High School art teacher, Sandra Lanclos, credit for helping recognize that McGee had talent.

READ MORE NEWS:St. Landry hopes to make learning about your ancestors easier with digital records

There was however an inherent artistic enthusiasm that McGee said was difficult to control at an early age.

“Anything I could get my hands on, a pencil or a Sharpie, I would use those to draw things. Mostly what I drew were fantasy objects or characters. I usually draw what I see and from what I hear. I use music of all different types to bring about the colors and the visions I have,” said McGee, who is a licensed cosmetologist.

The work McGee chose to display Monday included a number of Louisiana-accented swamp scenes done in various vibrant shades of purple, red and green. In addition, there were numerous pen and ink sketches that represented characters and objects that appeared more abstract.

The exhibit will be available through the end of January. The museum is open Monday through Friday from 8:00 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Admission is free.

This article originally appeared on Opelousas Daily World: Opelousas Museum downtown displays local artists paintings, drawings