by Shelley Crain

Her eyes are baby blue. Her hair is dark chocolate brown. The eight rings upon her fingers sparkle in rich reds, greens and golds. Her spirit is just as colorful.

On the day before her 51st birthday, with absolute confidence in her matter-of-fact tone, she told me her story.

Paula Lapeyrouse started attending Terrebonne Association of Retarded Citizens (TARC) when she was 8 years old. At the tender age of 12, she felt a passion for art inside her and asked her parents for “blank paper and paint.” Her first painting was of a Dutch nun and resembled pieces she saw at church on Sundays.

Lapeyrouse paints everyday. She can paint from memory, relying only on mental images, and she can copy from a picture. She particularly likes to paint familiar Southern images.

Lapeyrouse has had little formal training, and Erica Null, marketing
manager at TARC, would like to keep it that way. “Paula’s style is unconventional and needs to be preserved just as it is,” Null says.
Various local agencies have commissioned Lapeyrouse to do specific paintings for greeting and seasonal cards. A fan in Washington, D.C., even asked her to do a special Mardi Gras painting for her.

TARC has over 300 of her paintings on record, but they have only been keeping track for a few years. Her paintings can also be viewed and purchased at Big Al’s II, The Coffee Zone and the TARC Country Store.
Lapeyrouse creates things of beauty and then shares them. She lives her art, and her art lives in her. Thank you, Paula, for sharing your gift with our community. PoV