Patricia Ruth (Pudden) Potucek

Working on a painting even the week before her death, vivacious Kansas artist Patricia Ruth (Pudden) Potucek, Hutchinson, 86, died Saturday, March 26, 2011, at Promise Medical Center from complications from cardiac arrest. Pat was born in rural Cowley County, Kansas, on February 13, 1925, the daughter of Leo and Ruth (Clark) Pudden. She graduated from Arkansas City High School in 1943. Educated at the Kansas City Art Institute after World War II, Pat earned national notoriety early in her professional career for a controversial mural completed for the VFW. As a young woman, 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.

She married Charles William Potucek, Jr., in 1949 and continued to study art at Kansas State University in Manhattan, Kansas. She followed her husband on his agricultural business career to Tribune, Dodge City, and Garden City, Ks, at which time she was the President of the Southwest Kansas Art Association and won the Kansas Press Woman's Award for Children's Book Illustration for Ida Rath's Carrot of Gold.

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 the National Watercolor Association, Pastel Society of America, and 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 and corporate publications. Her paintings are in the collections of ambassadors and presidents. 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. 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. Pat completed more then 250 murals during her lifetime, including major murals located throughout Kansas. She is included in the book Kansas Murals A Traveler's Guide by Lora Jost and Dave Loewenstein. A tour of Pat's murals in Hutchinson has become a popular tourist activity. She was a frequent art instructor for the Leisure Arts Center and Delos Smith Center. She was a member of the Hutchinson Art Association, Holy Cross Catholic Church, St. Cecelia's Circle, and Reno County Democratic Women's Club. 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. From her youth as a USO volunteer, she was a life-long dancer. She had many dance partners through the years.

Her parents and her brother, Robert Francis Pudden predeceased Pat.

She is survived by her six children Monica Bryant and her husband Michael, Santa Rosa, Calif.; Marcia Kathleen Streepy and her husband Reverend Robert Shawn, Shawnee, Ks; Lesle Knop and her husband Doug, Paola, Ks.; Scott William Potucek and his wife Anne, Hutchinson; Charles Todd Potucek, Independence, Mo.; and Shannon Elliott and her husband Paul, Kingwood, Texas; and 18 grandchildren: Yvette Hatton, El Cerrito, Calif.; Tyler Bryant, Santa Rosa, Calif.; Jessica Lynn; Prairie Village; Leah Olson, Shawnee; Lauren Frost, Santa Rosa, Calif.; Stephanie Frost, Hillary Carter; Prairie Village; Brodie Knop, Shawnee; Brom Knop, Kansas City, Mo., Cameron Potucek, Nickerson; Rachel Potucek, Los Angeles, Calif.; Rebecca Potucek, Hutchinson; Brock Potucek, Kansas City, Mo., Nathan Henry, Hutchinson; Andy Henry, Chicago, Ill.; Elizabeth Elliott, Dallas, Texas.; Amanda and Alexis Elliott, Kingwood, Texas; and 13 great-grandchildren: Julia, Christopher, Hailey, Nicholas, Richard, Kate, Nora, Leo, Ethan, Beatrix, Greyson, Brexon, Arthur and arriving soon Samantha. Sisters-in-law Marjorie McCauley, Virginia Finley and Rita Miller, and numerous cousins, nieces and nephews, also survive her.

A Service of Remembrance will be Tuesday, March 29, 2011, at 7 p.m. at Elliott Mortuary Chapel, 1219 N. Main Street, Hutchinson. The praying of the Rosary will be Wednesday, March 30, 2011, at Holy Cross Catholic Church, 2631 Independence Road, Hutchinson, at 1:30 p.m. followed at 2 p.m. with Mass of Christian Burial, the Father Joseph Eckberg, celebrant. Visitation will be Monday from 5 to 9 p.m. and Tuesday from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. at Elliott Mortuary. Burial will follow in Penwell-Gabel Cemetery and Mausoleum, Hutchinson. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to the Pat Potucek State Fair Art Award Fund at the Hutchinson Community Foundation, the Holy Cross Catholic Church, Hutchinson, or the Good Samaritan Society, in care of Elliott Mortuary, 1219 N. Main Street, Hutchinson, Kansas 67501. The family extends its appreciation for the many expressions of sympathy and kindness at her death and for the care received at Promise Medical Regional Medical Center and at Good Samaritan Center. Please visit www.elliottmortuary.com to leave a personal condolence or memory for Pat's family.




