Meet the Resident Artists
Within our walls, we’re proud to support local artists with dedicated studio spaces. Creating greater access to creative workspaces in Acadiana and opening doors to new opportunities for collaboration and growth. In turn, our Artists in Residence share their knowledge, experience, and passion with Basin Arts and the wider community, embodying our mission to make art accessible & sustainable
Vivian Broussard
Visual Artist
Vivian Soileau Broussard is a visual artist based in Lafayette, Louisiana. Using primarily acrylics, she utilizes a bold, intentional mark making style and a vibrant color palette to place emphasis on landscapes that captures her wonder for the natural world. Vivian obtained a Bachelor's of Science in Art Education at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. Throughout her professional career working in public schools, teaching private lessons, and facilitating workshops for museums and galleries, Vivian has imparted wisdom to students and art enthusiasts of all ages within the Acadiana community.
Vivian has maintained an artist residency
at Basin Arts in Lafayette, Louisiana,
since 2019. Her work is frequently exhibited in a variety of commercial spaces in the Acadiana area, via the Bare Walls program.
Work created by Vivian Soileau Broussard
has been sold to private collectors across Louisiana and exhibited at several locations including the Acadiana Center For The Arts, Fletcher Hall Gallery, Basin Arts, and Ogden Museum of Southern Art.
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Peter
Klubek
Visual Artist
Peter Klubek is a Louisiana-based visual artist whose practice blends layered watercolor, collage, and book arts to explore the convergence of memory, identity, and place. His artwork delves into the cultural and historical significance of text and image, often incorporating pages from legal codes, archival documents, and discarded books into expressive portraits, evocative landscapes, and textured railroad imagery. Through this fusion of media, Peter treats information not just as content, but as material—creating visual narratives that examine the layered nature of knowledge, heritage, and story. Exhibited both nationally and internationally, Peter’s creative work reflects a lifelong commitment to visual storytelling and artistic experimentation. His distinctive use of mixed media reveals the deep connections between libraries and art, turning research, texts, and visual literacy into immersive, sensory experiences. His aesthetic sensibility captures the weathered richness of his subjects while probing the personal and collective narratives that shape them. As Head of Research and Access Services at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette’s Edith Garland Dupré Library, Peter brings his artistic perspective into his role as an art research librarian.
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Wendy Menard
Visual Artist
Wendy L Menard is a Lafayette based painter. Wendy was unaware she could paint until 2010 when she picked up a brush for the first time in 38 years. Painting helps Wendy deal with stressful situations in my life. Wendy underwent brain surgery to remove a benign brain tumor. While the tumor is out, she was left with other health issues. She believes God gave me the gift of painting as therapy. Painting is an expression of the soul. When she paints she pours her whole heart into the painting. It makes Wend so proud to see her family, friends, and other people enjoying her paintings in their own homes and businesses. Since her surgery, she had to make a job change from teaching in the classroom to promoting her art. It's her hope that you enjoy her paintings as much as she does. Wendy also do commissioned paintings. Making a great gift for a loved one, or for your own home or business.
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Jade DesHotel
Textural Portrait Artist
Jade DesHotel is a textural portrait artist from South Louisiana, two hours outside of New Orleans - a city known for its soul, rhythm, and improvisation. Her artistry carries that same spirit: deeply soulful, textured, and alive.Trained at the Milan Art Institute, with a background spanning painting, interior design, French language and culture, and the healing arts, Jade brings a multi-layered perspective to her work. Each piece is an exploration of presence, authenticity, and the beauty of what it means to be fully human. Her art has been featured internationally, including The Palette Project in NSW, Australia, her solo exhibition Living with (He)art, the Rice Capital Art Competition & Exhibition, and Eye of the Behold Art Competition & Exhibition in Louisiana. Her work also resides in real estate development projects in both Louisiana and Arizona. Today, Jade works from her prolific studio at Basin Arts, offering consultations and creating original and commissioned works for luxury and boutique spaces around the world. Her goal: to inspire others, transform spaces, and mold experiences into soulful memories that linger long after first encounter.
