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by Judi Kauffman | August 30, 2018 |

In third grade, Pat Kodet bought a John Nagy art kit. She did her ‘homework,’ drawing twenty minutes every day.

From the get-go she could draw easily and realistically. The rest, as they say, is history.

The discipline instilled by the kit stayed with Pat. She loved seeing the progress in her work.

By high school she was selling her pen and ink drawings.

She joked that she knew she really was an artist when her work was admired so much that it was stolen –

a portrait of John Lennon literally torn from the pages of her sketchbook, the thief most likely a fellow student.

Pat majored in art in college with a concentration in painting. She did it all: Painting, photography, ceramics, sculpture, batik, graphic design (just in case she had to “make a living”),

then went straight back into painting. After graduating, she walked into her favorite gallery, showed her work, was accepted and exhibited.

Her work sold right from the start.

Though she has had other jobs – she worked for Crayola and briefly drew breed-specific dogs to be silk screened onto T-shirts,

Pat has always made whatever art she wants, mixed in with the occasional commission for abstract paintings and portraits.

She has been active in the arts community, a board member of the Palm Springs Art Museum’s Artists Council, past-president of the Coachella Valley Watercolor Society,

and more. She also spent much of her career teaching art at all levels. She said that she and her children were already “doing art” together, and that led her to teaching it. 

“You can’t play the piano if you don’t practice. You ‘gotta learn the scales,” she says, making an analogy to the importance of practice in studio art as well as music.

Unlike many art teachers who believe that anything goes, Pat is a firm believer in curriculum that builds skills.

Her web site ThinkArtNow.com provides 72 sequential, fun, creative art lessons based on elements and principles of art with a focus on drawing, painting and collage.

(The lessons conform to the California Visual Arts Standards.)  To put it simply: Pat believes in a solid foundation where learning to draw basic shapes,

to do shading and shadows, comes before everything else and enhances creativity!

Pat is an unabashed optimist. It’s fortunate that this is her basic nature because she’s lived through a house fire,

losing every piece of art as well as the studio in which she worked, and she’s more recently survived a major health crisis. “I’m happy about every little thing

,”she said. “I painted ‘dark’ for a while after the fire but moved past it. I’d considered sticking to computer graphics,

but my friends helped me see that I couldn’t stop painting. I used some of the burnt wood from the fire to make charcoal for drawing.

Even though I’m not yet back at 100% with my health, I’m not letting anything stop me.”

I love being able to experiment without thinking about whether the substrate is going to warp or won’t hold up.”

Pat’s resilient. Her studio now includes a mix of spaces, a converted bedroom, the laundry room sink,

a big piece of plywood and a plastic sheet on top of her dining room table, and she paints outdoors as much as she can.

She joked that she used to make “2-nap” paintings because her daughter slept while she worked. Most parents can relate:

Grabbing small blocks of time is one way to keep making art even when life gets complicated.

Prior to the 4-artist collaborative challenge she’s part of this year, along with Andrea Raft, Meg Walling and Sylvia Torres,

Pat had done some collage work on Ampersand Art Supply panels. Her favorites are Claybord and Aquabord.

Now that she’s part of the challenge, she’s working on 12” x 12” cradled Gessobord panels.

“I love the clean surfaces and perfect edges, I like letting the sides of the wood show” she says,

“and I love being able to experiment without thinking about whether the substrate is going to warp or won’t hold up.”

Pat’s influences are diverse: Dali, da Vinci, Rembrandt, Jonathan Winters, Robert Rauschenberg, Jim Dine, Richard Diebenkorn.

She finds inspiration in Matisse’s collages and van Gogh’s color and texture.

Perhaps because she knows how precious and fragile each day can be, Pat paints whatever she wants,

challenging herself to keep growing and changing and her work sells no matter what direction it takes.

“I repeatedly learn something new, and then I do it, and then I teach it. And then I do it again.

And again,” she said. These days Pat teaches individuals and small groups and does a few demos now and then, not the heavy schedule and

larger classes that once were a big part of her life.When she’s not making art, Pat can be found cooking, dancing,

spending time with friends and family, traveling, swimming, and unlike the self-judgement-free self-assured artist she is the rest of the time,

she sings – but only when no one is listening!

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Patricia Kodet graduated from San Jose State University, with a BA in Fine Art.

Patricia sold paintings just out of college at various art galleries in San Francisco and the Bay Area. 

She painted commissioned portraits as well as abstract acrylics. She is now a full-time resident of the Coachella Valley where she is creating Abstract paintings.

Kodet’s expressive approach to a non-representational painting has created a series of soft flowing paintings.

They are painted with passion and strength. About 80% of most paintings are painted with her hands (in gloves).

