Canada 150 Art Project – Alberta

Welcome to the seventh in a series of ten watercolor paintings to honor Canada’s Sesquicentennial – this one featuring Alberta. Read on to learn more about the backstory behind this painting, and to find out how you can make this painting yours.

 

The Backstory:

Alberta is right next door to my home province of Saskatchewan; and it’s the province I’ve visited most often over the years – both for work and pleasure.

Alberta has plenty of attractions – from the Japanese Gardens in Lethbridge, to the world famous Calgary Stampede, to the Badlands and Hoodoos of Drumheller, to the many diversions of the West Edmonton Mall.

As a family, we made an annual Labor Day weekend trek to Edmonton for some twenty years to visit a favorite aunt and uncle. We now travel as often as possible to Calgary to visit our two youngest grandsons and their parents.

In addition to friends and family, what draws me back again and again to Alberta are the Canadian Rocky Mountains. In fact, just this year, we took another trek along the Banff Jasper Parkway and enjoyed both old and new sites along the way.

Here are a few of my favorite remembrances from our many visits to the Rockies:

  • the colorful poppies sprinkled across the grounds of Chateau Lake Louise
  • hiking the Lake Agnes Tea House Trail and the views along the way
  • sketching the beautiful blue-green waters of Moraine Lake
  • camping near and hiking up Johnston Canyon
  • sweet tooth purchases at the fudge shop on Banff Avenue
  • whitewater rafting with the family on the nearby Kananaskis River
  • the bugling elk roaming the grounds of Jasper Park Lodge
  • the thundering Athabasca Falls as they carve their way through their rocky sidewalls
  • taking a wintry ice walk through the frozen waterfalls in the depths of Maligne Canyon

This painting features beautiful Lake Louise, one of the most visited and most photographed sights in the Rockies.

 

How You Can Make This Painting Yours: In honor of our country’s 2017 anniversary celebrations, I’ve created one watercolor painting to honor each province.

One unique provincial landscape, seascape or streetscape will be featured each week throughout the summer. Ten paintings are up for grabs – one for each province – and one each week.

Each original painting is 8” x 10” in size and each one will arrive mounted in a double white mat bringing the outer dimensions to 11” x 14” – ready to pop into a standard frame of your own choosing.

The price for each painting will be $150 (taxes included) plus $15 for shipping to anywhere in Canada.

If you are looking for a unique remembrance of Canada 150, and you’ve always wanted to buy an original watercolor from the Pauseworks Studio, here’s your chance.

Just send me an email message ( to pat@patkatzart.com) with the words ‘Canada 150 – I’ll Take It’ in the subject line. The first reader to call dibs on each week’s masterpiece takes it. Good luck to all!

 

If you wish to Subscribe or Unsubscribe to notifications from the Pauseworks Studio Blog,

you can do so in the Let’s Keep In Touch area on any page of the Pauseworks Studio website.

Canada 150 Art Project – Nova Scotia

Welcome to the  sixth in a series of ten watercolor paintings to honor Canada’s Sesquicentennial – this one featuring Nova Scotia. Read on to learn more about the backstory behind this painting, and to find out how you can make this painting yours.

 

The Backstory:

I love visiting Nova Scotia. It’s such an historic province with so much to see and enjoy.

The Halifax harbor is a great spot for adventuring and good food. Kids will love a tour on Theodore the Tugboat. I was thrilled to take a turn at the wheel of the Mar as we sailed through the harbor. Pier 21 offers engaging exhibits on the story behind immigration to Canada. You can also search the archives for stories of your own ancestors. The Maritime Museum is where you will find the inside scoop on the great 1917 Halifax Explosion.

And of course, no visit to the southern part of Nova Scotia is complete without a sidetrip to the very scenic and highly photographed, Peggy’s Cove.

My strongest remembrances of Nova Scotia are connected to our roadtrip on the winding Cabot Trail. I giggled at the naming of villages of Margaree: Margaree Forks, Margaree Harbour, East Margaree, Margeree Centre, Margaree Valley and NE Margaree. I breathed in the beauty of Bras d’Or Lake. We still own a handcrafted wooden sculpture of a weathered sailor we picked out in a shop in Baddeck.

This painting features Keltic Lodge which perches high on Ingonish Beach on the north eastern edge of the Cape Breton Highlands. My husband and I spent a memorable night there enjoying the amazing views of the sea and the sounds of a bagpiper who saluted the flag at both sundown and sunrise – mercifully at some distance from our room!

 

How You Can Make This Painting Yours:

In honor of our country’s 2017 anniversary celebrations, I’ve created one watercolor painting to honor each province.

One unique provincial landscape, seascape or streetscape will be featured each week throughout the summer. Ten paintings are up for grabs – one for each province – and one each week.

