Patricia Anne Durgin

In the late evening hours of Monday, June 17, 2019, Patricia Anne Durgin passed away, after a long battle with cancer. She was 79 years old at the time of her passing. She is survived by her brothers, David McBride and Jay McBride; daughters, Dana, Dianne, and Patricia; sons-in-law, Jim, Steve and Ben; former husband, Dave; grandson, Tre; and nephew, John McBride. She will always be remembered by her numerous friends and students, especially her cherished Duke City Bridge Club members and various partners and opponents in the Albuquerque Bridge community.  In Pat's final couple of years, she also endeared herself to many new friends at La Vida Llena and shared her days with these precious companions.

Pat Durgin was an accomplished artist, and her paintings are well known throughout the southwest. She was born in 1939 in the Virginia suburbs of Washington DC, where her early interest in art was stimulated by praise for her pre-school coloring book talents. Growing up, many hours were spent at the National Museum of Art, where Pat enjoyed studying the works of the great masters.

Other than raising her family, love of art was the driving force in Pat's life, and in fact, permeated it. As a teenager, she attended the children’s art school at the Corcoran Art Gallery in Washington DC. She also taught young children lessons in art and painting, and started doing commissioned portraits in colored pencils.

In 1958, Pat moved to Albuquerque, NM, where she found a large, diversified, and very active arts community. In 1966 she joined the Nor Este Art Association and began exhibiting in Albuquerque art shows. She ultimately served as Secretary/treasurer and subsequently Vice President of Nor Este. In addition, she joined the New Mexico Art League, where she held office and was instrumental in the relocation and building of its present gallery. In 1974, Pat was accepted into the Artist Equity Association in Albuquerque, where she held office as Secretary, and she was also heavily involved in the 1% for Art struggle. By the mid-70s her art was represented in numerous galleries throughout the US, especially in the Southwest, Midwest, and California. Later, Pat served on the New Mexico Arts and Crafts Board, and continued to be active in the New Mexico arts community until her health began to fail. Her many awards include the Most Popular award at the New Mexico State Fair Professional Art Exhibition in 1997.

At various times, Pat expressed herself in different media, including pencil and pastels. In fact, she won several international competitions with her pastels, and credited her principal mentor, New Mexico's famous Wilson Hurley, with important contributions to the improvement of her artistic skills in that medium. But her first love was oils, and she eventually returned to oil painting, becoming renowned for her sensitive yet realistic style, which has a softness and glow seldom found in modern oil paintings.

Even beginning as a teenager, Pat shared her talent for art by teaching others. In the 70's, she taught at the State Fair Gallery, and subsequently from her home studio. She was fortunate to have had hundreds of students over the years who became loyal friends and fans. Many of these students have gained recognition of their own, and credit her for contributing to their success.

Pat expressed her philosophy regarding art in the following passage, taken from her website:
"I feel humans have a need for creativity. We are all born with this urge for self-expression. When fulfilled, there is the reward of accomplishment, peace, and inner joy.....To attempt to reproduce God's beauty allows the eyes, mind and heart to open and begin to really appreciate the things so often taken for granted."

Pat had a favorite poem, by Henry Scott-Holland, which described the way in which she wanted others to view her passing.

Death is nothing at all.
It does not count.
I have only slipped away into the next room.
Nothing has happened.

Everything remains exactly as it was.
I am I, and you are you,
and the old life that we lived so fondly together is untouched, unchanged.
Whatever we were to each other, that we are still.

Call me by the old familiar name.
Speak of me in the easy way which you always used.
Put no difference into your tone.
Wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow.

Laugh as we always laughed at the little jokes that we enjoyed together.
Play, smile, think of me, pray for me.
Let my name be ever the household word that it always was.
Let it be spoken without an effort, without the ghost of a shadow upon it.

Life means all that it ever meant.
It is the same as it ever was.
There is absolute and unbroken continuity.
What is this death but a negligible accident?

Why should I be out of mind because I am out of sight?
I am but waiting for you, for an interval,
somewhere very near,
just round the corner.

All is well.
Nothing is hurt; nothing is lost.
One brief moment and all will be as it was before.
How we shall laugh at the trouble of parting when we meet again!

In accordance with Pat's wishes, the family has not arranged for a public viewing and funeral at this time. However, she hoped that a celebration of her life in conjunction with a showing of some of her favorite paintings be held at a future date. In the interim, should anyone wish to honor Pat's memory, the family requests that contributions in her name be made to PBS (Public Broadcasting Service), at https://www.pbs.org/donate.