Patricia Lou Vestal

Patricia Lou “Pat” Vestal, an artist, teacher, and loving mother and wife, died peacefully in her sleep on December 25th. She was 90 years old.

A public memorial service will be held on Friday, January 5 at 4:00 pm in the chapel at All Souls Unitarian Church, 2952 S. Peoria Avenue, Tulsa.

Born in Tulsa Oklahoma in 1933, Pat had an unusual childhood in Three Sands, Tonkawa, and Glen Pool where her father worked in the burgeoning oil industry. The family moved to New York City when her mother became an opera singer. Pat remembered doing her homework backstage at Carnegie Hall while her mother performed with Toscanini.

Pat attended Southern Methodist University, earned a BA from North Texas State University, where she met her future husband Theodore M. Vestal. She was a schoolteacher until the family moved to Ethiopia in 1963 with the new United States Peace Corps, and Pat taught painting classes at Haile Selassie 1 University. Later, when the family lived in New Delhi India, she wrote educational materials for the Educational Resources Center, NYSU.

A constant in her life was the creation of and advanced training for her art career, no matter where in the world life took her. Highlights included the Fort Mason Printmakers in San Francisco, Tenants Harbor Maine with Rhode Island School of Design painters, the Vermont Studio Colony with Wolf Khan and other notables, the Santa Fe Art Institute with Jennifer Bartlett, Boston’s BMFA, and many other places and connections in the art world, including Biot France, Vermont, and Montone Italy.

Her years in Tulsa from the 80s included exhibitions at many Tulsa galleries, including Stonehorse Gallery, 26 East Gallery, Living Arts, the Walker Art Center, the Tulsa Historical Society, All Souls Church; and happy years with the Whiteside Portrait Painters. Pat was a member of the venerable Tulsa Shakespear Club and the Great Books Discussion Group.

In an artist’s statement, Pat wrote: The pictures I paint are things I see, wherever I am. What is so engrossing about painting? It means total concentration. Capturing colors, planes, light and shadows. Especially light; its color, the way it moves, how it transforms surfaces, and brings the scene to life.

Pat will be lovingly remembered for her artistic talent and her true generosity of spirit.

Patricia Vestal is survived by her three children, Suzanne d'Corsey, T. Edward Vestal, and Charles Vestal, and three Grandchildren, Jules Thomson, Rani Vestal, and Skyler Vestal.

Arrangements are entrusted to Schaudt's Tulsa Funeral Service, 5757 South Memorial Drive, Tulsa, Oklahoma 74145. Family and friends are invited to leave kind words of comfort, share special memories, and offer condolences to the family online at www.schaudtfuneralservice.com.