After the initial pushing of paint with both hands, she uses large brushes. Many of the paintings are completed in 1 session.

http://www.patkodet.com

Jim Chapin | April 17, 2018

A CALL TO CREATE:  ABSTRACTED STATES OF MIND is a year-long collaborative project between 4 abstract artists who

describe themselves asbeing “connected by friendship and a call to create.”

Each month the four artists will create a work of art on a 12″x12″ Deep Cradled Ampersand Gessobord

with a defined theme. Then, at the end of the year, all of the artworks will be displayed in an exhibition.

The first month’s theme is “JOY” and is to be interpreted using warm colors. Each artist is charged with creating a painting that show

s “joy” as they interpret it, using their own unique approach and style.

Each artist uses different mixed media applications, so it should be an interesting outcome!

The California-based artists who conceived of this idea for this project are:

Andrea Raft

Andrea first studied painting at the Brentwood Art Center in Los Angeles. Where under its auspices she traveled to Giglio, Italy

to study and paint. It was there she developed her interest in earthen hues, and textures, inspiring her to paint in overlapping layers,

revealing an aged patina and history. Found objects, collage papers, photography, metal leaf are often found in her mixed media pieces.

Her work is often serene and meditative.Andrea has lived in Los Angeles, Freeport Bahamas, San Luis Obispo, and most recently

moved to the Coachella Valley. Each shift from urban to rural, east, west and her travels to Asia have inspired her artist perceptions,
further enabling her to study, paint and show her work in a host of disparate environments.

http://www.andrearaftstudio.com

Sylvia Torres

Sylvia is a native Californian, a contemporary artist, and art educator. She works in mixed media, acrylic, oils, and encaustic.

Her work reflects complexity and depth containing bits of nature, pieces of memories and items others cast aside.

Sylvia was an Artist in Residence for 11 years at Studio Channel Islands Art Center and on their Board of Directors.

As an art educator she taught at the Carnegie Art Museum in Ventura County, at Studio Channel Islands

Art Center, in K-12 classrooms through the Art In The Schools program, Ventura, CA, at Venus Art Studios, Palm Desert, Idyllwild Summer Arts Program

and various organizations.Sylvia was interviewed and her history archived by Donna Granada, founder of Focus On The Masters, a non-profit dedicated

to documenting, preserving and presenting the work and lives of highly accomplished contemporary artists, bringing them to the forefront of the art community.

 Her work is widely exhibited nationally in solo and group exhibitions. Prior to her work as a fine artist,

Ms. Torres was a graphic artist, an art director, and a print salesperson.

http://www.sylviatorres.com

Meg Walling

Meg Walling is a painter and mixed media artist who was raised in western Pennsylvania, where she first registered the impact of color

and developed an appreciation for the natural world that remains an important inspiration to her artwork today.  Colorful, textural and vivid,

her paintings highlight the beauty, geometry, and starkness of the desert landscape where she has lived for the last 45 years.

Meg is drawn to geographic areas that are visually rich, have a strong sense of place and extremes in environment. 

Now known for her abstract landscapes and figurative work, she has exhibited in numerous southern California galleries,

commercial public spaces and in the Palm Springs Art Museum.  Her paintings are found in private art collections from New York to southern California.

http://www.megwalling.com/

Pat Kodet

Patricia Kodet graduated from San Jose State University, with a BA in Fine Art. Patricia sold paintings just out of college at

various art galleries in San Francisco and the Bay Area. She painted commissioned portraits as well as abstract acrylics.

She is now a full-time resident of the Coachella Valley where she is creating Abstract paintings. Kodet’s expressive approach to a non-representational painting

has created a series of soft flowing paintings. They are painted with passion and strength. About 80% of most paintings are painted with her hands (in gloves).

After the initial pushing of paint with both hands, she uses large brushes. Many of the paintings are completed in 1 session.

http://www.patkodet.com

Upcoming themes include subjects such as “courageous” and “whimsical” to connect their artworks.

They have also come up with a few restrictions for each theme so that within each theme, the four artworks will have similar elements as well.

The themes for the next 12 months are:

1. Joy - warm colors
2. Boastful - complementary colors
3. Inquisitiveness - all whites
4. Gratitude - text
5. Isolation - cantilever composition
6. Powerful - angles
7. Nurturing - circles
8. Enervated - shades of grey and blacks
9. Whimsical - filigree
10. Courageous - metallics
11. Meditative - cool purple/blue
12. Romantic - warm red

We’ll be checking in on them each month throughout the year to see what they are creating and how their individual take on mixed media,

work together within the connecting themes and the limitless possibilities of a blank, Gessobord panel.

Ventura Government Center  4th floor 
LOCATION
800 South Victoria Avenue
Ventura, California 93009
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Friday, July 19th through  Tuesday, Aug. 27th.

Reception is July 26th 5:30-7pm on the first level of the Hall of Administration, 
Atrium Gallery. There will also be a poetry reading at the reception.