Artwork

Frankfurt Courtyard

BRAND NEW this summer!  A ‘Seven By Seven Summer Sunshine Sizzling Sketchbook Special’. (What do you think? Too many S’s?)

Each Wednesday through July and August a brand new 7” x 7” watercolor sketch will be on offer.

That’s 49 square inches of original art for $49.

The images will be posted in the weekly Pause ezine and here on the Pause Blog.

The first reader to call dibs on each of the paintings takes it away. That’s nine chances to own your own original 49er. Once a week all summer long.

So, if you love the art, this is your chance to pick up an original piece at a sizzling summer rate.

Enjoy … and may the early bird snag the sketch!

If you’ve followed my Pause blog for a while, you’ll know that over the last few years, my Beginner’s Mind has been highly engaged in studying and learning about the world of art – sketching and watercolor painting, in particular.

A year ago, I turned the tables to pause and explore what painting has been teaching me about life while I’ve been learning about art. There was plenty to discover. Out of that experience, I created (and spent the last few months testing and tweaking) a new keynote presentation titled:  ‘Live & Learn: The Art of Insight’.

The images are original. The stories are unique. The lessons are timeless – and applicable to every walk of life. But what’s even more significant is how this message can inspire you and your colleagues to mine YOUR everyday experiences for learning and insight.

I’m happy today to announce that Live & Learn: The Art Of Insight is ready for prime time. You can read a more detailed description on my website.

This could be just the original, thought-provoking (and highly entertaining) message you need to add a spark to your upcoming conference, professional development program, or retreat.

Give me a call (877-728-5289) or drop me a line (pat@patkatz.com) to learn more and book a date.

I’m very excited about sharing this fresh new message with you and your organization!

PS – If it’s not a fit for your group, please pass this link along to any other groups that come to mind! Many thanks and happy learning!

St John Harbor Hill

Reflection: Where do you focus? And, what do you see?

Several years ago, during one of my early watercolor classes, our instructor Cecelia sat us down to sketch on the South Saskatchewan riverbank here in Saskatoon.

Thinking like photographers, we scanned the horizon and angles searching for THE perfect composition. Not Cecelia. She pointed out a grouping of trees to the left, the sweep of a promenade to the right, and the silhouette of a building in the distance. She totally ignored the backhoe, the piles of dirt, and the construction workers milling around the site.

Cecelia then roughed out a sketch that moved the elements she liked into a composition that worked. We looked at her – skeptical and disbelieving – and asked, “Can you do that?”

The answer, of course, is yes. And not just in the world of art!

Art, and the art of life, invite us to picture what could be. Having imagined it, we can set about creating something new.

This option – to create a fresh reality and imagine new possibilities – is available to each of us every single day. We need only focus our attention on what holds appeal, work around the debris, and picture what could be in the face of what is.

Action: As the designer of your own life, you get to choose your point of view. (more…)

Here’s a little visual magic and music to banish those mid February blues and brighten your day, complements of the Pauseworks Studio. Enjoy, and pass it along!

For details on these paintings and more, check out the Pauseworks Studio on Fine Art America.

Ethan's 'Bird & Toast'

Reflection: We’re now a full week into 2013. Chances are good that you’ve already goofed up on something; or if not yet, soon will. That’s not a prediction of doom, but simply a statement of probability.

We all mess up. It’s a given. We stumble over a new year’s resolution. We miss an appointment or renege on a promise. The question is: what do we do when we err?

While painting together over the holidays, my 5 year old grandson, Ethan, treated me to a live life-lesson on handling ‘mistakes’. You’ll find his masterpiece posted with this message. Take a peak now. It will help make sense of the story.

Here’s what happened. Ethan set out to paint a small glass perfume bottle that sparkled on the window ledge in the studio. It did not go well.

He sat back and evaluated, noting that his image did not look at all like the bottle. However, he could see the possibility of a bird, so he added feathers and legs to make it so.

Once there was a bird in the picture, he added a tree trunk and branches, green leaves, red berries, a nest and eggs. Contemplating his pic so far, he remembered that squirrels like trees. So he set about adding a squirrel to the picture. It did not go well.

Once again, he sat back and took stock. What to do with a shapeless brown splotch? Inspiration arose. He would turn it into a slice of toast, as he knew from experience that birds like crumbs. He was sure it would all work out. And so it did!

I was amazed at his flexibility of mind and his ability to adapt to changing circumstances. (more…)

Reflection: Clients tell me all the time that the most difficult challenge in the midst of overload is to know where to focus your attention and how to keep it there. Tasks seem equally important and there are lots of them in play. It’s easy to find yourself bouncing around accomplishing little or nothing at all – an experience that adds to the overwhelm.

