ROSEDALE – An artist is getting national attention for her use of a Japanese art form to showcase the alligator, one of Louisiana’s most famous animals.

The artist’s name is Leslie Charleville of L. Charleville Studios.

“The art style is gyotaku. It’s an old Japanese technique where fishermen used to come in back in the seventeenth century and there would be people there with rice paper and Sumi ink and they would paint the fish, press it to paper, and give an exact impression of it,” Charleville said.

Over the last 14 years, she has used this style of art to paint and draw hundreds to thousands of animals. These pieces include shrimp, crabs, and more. Her most famous work is alligators.

Her busiest time of the year for her art work is during alligator hunting season, which she says is only September and some parts of October.

“It’s highly regulated by the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries. I mean there’s only a certain number of tags that go out, it’s managed between the farms and you know the tag system,” Charleville said.

Hunters call her almost every day during gator season, hoping to have them printed after the gator has been tagged.

“I went and hung out and Pierre Part and they were kind enough and generous enough to let me print their alligators,” Charleville said.

She explained the process of making this art.

“We hose it off, clean it, position it the way that it needs to be positioned, roll it with paint, press it, drop it to the canvas, and of course, it takes a couple of people with these large alligators. Do all the pressing and the rubbing, and try to get as much detail,” Charleville said.

After that, she’ll paint and design it, with most of them then being up for sale.

She says the things that she enjoys most about doing this artwork are the people she gets to interact with and says this art is a way of preserving the animal’s memory.

“It brings me such joy to see the things that were created, brought back to life in a way that honors the animal and I mean his DNA is on the canvas,” Charleville said.

Charleville says her art work will be on display at the Louisiana Art & Science Museum on April 2. It will be up until around mid-May.

“It’s a huge honor. A lot of artists never get to see their work hanging in a museum and so I don’t take it lightly,” Charleville said.