93-year-old Patricia Holub keeps working in Carson City art scene

Patricia Holub rarely paints anymore.

“My husband did all the framing and when he passed five years ago I haven’t painted much since,” said Holub.

Her husband’s framing helped her keep track of how many paintings she sold since she started painting in 1970.

“He had stickers that said ‘Frames by Frank’ and he told me he’d used 1,000 stickers,” said Holub.

The 93 year-old painter and long-time Carson City resident is still plenty busy, though.

“I wouldn’t want to be dull and boring,” she said.

The Carson City Visitors Bureau hosted an exhibit of her landscape paintings in July and Charlie Blim, owner, Charlie B Gallery, is talking to her about another exhibit soon featuring both Holub’s work and that of 22 year-old sculptor Logan Peterson.

She works most Fridays in the art gallery of the Brewery Arts Center, an organization she helped found in 1974.

“We needed culture in Carson City. We bought the brewery, 12 of us, and that’s how we got it,” said Holub.

She’s involved in raising funds for education as a member of Chapter X of the Philanthropic Educational Organization, which established Cottey College in Nevada, Missouri, attended by Holub’s daughter Terry.

And then there’s Bridge, every Wednesday in Carson City and every Thursday in Genoa.

“Gertrude Gottschalk plays both Bridge clubs. She’s a 100,” said Holub. “She’s a sweetheart, a beautiful person.”

Holub, who has three children, also has three grandchildren, twin great granddaughters and now one great-great grandson who are all in the area.

Holub grew up in San Francisco. Her mother, a light opera singer, sang in Virginia City’s Piper Opera House before Holub was born, and her father sold cars.

Holub stayed in the Bay Area, married a sailor, had three children, then came to Virginia City in 1958 to establish residency to seek a divorce.

Soon after, she married her second husband, Frank, whom she had met in California, and the couple never left.

The pair looked for work in Reno, but Holub, a meat wrapper, found a job at Safeway in Carson City.

“I was a member of the butchers’ union,” said Holub.

Her husband found work with the State of Nevada, where he worked for 35 years until he retired.

“He was a perfect husband,” she said.

And every Wednesday she painted, no matter where she was.

Now, Holub keeps her house full of alstroemeria, a type of lily her husband always bought for her.

Her paintings, both oils and water colors, fill the house, too, alongside paintings from friends and teachers she met over the years, including Virginia Harsh and Rhoda Shed.

She lives in the same house she and her husband bought in 1960, now with Honey, her five-year old dog who likes to dig in the backyard.

“I love Carson City and wouldn’t live anywhere else,” said Holub.