Each original painting is 8” x 10” in size and each one will arrive mounted in a double white mat bringing the outer dimensions to 11” x 14” – ready to pop into a standard frame of your own choosing.

The price for each painting will be $150 (taxes included) plus $15 for shipping to anywhere in Canada.

If you are looking for a unique remembrance of Canada 150, and you’ve always wanted to buy an original watercolor from the Pauseworks Studio, here’s your chance.

Just send me an email message ( to pat@patkatzart.com) with the words ‘Canada 150 – I’ll Take It’ in the subject line. The first reader to call dibs on each week’s masterpiece takes it. Good luck to all!

If you wish to Subscribe or Unsubscribe to notifications from the Pauseworks Studio Blog,

you can do so in the Let’s Keep In Touch area on any page of the Pauseworks Studio website.

Canada 150 Art Project – Ontario

Welcome to the fifth in a series of ten watercolor paintings to honor Canada’s Sesquicentennial – this one featuring Ontario. Read on to learn more about the backstory behind this painting, and to find out how you can make this painting yours.

 

 

The Backstory: A dear friend always referred to Toronto as The Big Smoke. I believe he meant ‘thought to be something special by those within and beyond’. Toronto is all that and more, and the CN Tower is the very first thing I look for as I fly into Toronto to confirm that I have indeed arrived once more in The Big Smoke.

I first set foot in Toronto in 1967 en route to Expo 67 in Montreal, and then again a couple of years later in 1969, as a guest of the T Eaton Company. Earlier that year, my sewing and modeling skills won me the opportunity to represent Saskatchewan at Eaton’s 100th anniversary sewing competition.

We stayed at the Royal York Hotel across from Union Station; and were wined and dined and toured in style. Most memorable to me was our evening of folk music at the Riverboat Coffee House, a famous hippie hangout in Yorkville. At the end of the week, all ten competitors strutted their stuff on the fashion show runway at Eaton’s flagship store on Queen Street.

Over the years, I have made many visits to and through Ontario both to Toronto and elsewhere in the province. Here are a few of my memorable Ontario moments:

  • Tenting and swimming at Rushing River Park on Dogtooth Lake
  • Cooling off on a hot summer day by skimming across Lake Of The Woods in bumper boats
  • Driving the long scenic route across the northern edge of Lake Superior
  • Celebrating human perseverance at the Terry Fox Monument in Thunder Bay
  • An evening of theatre at the Shaw Festival on beautiful Niagara On The Lake
  • The spray of Niagara Falls on my face, and its beauty in the colored lights at night
  • Seeing paintings by the Group of Seven at the McMichael Gallery in Kleinburg
  • Dinner at Honest Ed’s Restaurant followed by a play at the Royal Alexandra Theatre
  • Seeing Harry Belafonte live in concert at the O’Keefe Centre (one of my first ever concerts)
  • Watching the Santa Clause parade out the window of our room in the Park Plaza Hotel
  • Exploring two of Canada’s largest fairs: The Canadian National Exhibition in August and the Royal Winter Fair in November
  • Browsing the Farmer’s Market at the Don Valley Brickworks
  • Late night adventures at the downtown TO art instillations during Nuit Blanche
  • Sketching TO during a plein air watercolor workshop: Lakeshore Boulevard, Queen’s Park, Botanical Gardens, and Riverdale Farm
  • Admiring the grandeur of Parliament Hill in Ottawa, and sipping tea at the National Gallery overlooking the Ottawa River

 

How You Can Make This Painting Yours: In honor of our country’s 2017 anniversary celebrations, I’ve created one watercolor painting to honor each province.

One unique provincial landscape, seascape or streetscape will be featured each week throughout the summer. Ten paintings are up for grabs – one for each province – and one each week.

Each original painting is 8” x 10” in size and each one will arrive mounted in a double white mat bringing the outer dimensions to 11” x 14” – ready to pop into a standard frame of your own choosing.

The price for each painting will be $150 (taxes included) plus $15 for shipping to anywhere in Canada.

If you are looking for a unique remembrance of Canada 150, and you’ve always wanted to buy an original watercolor from the Pauseworks Studio, here’s your chance.

Just send me an email message ( to pat@patkatzart.com) with the words ‘Canada 150 – I’ll Take It’ in the subject line. The first reader to call dibs on each week’s masterpiece takes it. Good luck to all!

If you wish to Subscribe or Unsubscribe to notifications from the Pauseworks Studio Blog,

you can do so in the Let’s Keep In Touch area on any page of the Pauseworks Studio website.

Canada 150 Art Project – Manitoba

Welcome to the fourth in a series of ten watercolor paintings to honor Canada’s Sesquicentennial – this one featuring Manitoba. Read on to learn more about the backstory behind this painting, and to find out how you can make this painting yours.

