painting

In just one week, our Artists’ Workshop group will throw open the doors and share an enthusiastic welcome to our Spring Show & Sale.  This is your personal invitation to join us to enjoy all of the brand-new original works we’ve been creating.

The event will be held at Grace Westminster Church (505 10^th St E in Saskatoon) on Friday, April 26 (5-9), Saturday, April 27 (10-5) and Sunday, April 28 (11-4).

‘Creative Synergy’ is our theme for 2024. We celebrate the many ways that creating together improve our art and enhance our connections with community.

Unique to this year’s show will be a set of ten 12×12 works on canvas featuring our very different takes on life in Saskatoon. (more…)

In just two weeks, our Artists’ Workshop group will throw open the doors and share an enthusiastic welcome to our Spring Show & Sale.  This is your personal invitation to join us to enjoy all of the brand-new original works we’ve been creating.

The event will be held at Grace Westminster Church (505 10^th St E in Saskatoon) on Friday, April 21 (5-8), Saturday, April 22 (10-4) and Sunday, April 23 (12-4).

‘Viewpoints’ is the theme of this year’s show. We celebrate the many different paths that have led us to our work, the variations in what inspires each of us, and the individual ways that viewers and collectors experience what we create.

Unique to the 2023 show will be a set of works expressing our nine different interpretations of the color palette featured in our show logo.  (more…)

NEW WORKS! To celebrate the season, I’m releasing the Blue Sky Series featuring winter scenes and deep blue skies.

There are nine paintings in this limited edition collection.

Starting December 9^th, one painting will be released each day at 9:00 am CST for nine consecutive days.

I won’t be posting each release on this blog every day, but you can find and follow them on my FB and IG accounts or on the blog at my Pauseworks Studio website.

Each 6” x 6” original painting is created with ink, watercolor and gouache on archival paper, and will be mounted on a black mat board 8” x 8” in size – ready for framing.

Priced at $75 each (including shipping and taxes), these treasures will go to the first person who requests each one by email message to pat@patkatzart.com.

Whether you pick one up for yourself or to gift someone else, I hope these images from the Blue Sky series brighten your wintry days.

Duplex For Rent

We’re less than a week away from the opening of our Artists’ Workshop 2022 Spring Show & Sale.

It’s been a fun adventure sorting through my work from the last three years to decide what I will present in the show.

Amazingly, I’m feeling pretty much ready for the big event.

Maybe that’s a result of having had the last three years to prepare for it.

If I had to choose one word to describe the work I’ll be presenting it would be ‘varied’.

Black Fox Flowers

All of the work is watercolor – nothing has changed there. Some is watercolor with pen and some without.

Some works are on paper and others on canvas. Some are matted and framed under glass; others are presented on stretched canvas with a varnished finish or mounted on cradleboard with a waxed finish.

The inspirations are wide ranging, too.

There aren’t quite so many streetscapes as in the past – given that my travel wings have been clipped.

There are a few landscapes, a few rural scenes, quite a few florals, and a large number of still life pieces.

Rural Roots

The sizes range from 6 x 6” up to 29 x 22” (which is pretty darn big for me).

I’ve got over 40 pieces in this year’s collection.

Just a few of them are featured here.

My eight colleagues in the AW group have all been enthusiastically creating art as well.

Ravello Terra Cotta

There will be plenty of work to enjoy and make your own.

So you don’t have to go digging for them, here are the show details again.

This year’s event will be hosted at Grace Westminster Church Auditorium (505 10th Street E here in Saskatoon) on these dates at these times:

• Friday, April 29, 5-8
• Saturday, April 30, 10-4
• Sunday, May 1, 12-4

Sure hope to see you there!

As promised in my previous blog post, I’m sharing here the video tour of my ‘Care For A Cuppa’ art exhibit showing at City Perks Coffeehouse here in Saskatoon (807 7th Ave N).

At the request of City Perks, the show has been extended another two weeks until December 15/2021. So if you are in the neighborhood and would like to see the works in person, there is still time to do that.

Hope you enjoy the images whether you see them virtually or in person.

PS – For a closer look at each of the images, see the online virtual gallery.

Reflection: Those of you who have been Pause followers for some time may remember that from 2004 through 2007, I ended each year’s messages with a set of reflections on one of the four jewels in the season of advent: peace, joy, love and hope.

If there was ever a year that we needed hope, 2020 – the year of the pandemic – would be it. And so I dug back into my files and pulled out that earlier message about hope.

I thought you might find it helpful as we wind down this year and look to the new year that is just around the corner.

For 2021, may we dare to hope for a reduction in the spread of Covid, the speedy delivery of an effective vaccine, and the return of those valued things we have set aside in our attempts to keep ourselves and others as healthy as possible.

Here’s that 2007 message on hope, one more time:

I’m sure you’ve learned a thing or two about hope over the years. You’ve probably hoped for positive test results on an exam (medical or academic), for a soulmate with whom you can share life’s joys and worries, and (from the sublime to the very practical) for a primo parking spot when you’re late for an appointment.

We know a lot about hope where I live here in Saskatchewan.

• Farmers seed the land every spring in the hopes of a bumper crop.
• Mining companies prospect and drill deep in hopes of finding oil, potash, diamonds and uranium.
• Roughrider fans hope every year for their team to make and take the Grey Cup.

