Pat Martin Bates Scholarship
Patricia Martin Bates, R.C.A.
Pat Martin Bates was born on June 5, 1927 in St. John, New Brunswick, and grew up there and in Moncton. Her outstanding artistic ability showed up at a very early age, and she loved to sketch and paint. Her parents encouraged her, and when she was five years old, her father converted a chicken house into a small garden studio for her. Her school teachers were impressed with her ability and seriousness of purpose, helping her to earn a scholarship which permitted her to start formal art training when she was 12, and she studied with Stanley Royale, R.A., a member of the faculty of Mount Allison University. She pursued her studies in art in Belgium where she graduated with honours from the Royale Academie des Beaux Arts. She also studied, with the aid of scholarships, at l' Institute National Superieur des Beaux Arts in Antwerp, at the Sorbonne in Paris and at the Pratt Graphic Centre in New York.
She was appointed to the Faculty of Fine Arts at the University of Victoria in 1965, and was promoted to professor in 1977. She has played an active role in many fields at the University and in the community, and has served with distinction on many committees.
She is internationally renowned and has won many prestigious awards, including the Queen Elizabeth II Silver Jubilee Medal, the Zachenta medal in Poland, and the International Print Art of Norway Gold Medal, and various awards from the Canada Council. She has received international recognition at exhibitions all over the world, and has exhibited in China, Chile, Yugoslavia, Poland, Great Britain, Norway, Japan, France, the United States, Argentina, Spain, Switzerland, Germany, Australia -- in fact participating in more than 140 exhibitions! Her works appear in major collections in many countries.
Her art has a mystical quality and "her work stands out in terms of originality, experimentation and creative vitality. She is both sensuous and sensitive, gorgeously decorative yet constantly searching for new forms to express her metaphysical world."
The Canadian Federation of University Women Victoria honoured this outstanding artist and club member by establishing, in 1985, the Pat Martin Bates Scholarship in Visual Arts.