Artist Hunt Slonem is a critical and commercial success with close ties to Louisiana. The graduate of Tulane University calls Louisiana his second home when he’s not creating in his New York City studio.

Hunt’s art brings Louisiana scenes and themes to a global audience through international art shows, galleries and collectors. As a longtime admirer of his work, especially his iconic bunny paintings, I wanted the inside story on why the bunny is both a muse and a frequent and favorite subject in Hunt’s work. I joined the artist for a tour of his retrospective exhibit at the Cabildo Museum in New Orleans as we talked about his storied and prolific career. 

“Everything in this show is owned by people in Louisiana so it’s not only a survey of my work, but it’s also a survey of what’s been collected in the state. So that’s a very important fact to consider how much support I’ve had here and what a difference it’s made in my life,” says Hunt Slonem.

“As a kid, I wanted to be an artist. I never wanted to do anything else,” Hunt says as we peruse more than 100 works hanging on the walls of the Cabildo Museum in the New Orleans French Quarter. 

Hunt grew up inspired by paintings his grandfather collected from Knute Heldner, a Swedish-American who belonged to a collective of 1920s New Orleans artists known as the “French Quarter School,” which catered to tourists interested in American history. “I’ve collected Knute’s work from auctions and he just inspired my work.”

Hunt went to college at Tulane University in the early 1970s. “I’d always wanted to come to New Orleans and it was love at first sight when I arrived. Tulane offered such a wonderful range of subjects, including architecture. I studied one of the homes that I now own, MadeWood in Napoleanvile. Louisiana is such a beautiful state unlike any other state.”

Hunt’s days at Tulane introduced him to Louisiana’s grand homes of the 18th and 19th centuries. He’s owned and refurbished three, including Albania in Jeanerette, built in 1842 for Charles Crevemberg on the banks of Bayou Teche. Hunt acquired and restored Lakeside Plantation in New Roads and Madewood in Napoleonville. “I like old interiors, high ceilings and a lot of detail.”

In 1974, Hunt established his studio in New York City after graduating from Tulane University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts.  He is a believer in mysticism and says he was born under the Chinese astrology sign of the rabbit, which became a recurring theme of his work and commercial success.

“I started painting Christian Saints in the late seventies with animals associated with them, including rabbits.” Hunt displays his bunny paintings in antique frames, juxtaposing colorful whimsy grounded in history. “I could not swing contemporary frames. So I went to the flea market and found antique frames for most of the work. I started painting paintings for the frames, which were originally Victorian photo portrait frames.”

The bunnies are among Hunt’s most recognizable subjects, appearing in painting, sculpture, wallpaper, and fabric. Hunt renders his latest iterations of the rabbit in metallics, resins, and lightboxes.

“Doing the rabbits became like calligraphy to me. I call these my studies, and I started singling things out of earlier paintings, such as the rabbit, and doing individual studies.”

Hunt has a penchant for repetition, many of his subjects appear in multiples including the bunnies.  I asked if this repetition possessed an underlying subtext.  “There’s a whole logic to my repetition theory that comes from all divinity which is a kind of repetition of such as the rosary, the Mandala mantras, repeating things so that you become one with them. Painting in repetition is a form of prayer or worship for me.”

Hunt’s easel stands in the exhibit covered in paint drippings from 35 years of crosshatching. The technique involves scraping off lines of paint with a fine brush, an idea he derived from working alongside large birdcages in his studio.

“For most of my 30 years in New York, I lived with a 40-foot birdcage, so I looked at everything through the grid. When I crosshatch, I like paint off of the painting.”

Hunt’s crosshatched paintings are another unique signature, making his work instantly recognizable as Hunt Slonem. This is why he doesn’t sign the front of his paintings. “It’s great to have such a natural, uncalculated response to what I do. This is what keeps me going.”

Hunt is a plant and bird lover and enjoys spending time cultivating the gardens of his historic properties, which inspired a lot of his painted imagery. He likes tulips, cattleyas, and morning glories. His landscape paintings focus on scenes along Louisiana’s Bayou Teche and Bayou Lafourche. “One of my favorite things about Louisiana is live oaks and Spanish moss. The wild plants of Louisiana are very unique and completely memorable.”

Hunt Slonem is a painter, printmaker, sculptor, entrepreneur, educator, writer and, preservationist. Of all those roles, I asked which one most personifies him.  “I love painting. I can paint every day. I do five days a week, and that’s what sustains me because everything else is really harder. I want to focus on creating large-scale sculptures.  I’m at my best when I’m creating on a very large scale. I’ve done 100-foot paintings that have never been shown.”

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