‘Meet the Artist’ with Kathy Lejeune set for Wednesday in Abbeville

There will be an opportunity this coming Wednesday to “Meet the Artist.”
Kathy Lejeune will be present and her work will be on display from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Abbeville Cultural Center this Wednesday, Sept. 25. The Abbeville Cultural Center is located at 200 N. Magdalen Square. Live music will be performed by Blake Luquette.
The event is being organized by the Vermilion Arts Council.
Kathy Lejeune was raised by a man who had a great love for horses and passed it on to his daughter. Horses and western ways have always been her life. The love for Christ, family, art, and drawing are the loves of her heart. Kathy always had a strong connection with horses, and growing up she loved drawing them when she wasn’t on the back of one. She participated in playdays, 4-H, and any competition she could find across southern Oklahoma, where she was raised. Often Kathy would ride her horses to town just to share them with friends not fortunate enough to have any. She followed her dad across Old Mexico, Texas, and Louisiana to help him in the horse racing industry.
As an adult riding and drawing, “I fell away to marry and raise three wonderful children and, of course, pass down the love of these gorgeous animals,” she said. Soon after Kathy married, her family moved to south Louisiana, where she eventually went to work in the school system and worked for twenty years.
During that time Kathy, her husband, and children were involved in youth rodeos, Jr. high and high school rodeos, hauling horses and kids all over the state of Louisiana. In 2009, Kathy was diagnosed with stage 2 ductal carcinoma and underwent surgery and then continued with the year of intensive chemotherapy. In 2010, she was blessed with a cancer-free diagnosis.
When COVID swept across America in March of 2020, the schools closed, and Kathy found herself home alone each day and an empty nester. God led her to revisit her drawing and gave her the desire to improve her art as much as possible, so she studied other artists’ work online and has continued to try to become better with each drawing.
Kathy has no formal education in art and is self-taught. She currently has a studio at her home in Louisiana, where she creates and hangs her work in a local gallery as well as participates in shows wherever her work is accepted.

Kathy’s art timeline:

2024
Accepted into WAOW as an associate member
Accepted artist in Bosque Art Classic
Best of Show, 1st in Pastels, 2nd in charcoal in the Rice Capital Art Show
Vice President, Crowley Art Association

2023
Accepted Artist in Bosque Art Classic
2nd in pastels at Bosque Art Classic
Best of Show, 1st in pastels, 3rd in drawing in Rice Capital Art Show

2022
1st in Charcoal, 3rd in pastels in Rice Capital Art Show

2021
1st in pastels, 2nd in charcoal at Rice Capital Art Show

2020
1st in charcoal, 2nd pastels at Rice Capital Art Show