 She painted a life-sized portrait of Los Angeles suffragist and clubwoman Florence Collins Porter in 1930.Her paintings were not innovative in form, but they were hailed as "distinctive" and "historical" for their content; "Kathryn Leighton has painted the Indian aristocracy as Van Dyke painted the British aristocracy," declared a "Los Angeles Times" critic.However, another "Los Angeles Times" critic commented that the portraits "command my respect and admiration--and yet I do not personally like them."