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Jade's Tik Tok: @jadedeshotelart
Kelli Kaufman
Oil Painter
Born and raised in southern Louisiana, Kelli Kaufman is a self-taught painter of southern coastal landscapes. The nostalgic, untamed scenery of the south, including vast colorful skies, wild meandering marshes, and moss-draped live oak trees are the primary sources of inspiration for her work. Kelli uses various media, primarily oil and cold wax beginning each piece with minimal commitments on the canvas, allowing the painting to change and evolve until the final composition unfolds. Bold intentional mark-making and restrained moments of softness allow me to express in a painterly way the resilience and vulnerability of the live oak, with its majestic strength with dreamlike ethereal nostalgia.” Kelli holds a Master’s Degree in Social Work from Tulane School of Social Work, and a Bachelor degree in Psychology from LSU. She worked as a Licensed Clinical Social Worker for a decade before pursuing a professional career as an artist in 2010. She has been in various group and solo exhibitions throughout the south and is in the private collections of clients and art collectors across the country.
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Peter Manganello
Visual Artist
Originally from Maine, Peter Manganello has been a resident of Lafayette, Louisiana, for nearly 20 years. His artwork reflects the diversity of the places he has called home. He currently works in acrylic but finds joy in exploring a range of techniques.
Nature is an important antecedent to Peter’s artwork. His landscapes and abstract compositions are influenced by his surroundings—from the sugarcane fields and sprawling live oaks of Louisiana to the mountain peaks and rugged coasts of Maine. He finds the dynamic intersection of land, sea, and ski a constant source of inspiration and beauty.
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Lucas
Menard
Visual Artist
Originally from New Iberia and now based in Youngsville, Louisiana, Lucas Menard is a self-taught artist whose creative journey is defined by constant exploration and refinement. His early studies in design at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette introduced him to charcoal, igniting a renewed fascination with portraiture and setting the foundation for his artistic path. Driven by curiosity and a desire to define his own visual language, Menard has worked across a wide range of mediums and formats, from intimate oil paintings to 12-foot outdoor chalk portraits, and even artwork applied to unconventional surfaces such as shoes and skin. Although portraiture and the human figure remain at the core of his practice, his work also reflects a deep connection to his Louisiana roots. His recent focus on native wildlife, especially the birds and animals of the region, has become a celebrated aspect of his portfolio. Through expressive brushwork, attention to light, and a modern sensibility grounded in traditional technique, Lucas Menard continues to evolve his style while creating work that resonates with both personal story and regional character.
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Kathy
Mere
Visual Artist
Painting over 35 years, Kathy Briggs Mere lives in Lafayette, Louisiana. Her abstracts, portraits, figurative and landscape subject matter all emphasize Color, Emotion and Movement often reminiscent of the reflective qualities of water. Her current series is the Travels of the Soul Series which represents both physical and metaphorical travel for the artist. Her desire is for the viewer to feel the joy she experiences when she observes the world around her. Kathy paints a Pop of Happiness, Hope and Beauty highlighting the “Glimmers” of life sometimes with a soulful quality or a touch of whimsy. Her chosen mediums are varied from water-based to oil-based media, with her trademark stamp inclusion or other collage element. Her works are collected locally and throughout the states. She is represented by Basin Arts and NuNu’s Art Collective.
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Sandi
Stewart
Mixed Media Artist
Sandi Stewart is a self-taught mixed media and encaustic artist from New Iberia, Louisiana. Her work celebrates the native birds and plant life of the American South, blending natural elements with the clean lines and bold midcentury modern design. Ofter using skateboards as her canvas, Sandi creates vibrant pieces that bridge the organic and the contemporary.
Sandi continuously sharpens her craft through hand on workshops and experimentation, developing a unique voice rooted in both craftsmanship and curiosity. Her work has been exhibited across the south, including Austin, Pensacola, Houston and Covington, and has earned multiple honors- most notably Best of Show in the Louisiana Art Association’s Bird Show and Best of Show at Big Easel Art Festival.
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Lue
Svendson
Painter
Louisiana native Lue Svendson is a painter
and a landscape architect. Lue’s work in paint and nature exist worldwide.​ Lue was influenced to think creatively in her formative years. In 1975 she graduated from LSU with a degree in Landscape Architecture and has combined her love of art and nature for almost fifty years. Lue paints what she knows best; the woods and the prairies of South Louisiana. For over a decade Lue learned the art of Plein Aire with master painters in Cape Cod Massachusetts. her current inspiration is the moody Tonalism movement from the late 1800's which can be felt in her work. Lue is a proud member of the Lafayette Art Association, the Oil Painters of America, and The American Women Artists. Her work was selected for the 2025 Louisiana Contemporary Group Exhibition at the Ogden Museum of Southern Art, in New Orleans, Louisiana.
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