watercolor

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!

The more attentive we are to the events of our lives, the richer the potential in mining for meaning. As I reflected on themes around my recent adventures in art, I found myself seeing more than a few of my life experiences with fresh eyes. Reflecting on some of your everyday experiences might prove rewarding for you as well.

If you’ve been following my recent posts on social media (Facebook and Instagram), you may have caught one or more of the ten brief videos vignettes in which I shared some of the experiences and inspirations that gave rise to the ‘Care For A Cuppa’ exhibition and the Café Series in general.

The series touched on all of these themes:  hospitality, contribution, community, relationship, connection, contemplation, beauty and creativity.

The entire series of vignettes has now been combined into this composite video along with a selection of the paintings from the show. If you are so inclined, I invite you to grab a cuppa your favorite beverage, press play, and reflect on your own life experiences connecting with self and others over a mug of coffee or a cup of tea.

If you haven’t yet seen the ‘Care For A Cuppa’ exhibition which has been featured through the fall at City Perks Coffeehouse in Saskatoon, this link will allow you to browse the individual works virtually and enjoy a virtual video tour of the show online at the Pauseworks Studio website.

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.

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 – Saskatchewan.

REFLECTION & ACTION: You’re working away – head down – afterburners aflame. You’ve been making great progress and, blessedly, the interruptions have been few. Still, after an hour and a half or so, you start feeling restless. Your attention begins to wander. And, you find yourself becoming a touch irritable and impatient.

Why are you having trouble with focus when the stars are aligned for work? It could be your internal body rhythms clamoring for your attention.

The human body isn’t built for nonstop high performance. We do a better job of maintaining energy over the long haul when periods of focused concentration are offset by time out for renewal.

There are parallels in other life situations. For example, a race car driver’s success depends on fast, high speed performance on the track. But an equally important part of that racer’s success is knowing when to pull off the track and into the pit for adjustments and repairs. Ignore, postpone or cancel the pit stops, and the race is lost.

Top performers in all kinds of fields tend to work in approximately 90 minute cycles – sprints if you will. They shift back and forth between periods of intense effort offset by periods of purposeful renewal.

A key word here is purposeful. The impact of automatically grabbing a caffeine or sugar hit, or giving yourself a ‘rev it up’ pep talk to drive your energy back up the ergometer, will be short lived. Many of these ‘short term quick fix’ energizers fizzle fast and end up harmful in the long term.

Plan for variety and be more intentional in choosing your renewing pauses. (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…)

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 – Alberta.

REFLECTION & ACTION:  A few years ago things were in flux in my husband’s workplace. Many of his co-workers were concerned about the impact of potential changes on their lives. Dave refused to get bent out of shape. When one of his colleagues asked him why he was so calm in the midst of the commotion, he replied, “They can’t scare me. I’ve raised teenagers.”

It was a laughable response, but one that contains a seed of truth. Life experience leaves perspective in its wake. You develop a better sense of what really matters. You learn to separate real risks from imagined catastrophes. You build confidence in your ability to cope and adapt to what lies ahead.

Call it the Maturity Advantage. One respondent to my Overload and Overwhelm survey described it this way: “I’m making different choices than I would have made five years ago. I’m too old to want to be miserable!”  Another observed: “I constantly take readings of my stress level and deal with overload immediately. When you get to be my age (62) people just write you off as ‘eccentric’ and you can pretty much take care of yourself if you need to.”

Younger brains do have a faster processing speed and an easier time learning or memorizing, while the middle age brain struggles with short-term memory. However, a web of neural pathways in the more mature brain is an asset in dealing with complex problems. Years of connections and layers of knowledge help identify patterns and similarities in situations. They make it easier to see solutions – to get the root of the problem, to tune in the big picture. It appears that grey hair and grey matter do grow together.

Here are two ways to put this maturity advantage to work. (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 – Ontario.

REFLECTION & ACTION: More than one study has confirmed that backlogs are an everyday fact of life in today’s overcommitted workplaces – not to mention on the home and community fronts. Despite the fact that we have an inordinate number of irons in the fire at any one time, that doesn’t seem to prevent us from adding more.

Personally, I’ve got a tall stack of books waiting for my attention. That hasn’t stopped me from firing off orders to Amazon or Chapters for yet another interesting volume or two.

I’ve got a number of articles partly written, and program ideas partially developed. That doesn’t stop me from grabbing another scrap of paper and scratching out a few thoughts about yet another fresh idea.

Over the years, I’ve registered a number of web domain names that seemed like an inspired idea at the time, and then let them languish for lack of attention.

Anything similar happen to you?

When we talk about streamlining our life and work activities, a fair amount of attention and lip service is paid to what we could stop doing.

Maybe it’s time to ask a different question. (more…)