Local artist left mark 'all over globe'

By Amy Bickel - The Hutchinson News

Even Gerald Ford has one of her paintings.

Pat Potucek, however, didn't talk about the fact much, a woman humble about her artwork. But no one can contest that the 86-year-old Potucek, who died Saturday, didn't leave her legacy throughout the state and beyond.


In fact, the artist painted more than 250 murals during her lifetime, mostly across Kansas. Her work graces offices, city parks and churches, as well as homes.

"She was the most prolific artist I've ever known," said her daughter, Lesle Knop of Paola, adding that her mother's work "is all over the globe."

It also is scattered about Hutchinson.

Take the mural at the Dental Center, for instance. Potucek traded her art for dental work. She also traded for other day-to-day necessities, whether it was groceries or to get her vehicle fixed.

"She was a barterer," said her son, Scott Potucek, Hutchinson, of the landscapes, still life, portraits and murals. "She got paid for some, but she also traded her art for things. She was old school."

It's just one of the many stories Scott Potucek and his siblings have been remembering this weekend.

Potucek was born in Cowley County, the daughter of Leo and Ruth Pudden. She excelled at art even at an early age, eventually attending the Kansas City Art Institute after World War II, where she was influenced by the works of Thomas Hart Benton and other Depression-era artists. Her first job was at Newman's Department Store in Arkansas City. It's also where she painted one of her most controversial murals for the VFW - voluptuous mermaids with their hair and bubbles carefully located.

"The women thought it was scandalous," Knop said, adding that they walked her out of the building.

The soldiers who had returned home from the war, however, walked her back inside. The Associated Press featured the incident.

But her work was already becoming known. She was offered a job as a set designer in Hollywood, and Charles Hall, the founder of Hallmark, sent Potucek a personal letter asking her to work for him.

She declined, getting married and having a family instead.

She passed her love of the arts to her children, said daughter Monica Bryant, an art teacher at a Catholic school in California.

"Growing up, we were washing palettes and brushes along with the dinner dishes," Bryant said.

Potucek completed art in mediums including watercolor, oils and paper mache, which was documented in national publications and craft books. She donated many paintings to charitable organizations and schools.

She may be best known, however, for her murals. She's included in the book "Kansas Murals: A Travel's Guide." And a tour of her murals has become a popular tourist activity, Bryant said.

"Each mural I paint is a different challenge," Potucek once said.

For instance, she's painted everything from five generations of farming to three generations of a telephone company. That work moves from an old-fashioned wall telephone, made of walnut, to a cell phone.

Other places her work is displayed includes paintings of angels by the altar at St. Theresa's and a scene for Smith's Market.

Scenes at Smith's change from an Amish woman in the field to gardening, canning and even an old-time fruit and vegetable market.

Owner Chris Barnes said the work was painted in 1988 and 1992, with Potucek climbing scaffolding and ladders to complete the scenes.

She even bartered for that job, said Barnes' father, Earl Barnes, noting he paid her some and she also took some of her work for produce.

"We've had a lot of compliments on it," Earl Barnes said.

Hutchinson Art Center Director Mark Rassette said Potucek would call him about ideas for artwork or just to see what was happening. He recalled one of her ideas to put scenes of "The Wizard of Oz" on the walls of Promise Regional Medical Center's tunnel.

"We just have to get the money, she'd say," Rassette said with a chuckle, adding that, of course, Potucek wanted the job.

She worked hard, he said. She helped support her family through painting.

"She was a kind, positive person," he said. "Art was important to her. And her art spoke to a lot of people. A lot of people liked it across the spectrum."

Scott Potucek said his mother had a heart attack in February but stayed active. She was working on a painting the week before she died and was ready to go dancing - one of her favorite pastimes besides paintings, when she went into cardiac arrest.

She died Saturday surrounded by her six children, as well as several grandchildren - about 20 family members in all who were singing and praying around her, he said.

Bryant said the family would like to make her work more available online, as well as her story. They're also discussing potential ways to continue her legacy in Hutchinson.