Based in Victoria, BC, Canada, Pat grew up in the blue-collar community of Port Alberni on Vancouver Island. Heavily reliant on forestry and sportfishing, Port Alberni is known as the “Salmon Capital of the World”, anticipating Pat’s future interests in fishing and the environment.

Pat was one of five boys. His father, Doug, managed the town’s government liquor store, and his mother, Joan, managed the household. As a teenager, Pat worked sweeping up in the pulp mill; earning more than his father did working as a civil servant. In his spare time, he and his brothers experimented with explosives, firearms, and cars (he maintained an interest in the latter throughout his life). Both parents were active square dancers, and his father was in demand as a caller around the Pacific Northwest, including Washington State; his family frequently to Port Angeles for dances. 

In 1968, Pat married Janette Watson of Victoria, BC. Janette encouraged him to pursue a formal education in the arts, and Pat studied at Camosun College, in Victoria, graduating from the University of Victoria in 1971 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts, Honours.

Shortly after graduation, Pat and Janette moved to the United Kingdom where Pat studied lost wax casting and printmaking at Middlesbrough Art College (now the Northern School of Art). His first professional exhibition was in Middlesbrough in 1973, of small sculptures.

Their time in the UK was cut short by the death of Pat’s mother, and he was required back home by family. Back in Victoria, Pat was asked to join the new University of Victoria Visual Arts Department, which had just been recently formed in 1969, to support their sculpture program as chief technician. Pat managed the Department’s workshop and was responsible for the acquisition or design of many of the major pieces of equipment used in the department. One of his students, Avis Rasmussen, recalls learning to build canvas stretchers using power tools.

During his career at the University of Victoria, Pat worked alongside and formed personal and professional relationships with national and internationally recognized artists such as Pat Martin Bates (Royal Canadian Academy of Arts, RCA), Carl Beam RCA, Linda Gammon RCA, Donald Harvey, Tamarind Master Printer Frank Janzen, Flemming Jorgensen, Rick Rivet, George Tiessen, and Rob Youds. He produced a series of prints for Western Front artist Michael Morris.

In 1990 Pat was appointed by the University to oversee the design and construction of a new Visual Arts building, which is considered to be one of the finest buildings on campus. The building was purpose-built for the visual arts featuring a gallery, studios, a library, and metal and wood shops. It was also designed to include an integrated media lab for digital art (Studios for Integrated Media). In 1993 he was recognized as CFAX 1070 radio Arts Leader of the Year.

While at the University of Victoria, Pat was always highly concerned with the students’ safety, both machinery and chemicals. As the Department’s sole technician, Pat was responsible for managing compliance with standards such as the Workplace Hazardous Materials Information System (WHMIS), Canada’s national standard for communicating information about hazardous products in the workplace. His artist’s manual on health hazards in visual arts was required departmental reading.

It may have been Pat’s role in the design and construction of the University’s first space for digital art production, or his concern with the toxic chemicals used in printmaking, that led him to turn to digital art after his retirement in 2008.

Pat was always very active in promoting the visual arts. He was a member of the Canadian Print and Drawing Council, Watermark Printmakers, and a director of Ground Zero Printmakers. He served on the Maltwood Gallery Committee (representing the University of Victoria’s art collections), the University Visual Arts Safety Committee, and was president of the Victoria Community Arts Council for several terms. With the Arts Council, he juried exhibitions across the Province of BC.

As President of the Community Arts Council, Pat presided over the “Look ’93” show, which he described as “the art show from hell”. Robert Amos described it as follows:

”Held in a construction site, with no heat and not much light, this show met obstacles at every turn. On the night of Saturday, Feb. 20, a couple of art lovers smashed the plate glass window on Douglas  Street and made a messy entry. Having chipped a soapstone carving and damaged a mobile, they apparently chose to make off with a big sculpture. It proved too heavy so they escaped with a lighter, though equally large piece. The thieves were apprehended on their way around the corner and will have their day in court next month.”

– “On Art”, Robert Amos, Victoria Times Colonist newspaper, March 6, 1993.

Outside of the arts, Pat was also a passionate fly fisher, and an advocate for Pacific Salmon conservation and the environment. He served on the boards of the Haig-Brown Fly Fishing Association and the Pacific Salmon Foundation.  Over the years, he donated artwork on a regular basis to the BC Federation of Fly Fishers, Canadian National Institute for the Blind, Pacific Salmon Foundation, Sail and Life Training Society, and Trout Unlimited.

Pat passed away peacefully in 2025, in the company of his wife Janette.