 

 

The Backstory:   If it’s one thing Manitoba has in plentiful supply, it’s water. Much of the central and northern part of the province consists of lakes and rivers. And, in the south, the Souris River feeds the Assiniboine River and flows on to join the Red River in Winnipeg – making much of this area a potential flood plane.

Where there’s water and good soil, there’s also the potential for good agriculture. All of the traditional cereal grains are grown in Manitoba, along with corn, canola, flax and soybeans.

For me, the most beautiful crops are canola and flax. And one of the sweetest sights you’ll ever see on the great Canadian plains is when both crops bloom together under a big blue prairie sky.

Over the years, I’ve spent a fair bit of time in Manitoba and enjoyed these experiences:

  • The Icelandic heritage of Hecla Island in Lake Winnipeg
  • The outdoor adventures of Riding Mountain National Park
  • The history and entertainment at The Forks in central Winnipeg
  • The arts and crafts of Osborne Village, one of the oldest neighborhoods in the Manitoba capital
  • Staying at one of Canada’s grand railway hotels, the Fort Garry (I’ve even taken an overnight sleeper train from Winnipeg to back to Saskatoon)

I have yet to visit Winnipeg’s latest cultural addition, the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, but I hope to do so sometime soon.

 

How You Can Make This Painting Yours: In honor of our country’s 2017 anniversary celebrations, I’ve created one watercolor painting to honor each province.

One unique provincial landscape, seascape or streetscape will be featured each week throughout the summer. Ten paintings are up for grabs – one for each province – and one each week.

Each original painting is 8” x 10” in size and each one will arrive mounted in a double white mat bringing the outer dimensions to 11” x 14” – ready to pop into a standard frame of your own choosing.

The price for each painting will be $150 (taxes included) plus $15 for shipping to anywhere in Canada.

If you are looking for a unique remembrance of Canada 150, and you’ve always wanted to buy an original watercolor from the Pauseworks Studio, here’s your chance.

Just send me an email message ( to pat@patkatzart.com) with the words ‘Canada 150 – I’ll Take It’ in the subject line. The first reader to call dibs on each week’s masterpiece takes it. Good luck to all!

 

If you wish to Subscribe or Unsubscribe to notifications from the Pauseworks Studio Blog,

you can do so in the Let’s Keep In Touch area on any page of the Pauseworks Studio website.

Canada 150 Art Project – Newfoundland Labrador

Welcome to the third in a series of ten watercolor paintings to honor Canada’s Sesquicentennial – this one featuring Newfoundland Labrador. Read on for more about the backstory behind this painting, and to learn how you can make this painting yours.

The Backstory: You’ll find this fishing stage along the edge of Quidi Vidi Harbour in St John’s, Newfoundland. It’s where I recently spent a delightful afternoon sketching while soaking up the September sun. On that same visit to this capital of Newfoundland Labrador, I also explored The Rooms, a recently opened museum and art gallery high on the hill overlooking the Narrows.

My earliest and most memorable experience on ‘The Rock’ was a 1981 Lobster Fest in Pippy Park just west of St John’s proper. Our ‘Come From Away’ group members were seated on stools around upended barrels covered in newspaper and populated with hammers, picks, and tubs of melted butter. Throughout the evening, fresh cooked lobsters were deposited repeatedly on our makeshift tables while our Newfie hosts moved through our crowd of newbies giving lessons on how to attack and devour. It was a riot of fun and a tasty introduction to Atlantic food and Newfoundland hospitality.

I’ve also enjoyed the music in the pubs on George Street and been screeched in – twice! Apparently the first time didn’t take – or at least the ceremonial officials didn’t believe I had actually kissed the cod!

Over the years, I’ve returned several times to the Avalon Peninsula and enjoyed exploring these sights:

  • St John’s Signal Hill, the Battery, the Narrows, and the colorful rows of Jelly Bean Houses
  • Cape Spear (Newfoundland’s most easterly and oldest surviving lighthouse)
  • Scenic Petty Harbour
  • Brigus South (towards Cape Broyle), an ancient fishing village settled in the 1600’s with a most colorful array of dories lining the banks of the inlet

Our son-in-law, Marc, was born and raised in Pasadena, a small town near Cornerbrook along the beautiful Humber Valley in the western part of Newfoundland. I have yet to visit his home territory, but hope to do so sometime soon.

 

How You Can Make This Painting Yours: In honor of our country’s 2017 anniversary celebrations, I’ve created one watercolor painting to honor each province.

One unique provincial landscape, seascape or streetscape will be featured each week throughout the summer. Ten paintings are up for grabs – one for each province – and one each week.

Each original painting is 8” x 10” in size and each one will arrive mounted in a double white mat bringing the outer dimensions to 11” x 14” – ready to pop into a standard frame of your own choosing.

The price for each painting will be $150 (taxes included) plus $15 for shipping to anywhere in Canada.

