Cajun Trinkets. Don’t let the Etsy shop name fool you, Rachael Garacci Robichaux has much more to offer than the name implies. “It was an easy name,” she said. “I chose it because it can cover all the different aspects of what I like to do.” There are certainly many of those aspects to choose from, as Rachael is quite the prolific creator. 

The walls of her home are covered with her works: paintings, signs, painted trays and plates, even jewelry, and yes, trinkets. The subjects of her work vary with the artist’s interests. There are house portraits and pet portraits. Rachael’s love for her home state is evident. There are quite a few Louisiana themed pieces, anything from Saints to crawfish. There is also a series of guitar paintings, done for Rachael’s significant other. “My boyfriend lives in Pennsylvania. He makes guitar pedal pads, and so I painted guitars for him,” she said. “I’ve never picked up a guitar in my life, but I think they’re really good.” 

Rachael comes from a creative family. Daughter of photographer Frank Garacci, she also has several other relatives involved in creative pursuits. Her uncle Ben Garacci is a painter living in Houston. 

“I have always loved art. I remember drawing as a little girl, and I loved it so much my mother sent me to private lessons,” she said. “I remember a drawing I did in sixth grade of the Titanic, a little while after that, I was taking art.” 

Rachael spent several years busy with family, raising three children, two sons and a daughter. “Now that my kids are older, I am definitely getting back into my art,” she said. “My daughter, Rhylan, who is 10 years old, is starting to be a good painter herself. She showed me some of her work, and I think she is really talented. That makes me very happy.”

Rachael most commonly does acrylic paintings although she does dabble in other media such as pastels, and colored pencils. Her work graces mainly canvas, but there are small cards, and other objects turned into objets d’art. “I paint canvases as small as five inches by seven inches, and recently I had a commission for a three by four swamp scene,” she said. “Immediately I thought, ‘I’m not sure if I can do the detail I need on something three inches by four inches. So I called the man. He said no, I want a painting that’s three feet by four feet. That’s much different. That I think I can handle,” she said with a smile. 

Her commissions usually come through her Etsy shop, and Rachael finds she does many custom house portraits by request. “I can do a house or a building from a photograph, or from a description,” she said. “The portraits I have done of the buildings around New Iberia have been very popular. I’ve sold quite a few of the Shadows, and of St. Peter’s Church. I’ve painted some of my dad’s photographs. Those were fun to do.”

Pet portraits are also popular requests. Rachael has several hung up in her home of her two dogs and her cat. “I enjoy capturing the pet’s coloration as well as their personality,” she said.

“I also go for anything Louisiana. I like to portray the cute and funny sayings we have, plus my take on fleur de lis, and of course football, LSU, UL and Saints.”

There is one subject that the artist tries to avoid, and that is human faces. “I’ve tried, but I am really not satisfied with the way my faces come out. So, I tend to avoid them,” she said. As a Father’s Day gift, she painted a family portrait, but from the back. “It’s funny, but my dad said, ‘Wow, that really looks like all of you.”

What does she have planned for the future? “I will definitely keep creating, from commissions or out of my own head,” she said. “My work is available at Bird on the Bayou, but some day, I’d like to have a small gallery of my own. This is something I’d like to pass on to my kids, and I am glad that Rhylan is picking it up.”

To see more of Rachael’s work, visit Bird on the Bayou on Main in New Iberia, or visit her Etsy shop, https://www.etsy.com/shop/CajunTrinkets. For information about commissions, email her, rachaelrobichaux@yahoo.com.