Festival poster unveiled

Artist Tony Bernard created the 2016 Louisiana Shrimp & Petroleum Festival poster hoping it would be a piece of artwork that people will be more likely to display in their homes than a typical festival poster.
Bernard and Festival Queen Anna Washburn unveiled the 2016 festival painting and poster Thursday at the Cajun Coast Visitors and Convention Bureau Welcome and Interpretative Center in Morgan City. The 81st Louisiana Shrimp & Petroleum Festival will be held Labor Day weekend, Sept. 1-5.
Bernard, 52, of Lafayette, was commissioned to create the festival poster for 2015 and 2016. He gets his inspiration and vision for his paintings from God and has been a professional artist for 30 years, he said.
“I wanted to do this one more of like a piece of art, instead of looking like your traditional festival poster. So that, hopefully, people will enjoy it more, hang it on their wall at their home,” Bernard said.
The 2016 poster prominently features a pelican sitting on a post with its eye on a shrimp boat coming to shore in the background. The shrimp boat represents the Spirit of Morgan City boat and an oil rig, in the middle, represents the “Mr. Charlie” rig museum, Bernard said.
Bernard thought “a Louisiana gulf coast scene” fit the festival well, he said.
In the 2015 poster, Bernard put “a big ole oil rig” in the middle of the poster surrounded by a fleur de lis, he said. He still wanted to represent the oil rig in this year’s poster, but decided it should be in the background and “not so bold,” he said.
The first poster for the Shrimp & Petroleum Festival was created in 1981 by Jim Firmin to commemorate the 46th anniversary of the festival. This year will mark the 36th year of the poster, a festival news release said.
In the past five years, Bernard has designed roughly 30 festival posters in Louisiana. Bernard was “Blue Dog” artist George Rodrigue’s assistant for 22 years until Rodrigue’s death in 2013. Bernard said he learned a lot from Rodrigue.
For more information on the festival or to purchase a 2016 festival poster, contact the festival office at 985-385-0703.