Sometimes those hopes and dreams come true, and sometimes they don’t.

Here are some of my favorite quotes on the powerful uplifting life force that is hope. Tuck some of these words in your pocket so they may lift your spirits in the days ahead. (more…)

Reflection: It was about 20 years ago – way back at the turn of the century – that I started dabbling in art. If you’ve followed me over that time, you’ve seen my dabbling turn into a full blown passion.

Over that same period of time, perhaps your interests have also shifted and evolved. Maybe you, too, find yourself excited about things that were barely on your radar way back when.

As we launch into a brand new decade, I find myself thinking about what I find so compelling about my adventures in art.

Here’s what I realized:

• It keeps me noticing things – inspired by the sights around me, paying attention to light and color and design.
• It challenges me to keep learning – stretching to master new techniques, experimenting with new materials.
• It has opened up a whole new world of relationships – with fellow artists, collectors, gallery owners.
• It meets my need to create beauty in my life and share it with the world.
• It delivers deeper ways to experience the places to which we travel – visiting museums and galleries and sketching in the streets.

I don’t know what this fascination with art will bring my way in the years ahead; but I do know I appreciate its presence in my life and welcome what it has to offer.

Action: There are many forms of creative expression – from visual arts, music, and dance to photography, crafts, and cooking to welding, carpentry and beyond. (more…)

Reflection: When I was growing up on the farm, harvest was one of my favorite times of the year.

I loved the fields of golden wheat dancing in the September breeze, the heavy swaths tracing the contours of the land, and the cascades of grain pouring from the auger into the grain bin.

In the farmhouse kitchen, boxes of B.C. pears, plums and peaches were being canned and set aside for the winter ahead.

Steaming cobs of sweet corn landed on the table to be enjoyed day after day after day. My personal best (or worst) was 13 cobs at one sitting!

Harvest time was a feast for the senses and the soul. And the practice of harvesting is one I’ve carried with me into my everyday life.

When I finish reading a book, I take a few moments to pull out an insight or two to carry with me.

When we travel, I keep a journal. As we turn toward home, I reread the record of the journey, and sum up the highlights.

After attending a conference, I scan my notes and pull out a few key ideas on which to act.

Action: The habit of harvest is a helpful one. (more…)

Editor’s Note: As they have for the last couple of years, your summer Pause messages will feature the ‘Best of Pause. These GEMS are readers’ favorite messages from earlier years. Whether you are a long time subscriber, or new to our list, I hope you enjoy them all. After Labor Day, your Pause messages will once again feature all new info and resources.

P.S. – Also, be sure to scan right to the end of this message. You’ll want to be sure to catch the details on my Canada 150 Summer Art Project and the unique Provinces of Canada paintings on offer each week. This week – Quebec.

REFLECTION & ACTION: These days, merchandisers are pretty adept at bundling goods and services together in the hopes of extending one purchase into a bigger payday. A telecom will sell you a phone line and then bundle in internet service, cell phone, and unlimited long distance. At our Canadian Tim Horton’s you can purchase chili and a bun with coffee – and for another 14 cents Tim tosses in a donut. Bundle! Bundle! Bundle!

Bundling CAN create good deals. And yet, as much of a bargain as it may be financially, bundling can also bring you more than you need or want, more than you bargained for, or, literally, more than you can chew.

The concept of bundling popped to mind as I recently listened to a colleague fret about a complicated workplace problem. It was clear that by taking one issue and bundling it together with others she was making the situation more difficult and overwhelming than it needed to be. On top of the precipitating problem with Employee A, she had layered an ongoing performance concern about Colleague B, and was already anticipating having to deal with the fallout of the situation on Employees C & D.

Truly, she had legitimate concerns in all three areas; and all would have to be addressed at some point. However, bundling them together in the moment had sent her into a tail spin. It made things much more difficult than they needed to be in dealing with the single precipitating issue. And, the resulting confusion of thoughts caused a crisis of confidence. (more…)

Editor’s Note: As they have for the last couple of years, your summer Pause messages will feature the ‘Best of Pause. These GEMS are readers’ favorite messages from earlier years. Whether you are a long time subscriber, or new to our list, I hope you enjoy them all. After Labor Day, your Pause messages will once again feature all new info and resources.

P.S. – Also, be sure to scan right to the end of this message. You’ll want to be sure to catch the details on my Canada 150 Summer Art Project and the unique Provinces of Canada paintings on offer each week. This week – New Brunswick.

REFLECTION AND ACTION:  Broker world peace. Jump-start the economy. Cure cancer. Eliminate poverty. Save the planet.

The range of global concerns seems endless. Even our more modest individual goals and ambitions can end up supersized to the max.

As inspiring and enervating as big hairy audacious goals can be, they also carry significant weight. And, shouldering the weight of the world can feel overwhelming, crippling and exhausting.

That’s why a recent commentary by my Halifax friend and colleague, Peter Davison, struck me so positively.

Peter wrote: “Go forth, do good, return home, stay blessed. Repeat as necessary.”

It’s an approach to daily life and a plan of action that’s blazingly simple and eminently doable.

In the midst of demands on your time and draws on your energy, keep Peter’s prescription in the forefront of your mind. (more…)