Muriel Evelyn Patterson

Muriel was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba and raised in Eston, Saskatchewan. She died peacefully in her room at Stanford Seniors Village in Parksville at the age of 96. Muriel was the eldest child and only daughter of Marjorie and Ellaf (Stevie) Stevenson.

Muriel is survived by her brother Ed Stevenson of Eston, Saskatchewan, daughters Sandra Kokorudz (Allen) of Parksville, Annalee Blackstone (David) of Port Alberni, Gail Patterson of Prince George, Laura Vollman (Gerry) of Luseland, Saskatchewan, 5 grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren along with many nieces and nephews.

A heartfelt thank you to the wonderful care aides and nurses of the Bayview Community at Stanford, she cared about you. Each and every one of you made a difference in our mothers life during the almost three years at Stanford and you all knew “she didn’t like raisins” in her afternoon cookies. Without you all her last years would not have been as good and comfortable as they were. We also thank Dr. El Karsh.

Mom grew up with four brothers helping around the farm and playing baseball, hockey and other sports. When one of the guys didn’t show up for a baseball game mom was “drafted” by grandpa to the team. Fast forward many years and mom and her four brothers were inducted into the Saskatchewan Baseball Hall of Fame.

As a young woman mom worked at the DVA (Department of Veterans Affairs) hospital in Calgary, Alberta helping veterans become rehabilitated from their injuries of war. She taught weaving, leatherwork and many other arts and crafts as well as rudimentary basic nursing. Mom was instrumental in combining the Arts & Crafts programs with the occupational therapy being provided to veterans.

Mom’s first love was art. She would doodle, draw and paint on her bedroom walls as plain paper was hard to come by. Mom wanted to go to art school, her father wanted her to be a teacher or a nurse. He saw theses as her only options for a job. Grandma supported moms dream of art school so off she went and from time to time Grandma would send any extra cash she had.

Mom went to Calgary and what was then the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology and Art which later became the Alberta College of Art. This was a time in the mid 1940’s when Western Canadian Art was in its infancy. Mom was lucky to have these emerging and now well respected Canadian artists as her instructors. People like Stan Perrott, Marion Nicoll, Luke Lindoe, Illingworth Ker and Stan Blodgett. They taught, befriended and mentored her as a struggling art student. It was the best of times for mom, not only because of the art school but more importantly the lifelong friends she made and regularly got to together with over the years for a painting holiday at various locations in Alberta. Elna and Hutch Hutchinson, art school buddies, were regulars.

An interest in surveying and drafting came about in an unusual way. Her and a friend were out driving in the country when they saw this funny looking airplane. Mom was curious and wanted to get a closer look so they followed it to the landing where mom started asking questions about the planes design and what it was used for. This plane was mapping the ground, the hills and valleys that surveyors would use for the oil companies. One thing led to another and she enrolled in the Survey & Drafting course at the Technical School in Calgary. Mom was one of only three women enrolled in this class.

Mom married an air force man, Robert Douglas Harvey Patterson and she and her family lived in various parts of Saskatchewan and Alberta before settling in Prince Rupert in the mid 1960’s. The draw to Prince Rupert was work in the pulp mill.

After a few years raising her four daughters mom applied for and got the job as a full-time draftsman with the City of Prince Rupert (imagine – a woman in the 60’s getting “a man’s” job as a draftsman). She truly believes that she got the job because she sent her application in as M. Patterson. The manager hired her believing M. Patterson was a man. When she arrived for the first day of work he swore in Icelandic. Mom said “Pardon me sir but I know exactly what you said”. He turned beet red and they ended up having a great working relationship.

Mom soon became involved in the community teaching art classes, pottery, painting backdrops for figure skating carnivals, RCMP balls and little theatre productions. Mom was instrumental in establishing an art gallery in the museum in Prince Rupert, bringing many renowned artists to the north including an Emily Carr exhibition.

Once her daughters were grown Muriel moved to the lower mainland to work for the Ministry of Transportation and Highways, again as a draftsman where she lived until her retirement in 1988. Good family friends, John and Aileen Porter, encouraged her to move to Qualicum Beach and later Parksville. Mom continued her community art involvement and also helped to establish the musical group The Ramblers which continue to play in senior’s homes and other venues throughout the area.

Muriel also wrote, illustrated and found a printer for her story of King, an Icelandic pony she had growing up. The story was written from King’s perspective and meant for children to read and colour the pictures. She was proud of the 200 printed copies, some she sold but most were given to family and friends, a great little book to cherish.

Muriel was involved in the early stages of the Old School House Gallery, including a showing or two of her paintings. She also showed in the MAC and at the Place de Arts in Port Moody along with various venues across Canada.

Mom travelled along Yellowhead Highway 16 to paint a series along the way. We believe there were 26 paintings done in this series. Many were of grain elevator towns that no longer exist.

Muriel later went to Iceland with a group of naturalists, they to go exploring for flora and fauna and mom to make detailed sketches of various parts of Iceland. Every time she sketched plein air mom used her unique colour code on the sketches. When she got back home and started to paint from these sketches, she knew exactly what colour and tone to use because of her colour code. It was incredible. We believe this series had 16 paintings. Like the series above, many of these paintings are in private collections.

Even in her 96th year mom was still sketching, drawing, doing a few portraits and working with her pastels in her sketch book. She was so happy with her 2 foot by 4 foot rolling table as she was able to have her small easel, sketch book and box of pastels or coloured pencils nearby to create with.

We were so lucky to grow up in a household where our Hallowe’en masks were hand made by mom, where colours, shapes and perspectives were discussed and where we always had original art works hanging on our walls.

Mom recently recounted a story about her taking Sandra and Annalee to an art gallery. We were about 5 and 4 respectfully. Mom told us to look at everything, touch nothing! Pretty soon a crowd was gathering around us because Annalee and I were discussing a painting that we were standing close to – “Do you think it is oil paint?”, “No, I think it is probably acrylic”, “Do you like the composition?” and on it went.

Love you always and miss you lots.

Sandra, Annalee, Gail, Laura and all our families.

There will be no service by request and her ashes will be taken to Eston, Saskatchewan sometime in the New Year. Please feel free to go to Yates Funeral, Parksville Obituaries to share your thoughts and add your comments.