If you are looking for a unique remembrance of Canada 150, and you’ve always wanted to buy an original watercolor from the Pauseworks Studio, here’s your chance.

Just send me an email message with the words ‘Canada 150 – I’ll Take It’ in the subject line. The first reader to call dibs on each week’s masterpiece takes it. Good luck to all!

If you wish to Subscribe or Unsubscribe to notifications from the Pauseworks Studio Blog,

you can do so in the Let’s Keep In Touch area on any page of the Pauseworks Studio website.

Canada 150 Art Project – British Columbia

Welcome to the second in a series of ten watercolor paintings to honor Canada’s Sesquicentennial – this one featuring British Columbia. Read on to learn more about the backstory behind this painting, and to find out how you can make this painting yours.

 

The Backstory:   Beautiful British Columbia! That’s what it says on their license plates, and they are definitely telling the truth. There is endless beauty across this westernmost Canadian province.

This particular scene looks across False Creek from Granville Island towards downtown Vancouver. This area looks a lot different today than it did in 1986 when we visited it during the World’s Fair – Expo 1986.

I have visited Vancouver and other parts of British Columbia many times over the years for pleasure and for work. Dave and I honeymooned our way through the province in 1974. A couple years later, I chaperoned a dozen teen-agers to a Western Canadian 4-H Conference in Vancouver. A colleague and I drove a jam-packed 15 passenger van – with no air conditioning – in the high heat of August, tenting all the way there and back. Memorable, for sure!

Here are a few other memories of BC that also stand out in my mind:

  • watching the waves roll in along Pacific Rim’s Long Beach near Tofino
  • exploring the Inner Harbor of Victoria
  • dining at Sooke Harbor House
  • visiting the wineries along the Naramata Bench
  • catching the salmon run on the Adams River
  • boating with friends on Okanagan Lake
  • skiing through the snow ghosts at Big White
  • hiking through the Othello Tunnels along the Coquihalla River
  • riding the ferry across Kootenay Lake
  • cooling our overheated hoofies in the refreshing waters of the Similkameen River, and
  • singing around a community firepit at a campground in Blue River (north of Kamloops)

I know I haven’t yet made all my BC memories and look forward to returning again and again in the years ahead.

How You Can Make This Painting Yours: In honor of our country’s 2017 anniversary celebrations, I’ve created one watercolor painting to honor each province.

One unique provincial landscape, seascape or streetscape will be featured each week throughout the summer. Ten paintings are up for grabs – one for each province – and one each week. This week – this beauty from BC.

Each original painting is 8” x 10” in size and each one will arrive mounted in a double white mat bringing the outer dimensions to 11” x 14” – ready to pop into a standard frame of your own choosing.

The price for each painting will be $150 (taxes included) plus $15 for shipping to anywhere in Canada.

If you are looking for a unique remembrance of Canada 150, and you’ve always wanted to buy an original watercolor from the Pauseworks Studio, here’s your chance.

Just send me an email message with the words ‘Canada 150 – I’ll Take It’ in the subject line. The first reader to call dibs on each week’s masterpiece takes it. Good luck to all!

If you wish to Subscribe or Unsubscribe to notifications from the Pauseworks Studio Blog,

you can do so in the Let’s Keep In Touch area on any page of the Pauseworks Studio website.

Sweet And Soothing Sausalito

Sausalito, California, was our kick back and put our feet up destination after a recent cruise out of San Francisco to the Mexican Riviera. We enjoyed the hospitality of the charming Gables Inn on Princess Street. And I loved starting each day with a coffee (and a sketch) on our sunny veranda with its views of the bay.

Sausalito (with a population of just over 7000) is located at the north end of the Golden Gate bridge, a short ferry ride across the bay from its big city sister, San Francisco. Over the years, Sausalito morphed from a World War II shipbuilding center into a vibrant arts community with a quirky collection of houseboats, and a plentiful array of shops and galleries.

American gangster, Baby Face Nelson called Sausalito home in the 1920s. Otis Redding wrote Sitting On The Dock Of The Bay while staying on a houseboat in 1967. And authors, Isabelle Allende and Amy Tan, call Sausalito home today.

If you’re looking for a sweet and relaxing little get away spot – close enough to San Fran for big city adventures – but far enough away to get some rest and renewal – this could just be your spot.

Over the course of our three day stay, I created a number of sketches. Click on each sketch featured below to see an enlarged version and to read a bit more about how and where they came to be.

All originals are available for purchase. Just inquire directly about size and price. And, of course, each image is also available as a reproduction on paper, canvas, acrylic or metal through the Fine Art America service. You’ll find the size, medium and pricing details when you click through to the images.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Copyright © 2016 - Pauseworks Studio - Patricia Katz, Optimus Consulting
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