painting

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…)

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…)

Those of you who are fans of my artwork, will be interested to learn that I have a show and sale coming up next week here in Saskatoon.

I’m joining forces with a group of potter friends who call themselves the Mudslingers.

Together, we’ll be displaying our works in a Garden Gallery setting for one day only, Tuesday, June 19 from 1:00 pm to 7:30 pm in the Gibbon-Revill gardens at 2422 Clarence Avenue South.

Drop on by for a look-see, and be sure to bring a few friends with you.

Keep your fingers crossed for sunny weather. Although the show goes ahead rain or shine, it’ll be a lot more fun and a lot less wet in the sun!

Here’s a link to the flyer for the event that profiles some of the clay work you’ll find in the show.

Here’s a treat for you blog subscribers who are also art lovers – a slide show of snippets of some of the images on my Fine Art America website. To see the full version of any of the paintings in the slide show – and a brief description of how each one came to be – just click on any image you like and you will be linked directly to full display of that image on my Fine Art America website.

This link – Fine Art America – will take you to the home page of my fine art site where you can browse through the galleries at your leisure.

Enjoy! And let me know what catches your attention!

REFLECTION: Are you connected? In this social media world of ours, that question usually refers to whether or not you have a Facebook account, a Twitter feed or a Linked In profile. Although I do have all three of those, I occasionally find myself conflicted about their value in my life.

What I note is that the relationships that seem to mean the most in my world are those cultivated not just through electronic postings but by engaging in meaningful conversations, sharing social experiences, working together on projects, or spending real time/face time in each other’s lives.

In fact, I’ve noticed that spending too much time on social media sites like Facebook can actually have a negative impact on my happiness and well-being. The constant shifts in topic and direction leave me with mental whiplash. As I read about the exciting events and activities in the lives of others, I do feel happy for them; and then occasionally my thoughts shift from celebration to a state of comparison where, not infrequently, my life – as satisfying as it often is – seems to come up short. What’s more, tracking the ‘breaking social news’ keeps me from putting in real time on real goals, real projects, and real relationships of my own.

I think that’s why when I was introduced to Sonja Lyubomirsky’s list of 12 Things Happy People Do Differently, number three grabbed my attention.  It reads: Avoid over-thinking and social comparison. Lyubomirsky advises if you feel called to compare yourself to something or someone else, compare yourself to an earlier version of yourself. That way you will credit yourself for the hard work YOU’VE done and the progress YOU’VE made. (more…)

After a summer decision to start marketing my artwork on the web, it’s taken a bit of searching around to find the right service. I think Fine Art America might just be it. And so, as of today, I’ve launched a new art website.

In addition to making originals available for sale directly through the artist (that would be me), it makes reproductions of the images available in all kinds of formats from greeting cards, to paper based prints (on their own or matted and framed) to reproductions on canvas and acrylic. And FAA handles the order fulfillment and delivery, so I can spend more time painting and share my work as I work.

Check out the Pat Katz – PauseWorks Studio offerings. Let me know what you think of the service – and of course, the art. I look forward to keeping in touch and sharing more of the art from the PauseWorks Studio.

I’ve just spent the last few days of September enjoying the start of the fall season here in Vermont and New Hampshire.

While husband, Dave, took an Artisan Bread Baking at Home class at King Arthur Flour in Norwich, VT, I rambled the highways and byways with camera and sketchbook at hand.

This is a fabulous time of year to be in New England.

The fall colors are spectacular, and driving down any road is a treat – pure and simple.

I’ve posted a couple of images here for your enjoyment.

You’ll find a more complete set of pics and paintings on my Facebook page. See the Vermont Venturing album.

Montreal – always a unique experience. Here are a few bits from our recent 24 hour visit.

We stayed in Plateau Mont Royal area at Auberge de la Fontaine near Parc La Fontaine on Rue Rachel. The park and its green spaces are great for a stroll – and the whole area is uber bike friendly. Pictured here is the fountain itself – at the end of a broad walking boulevard.

Also, pictured here –  a little wildlife – in the form of a free range three year old intent on communing with a neighborhood squirrel.

Speaking of communing, I enjoyed my chat with the Whisperers. Les Chuchoteuses is the official name for this fabulous bronze sculpture by Rose-Aimee Belanger on Rue Saint Paul in Vieux Montreal.

If you’re down in the area, I highly recommend dropping info for lunch at Olive Et Gourmando – a sweet little bistro. I’ve eaten there several times over the years and never been disappointed.

Stumbled across this pint-size sculpture in a residential sidestreet. I call her InnukChick. Quite the wig! And if I’m not mistaken, that is a bonafide chicken foot on the end of her walking stick!

And, finally, a sketch I did from the balcony of our room – looking down on the balcony next door. While I did this sketch, 5 squirrels made forays up and down the staircase. Nervy little fellas!

Always something interesting to see and do in one of Canada’s great cities.