About Chestee

Chestee Harrington grew up in New Iberia, Louisiana, along the beautiful and historic Bayou Teche. Her now-famous use of wood as an artistic medium originated in her father’s cabinet shop, where she developed an affinity for the fragrance and feel of various woods. As a child, the materials simply seemed in harmony with the scenes of weathered cabins and mossy oaks that surrounded her.

Decades later, Chestee’s polychromatic bas reliefs — carved and painted works in wood — have been shown across the United States and abroad. Her original works, capturing Louisiana life, moods and settings, have been universal favorites and are particularly cherished by serious collectors. Chestee’s creation of a polychromatic bas relief begins with a delicate, low-relief carving of a sketch into a wood panel, which is given a stain underpainting. Oil paints are applied, along with layers of glazing, to produce a three-dimensional effect. Although she has made the relief her signature medium, Chestee is equally adept at painting, sculpture and printmaking.

The artist’s formative years were spent in an almost storybook setting. “I grew up on Rose Hill, along the Old Spanish Trail,” says Chestee. Her familly home, situated along a route used for centuries to drive cattle cross country and located near the site where Spanish colonists founded New Iberia, retained a unique quality.

The community was truly multicultural,” Chestee recalls. Cajun French families lived alongside Scotch-Irish families. Other families brought Jewish, African and Native American traditions. “There were all these different voices and faces.

“There was no pretense,” adds Chestee. “They all just kind of made room for each other.” If the community at large formed a nurturing environment for the young artist, her father’s cabinet shop was the crucible where her talent was refined and the joie de vivre — joy of life — was celebrated. “There was always something going on. There was music, there were scraps of wood lying around. And we were encouraged to be creative and inventive, to try new things.”

Summers and holidays were spent with other relatives, on the Southwest Louisiana prairie, west of Chestee’s hometown. “My great-grandmother still had her own horse and buggy and we would ride in it. Every day on the prairie was a little adventure, swimming in the rice canals or walking along the roads lined with Cherokee roses. Just waking up and seeing the sun rise, way off on the horizon — those memories provide a lifetime of inspiration.” At an early age, Chestee had begun to express herself through drawings. She displayed a natural talent that earned her a first set of oil paints around age eight. These experiences would later meld into her approach to art, which she calls “spiritual expressionism.”

Spiritual expressionism is not so much an identifiable style as a guiding philosophy. “In pointing to nature, the French Impressionists were saying ‘look out into the world.’ The German painters said, ‘look within.’ I look to spirit,” says Chestee. “Here in America, we have the individual freedom to discover and hone our God-given gifts. We can freely use our own imaginations and inspire others.”

Although primarily self-taught, Chestee has studied at the Art Students League in New York City, the Shidoni Foundry in Teseque, New Mexico, and the Woodstock School of Art in New York. She has also studied with master artists in the areas of lithography, painting and bronze casting.

Chestee recently returned to her native New Iberia, where she continues her work.

Notables and Collections-