When this happens to you (and this is one of those seasons when overload runs rampant), it’s time to practice chiaroscuro. What, you say? Chiaroscuro? No, you don’t need to know how to spell it or pronounce it, you just need to know how to use it.

In the world of art, chiaroscuro is a technique that highlights the main subject in the foreground, while shifting the lesser details into the shadows. When applied to a painting for instance, your eye may wander through the entire image, but because of the high contrast your attention repeatedly returns to the main event.

It’s a formal term for what my most recent art instructor told me would strengthen my watercolors. In his words, “Show more gumption with your darks.” And truly, when you add contrast, when you force a few elements into the background, the main focus pops to the fore. (more…)

Plaza de la Fuente - Sedona, AZ

Reflection: What’s wrong with being right? Not much at all. What’s wrong with NEEDING to be right? Sometimes nothing, and sometimes plenty.

I’ve seen workplace and family disagreements burst into flame when people assert their rightness – in fact or opinion – and go on to declare that, since they are right, others must clearly be wrong. The assertions and counter attacks fuel an inferno of conflict. Net result: more stress and a tragic waste of energy!

One of the things I’ve learned from life is that situations are not always that clear cut. Fact lives just around the corner from fiction. There is ALWAYS another point of view – or two or three! Many viewpoints are just as valid, and may even be more accurate or insightful than what I might have seen from where I stand.

This lesson was reinforced on my first tour with a group of painters. Each time our group of 15 artists settled down to sketch a landscape or streetscape, we all set up in roughly the same area, with pretty much the same materials, looking at approximately the same view.

And yet, two hours later, what turned up on paper was amazingly diverse. The paintings reflected our interest in different parts of the scene, our varied levels of experience, and our assorted preferences in style. Despite painting ‘elbow to elbow’, the sketches diverged with our ability to ‘see’, to capture, and to interpret.

Fifteen different sets of eyes and hands led to fifteen different points of view. Who was right? Everybody. Who was wrong? Nobody. (more…)

Stuck? We've all been there sometime!

Reflection: One thing for sure about the many roads of life is that no matter where you are in your travels, someone has been down that path already and someone else is just taking a first step along the way. On any given journey, we may find ourselves the experienced travel pro or the novice at the starting gate.

Whether it’s struggling with a new leadership role in the workplace, trying to figure out how best to parent a headstrong teenager, or coping with a time of life when everybody needs you – or when no one seems to need you – someone, somewhere has already worked their way through that puzzle and out the other side.

I was thinking about this the last time I took a painting workshop from my first mentor in the world of art, Cecelia Jurgens. Cecelia is a very accomplished artist and an equally encouraging instructor. Along with the samples of her current work (always inspiring), she occasionally brings along a few of her earliest sketchbooks (equally inspiring).

I’m sure Cecelia would agree that, compared to where she is now in her career, the work in those early sketchbooks isn’t quite as accomplished. And, THAT is exactly what gives those who are just starting out along the path hope that their skills, too, will grow and develop. (more…)

Talking and thinking about it … or acting and moving on it? Robert Genn makes a compelling argument for one of these approaches in this week’s Painter’s Keys blog post, Two Artists. And, the concept applies not just to artists, either.

I can see a number of areas in my life where I have spent or am spending way too much time in one vein and not nearly enough time in the other. How about you?

Bourbon St Restaurant In Bend, Oregon

Reflection:  It’s the final day of a one-week painting class in beautiful sunny Bend, Oregon. The town is an artist’s delight – interesting boutiques, sidewalk cafes, flowers tumbling from every lamppost. The instructor is equally delightful – skilled, available and encouraging. The only downside (and it’s a minor one, at that) is that the class is delivered entirely indoors – no plein air painting at all.

And so, on the final day of class, I promise myself a treat – painting over lunch outdoors. I’d scouted out the ideal spot from which to sketch: a sidewalk café with a tasty menu, kitty corner from a great little vignette. My target: a quaint little shop with odd bits and pieces tumbling out onto the sidewalk, framed by flower pots, lamp post and cast iron benches.

I arrive early enough to snag the perfect outdoor table. I place my order for lunch, and pull my art supplies from my bag. At the very moment I grab my pen, flip open my sketchbook and look up to begin, a massive brown UPS delivery truck pulls into the loading zone directly between me and the target of my artistic pursuit.

While initially annoyed, I reckon it’s a five-minute loading zone and he is a man on a mission, so not to worry. I enjoy a sip of my wine, soak up a few rays, and start on my lunch. However, my patient equanimity doesn’t last for long. (more…)