Primarily a painter whose compositions are based on abstract forms and shapes, Dautreuil has included figurative references and non-linear narrative content in her work since 2001. The materials and processes she favors build surfaces slowly through layers of thin washes and mark making with graphic mediums such as oil crayon, wax pencil, and graphite. Occasionally she uses collage in the form of original drawings on raw canvas, cut and integrated into the paint surface. She also paints on hard surface panels such as Masonite in multiples, adhered to the rigid surfaces forming paintings in shallow relief.
In 1998, Dautreuil received a Visual Arts Fellowship from the Louisiana State Arts Council in recognition of her large-scale mixed media paintings. In subsequent years she was awarded project grants from St. Tammany Decentralized Art Funding through the Louisiana Division of the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts and the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities. In 2005 she received the first St. Tammany Parish President’s Award for Visual Artist of the year, and her paintings were added to the roster of Louisiana artists nominated to appear on Southern Artistry, a program of the Southern Arts Federation. Her paintings have been exhibited in galleries and museums throughout the South and in New York, California, Georgia, Texas, New Mexico, Belgium, and France. In 2012, a painting by Dautreuil was added to the State of Louisiana Public Art Collection, and a second painting was acquired for the Permanent Collection at the Hilliard University Art Museum, Lafayette. Her paintings are also in the City of New Orleans Public Art Collection, St. Tammany Parish Public Art Collection, New Orleans Museum of Art, and numerous corporate and individual private collections.
