We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Patricia Clemmens. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Patricia below.

Hi Patricia, thanks for joining us today. What do you think matters most in terms of achieving success?

The concept of success, feels so unique and personal to each of us. Some people may think success is directly related to the job they do and the income they produce from that job. For me, success means that I get to wake up each morning and feel excitement for how I get to spend my day. To be the sole person in charge of how I spend my time is an incredible gift! Until you’ve worked at jobs for other people that you felt you were wasting your days away, you will never fully feel how truly amazing it is to work for yourself. And if you really want to feel the “success” button light up, for me, it also means connection. Sharing how I spend my days with others and having that spark a light within them as well, makes the journey that much more amazing. To make a go at living successfully in this way, you need to have a few core beliefs/characteristics. The main one being PASSION. You must have passion for what it is your doing and how you’re spending your time. For me, painting is my passion, it’s where I find my joy as well as my strength, it’s where I feel most myself while simultaneously most challenged. You must want to work really hard at practicing your passion. So hard that setbacks and rejections don’t rattle you, that no matter what you just NEED to keep exploring and experimenting and learning, digging ever deeper to pull out all that you have to share. You have to be unshakable in the pursuit of your passion. You also need to take action. Without taking action it’s all just a beautiful dream. To take action you need to have a plan and know where it is you want to go. If you are a painter like I am, maybe a goal of yours is to seek gallery representation. So the action needed is first, to paint so much that you know who you are as a painter, that you’re comfortable with your style and process and that while being comfortable, you’re also still always striving for new ways to branch out of your comfort zone. Always discovering. Lastly, you need to believe in yourself fully. Sounds simple but this one can be tricky, especially if you’ve experienced any sort of rejection. Rejection in the world of art is plentiful. But so is passion. You need to believe so fully in the pursuit of your passion that nothing will shake you. Rejections will just fuel you to keep working, tweaking and experimenting evermore. You have to really practice shutting out the noise of what everyone else is doing and become your own biggest fan and advocate.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My name is Patricia Clemmens and I am a contemporary landscape artist! I am also (and always firstly) the Mom of two amazing little boys, Mitch who’s 10 and Joey who’s 8 years old. Rewinding to how I got here. I have always been very creative and have always gravitated towards the simplicity and beauty of nature. You could often find me drawing and “doodling” Art class was forever my favourite subject in school and where I was able to put my headphones in and let my mind drift while my hands worked.
Upon completing high school I felt that my only real, practical chance at a creative career while also making some sort of income would be to perhaps become an art teacher! So I ventured off to the University of Guelph where I majored in their amazing Studio Art Program. Those four years were filled with so much creative exploration and expansion, it was just amazing. To think, school had now turned into all my favourite subjects. I tried my hand at photography, and printmaking and would eventually settle in nicely to focussing primarily on what I believe as the classics, painting, drawing and sculpture. I learned from some incredible instructors who are also amazing artists in their own right. It was the first time that I realized you could be an artist, and a teacher…you could do both!
Upon graduating with honours from Guelph, I stuck to my plan of going to teacher’s college and would move to North Bay to attend Nipissing University in hopes of learning how to become a teacher!
Teacher’s college flew by in a blink and before I knew it, it was time to start “real life.” My boyfriend (now husband) and I moved back to Oro-Medonte and rented a tiny basement apartment while we tried to become working members of society. I began supply teaching, which if any of you have done it, isn’t really fully teaching, it’s managing a classroom. It was instantly not fulfilling to me, but it was a necessary stepping stone of experience to becoming a REAL teacher. In the evenings and weekends I would set up my easel in our kitchen and I slowly began to paint, just for fun. To remind myself what I loved about it. As I started to share my creations online with friends and family, I quickly started a list of custom commissions to work on! A fun “hobby” I thought.
Fast forward to 7 years of supply teaching later, now married with our first home, my husband Brendan’s real estate career had begun to take off and we were expecting our first little boy. I was still supply teaching and would continue to until our second boy was about 2 years old. Then one day in the staffroom of a high school it all hit me. Why was I having babysitters take care of my babies all day so that I could take care of other peoples children? My husband was working late evenings and weekends and I was working through the days. Why did we have these boys if we weren’t raising them ourselves? We had a life altering discussion where we decided that if Brendan was going to work as much as he had been than I was going to have to stay home with our boys to raise them. To not miss all those tiny and big moments, to be present with them.
This shift was hard in many ways, and was also a massive gift in so many ways. Being a stay at home mom doesn’t stop, ever. Not at bedtime, not on snow days, or sick days..when you’re a mom you’re on 24/7 which can feel wonderful but also exhausting.
To avoid burnout and to remind myself of who I was before these amazing darlings took over my life, I began to paint again. Often late into the evening hours after tucking them into bed. I would relish this quiet time for myself to exhale and be free and play, to find my way back to myself.
My list of commissions started to grow and I started to even teach painting classes on our porch in the summers. It was all so much fun! How lucky was I, I thought, to be able to stay home with my boys while also put my painting and teaching skills to good use.
Then Covid came. No more painting classes, but painting commissions luckily continued! At this point painting was a fun hobby for me but I knew as our boys grew older that I’d have to find a more reliable “job.”
As if the universe knew what I was thinking. I got a call one day from the owner of Cloud Gallery. They had seen my work online and wanted to add me to their roster of INCREDIBLE Canadian artists. This was not something I ever thought of as a possibility for myself. To have an outsider see and believe in your work even more than you do is unreal and terrifying. I was pinching myself while also having panic attacks on how I was going to have MY paintings hanging next to Canadian greats like Gordon Harrison. It was mind blowing but I dove in. I gave every ounce of passion I had and created 6 first pieces for the gallery. What was the worst that could happen I thought? I expected nothing. Within 2 days my largest 5x7ft painting had sold to a lovely lady in Florida. I was shocked and of course delighted. The first inklings of the idea that I could BE an artist as my JOB started to float through my mind and they haven’t stopped floating ever since.
With a couple of solo exhibitions under my belt and steady sales, I am only now starting to realize that this is my real life and whether I knew it or not, I created it through my passion of painting that has always been within me.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

As I found myself somewhat thrust into the world of galleries I had to not pay attention to what other artists were doing. With the presence of social media it’s so easy to see and compare yourself to others in the industry. There are so many group shows that could be entered and so many amazing galleries that it’s hard to ignore all the noise and just focus on what’s working. For me, what was working was a more simple approach. I focused my energy on my one gallery and stocked them with my best work, with regularity, which led to two different solo exhibitions (talk about out of my comfort zone) but I settled in. The more i painted, the more i gained confidence within my practice. The more I was willing to experiment and take risks. Looking back, I am so glad I gave myself this bit of grace to not branch out too quickly. Take time in getting comfortable with where you are, once you’re comfortable and have systems in place, then maybe branch out a bit to take on more. I never want to be spread too thin with my paintings. I hate that feeling of just having to produce. This all started off as my joyful journey back to myself, so I like to keep that feeling near.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

Although my following on social media isn’t huge, I feel that it is full of real supporters, which is so amazing to me. It may sound almost too simple, but I feel like just showing your authentic self on social media is the only way to go. I am not someone who curates perfect reels or posts with a spotless studio. What you’ll see on my Instagram is what you’ll see in real life. A messy, well-used studio set-up with several in progress works on the go. I’m sure I must be more relatable when you see exactly what’s going on. My website is where you’ll find a more polished glimpse into my painting world. I feel this is important for galleries, collectors and future collectors to see.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.patriciaclemmens.com
• Instagram: @patriciaclemmenspaintings

Image Credits
Laura Joy Photography