Biographical Sketch

Roots of the Plains

Pat’s life and her artistic sensibilities were influenced by her rural roots and small-town values. Pat was born in a farmhouse in rural Cowley County, Kansas, on February 13, 1925, the daughter of Leo and Ruth (Clark) Pudden. As a young woman growing up on a farm during the Great Depression, she had a lifelong sense of determination, frugality and resourcefulness.

Awakening Talent 

Pat graduated from Arkansas City High School in 1943. While attending the Kansas City Art Institute after World War II, she completed assignments such as “depict the weather” filling scrapbooks of images of travelers at Union Station in Kansas City encountering rain, wind, and bundled up for the cold. She won national awards as Display Decorator for Newman's Department Store in Arkansas City, where she is remembered for her festival floats and art fair participation. She was offered work as a set designer in Hollywood. At age 24, she earned national notoriety early in her professional career for a controversial mural. Her mural for the Arkansas City VFW post with nude mermaids proved controversial and drew national attention.  Newsweek magazine carried the story in its January 3, 1949 edition (cover photo: Newsweek ). 

Art in the Every Day

She married the young man whom she first met as a teenager while riding the train to Kansas City as 4-H Grand Champions, Charles William Potucek, Jr., now a U.S. Army veteran awarded both a Purple Heart and Bronze Star, and a student at Kansas State University studying Agricultural Economics.  They were married in 1949 at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Arkansas City. She wore a gown that she designed. As a young bride, she continued to study art at Kansas State University in Manhattan, Kansas, often citing the influence of her professors.  

She cared for their growing family during Chuck’s agricultural business career that included international travel on behalf of U.S. Congressman Clifford Hope and Food for Peace and Great Plains Wheat. They lived at Tribune, Dodge City, and Garden City, Ks, during which time she was the President of the Southwest Kansas Art Association. She illustrated children’s books and won the Kansas Press Woman's Award for Children's Book Illustration for Ida Ellen Rath's “Carrot of Gold”. 

A Heart for the Heartland 

Charles (Chuck) and Pat moved to Hutchinson, Kansas, in 1962. Pat worked for Wiley's and Pegues department stores as illustrator and display director. She also contributed illustrations to The Hutchinson News. Chuck was General Manager and Vice President at FarMarCo, a grain marketing company. They divorced in 1972, but remained friends until his death in 2002. Pat was recognized by Governor Kathleen Sebelius with the Kansas Arts Award, and received awards from the National Watercolor Association, the Pastel Society of America. She received hundreds of awards for portraiture, murals and still life paintings in many media. Her work with papier mache was documented in national publications and craft books. She was known for her pen and ink illustrations for cookbooks, including the series “A Cooking Affaire,” and numerous corporate publications. Her paintings are in the collections of ambassadors and presidents. She was a regular exhibitor at the Hutchinson Art Annual Spring Art Fair until 2009. She donated many paintings in support of numerous charitable organizations and schools. She is remembered for an effort to paint whimsical caricatures on fire hydrants to commemorate the American bicentennial. 

Walls that Speak

Pat completed more than 250 murals during her lifetime, including major murals located throughout Kansas, one of which, “The First Fifty Years of Barton County” was completed over sixteen weeks while Pat traveled to and from Great Bend from Hutchinson. She is included in the book Kansas Murals A Traveler's Guide by Lora Jost and Dave Loewenstein, who described Pat as “one of the state’s most prolific and beloved muralists.” A tour of Pat's murals in Hutchinson, including a mural at Smith’s Market that she said was an ode to small town farmers and grocers, has become a popular tourist activity. Her unique contributions to Kansas art and culture throughout the state are reminders of one woman’s tenacity.

Legacy

Pat was a member of the Hutchinson Art Association, Holy Cross Catholic Church, St. Cecelia's Circle, and Reno County Democratic Women's Club. She was a frequent art instructor for the Leisure Arts Center and Delos Smith Center. Pat nurtured her six children while contributing her skills as art educator, "chalk-talk" demonstrator, 4-H leader, Boy Scout den mother, Girl Scout troop leader, and PTA President. She had a lifelong devotion to her Catholic faith contributing murals and paintings to many Catholic schools and churches. Her faith shaped her personal life and many artistic themes. From her youth as a USO volunteer she was a life-long dancer and remained “Pat-riotic” throughout her life sharing her love for her country. She maintained a zest for life amid chronic health ailments that were always secondary to her sense of humor. 

She won many art awards at the Kansas State Fair beginning with the Best in Show 1950 for an oil portrait of her father entitled Kansas Farmer. She exhibited at the Kansas State Fair regularly. Upon her death on March 26, 2011, the Pat Potucek State Fair Art Award Fund at the Hutchinson Community Foundation was established, providing awards annually to Kansas artists. 

Pat influenced generations of artists within her own family of artists and art educators. She would want to be remembered and celebrated for the extraordinary beauty she captured through her art.