Meet Cathey Cadieux
Portraitist and Landscape Painter
Professional Biography
A native of Tulsa, Oklahoma, Cathey Cadieux is an accomplished landscape painter who has also had a thorough academic education in portrait and figure technique, which stresses accuracy in representing light falling on form.
Beginning in 1974, she attended the American Academy of Art in Chicago, studying under the tutelage of master instructors such as the legendary Bill Parks (who taught both Scott Burdick and Dan Gerhartz).
After graduating with an Associate’s Degree in Fine Arts, Cadieux moved to San Francisco for additional studies at the Academy of Art College (now University), receiving in total five years of intensive education. She recalls:
During this time I totally dedicated myself to art. At 19, without the distractions of a family, pets, or hobbies, I just painted: five days a week, 9 to 5 at school, plus homework and painting on weekends. That kind of lengthy intensive study is what it takes to really master figure painting from life.
After her schooling, Cadieux returned to Tulsa and began a successful career as a portraitist.
Another facet of her current work is her religious paintings. About ten years ago, Cadieux (who was raised Christian) became interested in studying Judaism. Ultimately, she began attending a Messianic Synagogue because their form of Judaism embraces Yeshua (Jesus) as the Messiah. “I realized I wanted to say something with my artwork about my new understanding that the entire Bible was a Jewish text,” she explains.
With typical dedication and intensity, Cadieux delved into researching Biblical history, and learning to read and write Hebrew. Subsequently, Cadieux started including Bible verses written in Hebrew in her religious paintings. On the Artist’s Statement page you can learn more about the devotional aspect of her work.
Among Cadieux’s other great passions is her love for horses. Cadieux first came to southern California in 1995 to work with Olympian champion Hilda Gurney, in Moorpark, who could help Cadieux with a horse she had just purchased named “Database,” a Grand Prix dressage “schoolmaster” horse (a top-level horse trained for the sport of dressage.) The horse “teaches” a novice rider about how it feels to sit on an “educated” horse,” one who knows all the right moves.
Gurney encouraged her to check out the wonders of the California lifestyle, including the art scene. Cadieux repeatedly postponed her return to Oklahoma, until one day she realized she was officially a Californian. Cadieux still has Database, who is now 25, and rides him, along with her Grand Prix Spanish Andalusian stallion, “Karuso.”
