Blue Dog artist Rodrigue passes

NEW ORLEANS - George Rodrigue, an artist who chronicled Cajun life and later found fame with his enigmatic "Blue Dog" images, died Saturday in Houston after a long battle with cancer.

He was 69 years old.

Born and raised in New Iberia, Rodrigue is best known for his Blue Dog paintings, which catapulted him to worldwide fame in the early 1990s.

He is the subject of twelve books, published nationally and internationally, on his art, as well as numerous museum exhibitions.

Rodrigue, who began painting in the third grade while bedridden with polio, had already won local acclaim for his rich portrayals of the landscape and people of south Louisiana when Blue Dog transformed the image of the original Cajun werewolf dog - the loup-garou - into an international pop icon.