​“Your paintings are so peaceful and calming”; “So soft and dreamy”; are comments often shared with lifelong painter, Patrice DeLorenzo, a Boston native currently residing in Durango, Colorado.

​DeLorenzo was actually raised in South Weymouth, MA, a suburb just about 16 miles south of downtown Boston. Her close-knit musical family of 7 (parents and 4 other siblings) lived in a small middle-class neighborhood where, for the most part, all the kids got along well. The railroad tracks about 5 houses away were a highlight with the kids and the freight train tooted by at least once a day. A naval-air station was about a mile away. “As kids, we loved the hometown shows with the Blue Angels flying over our rooftops. I felt lucky and happy” says DeLorenzo. 

Bike riding, hide-and-seek, poison-car, monkey bars, marbles, and summertime swimming in the above-ground pool were favorite warm weather past times with siblings and friends . Coloring and painting were the top favorites of DeLorenzo. Rich bold color was applied no matter the subject matter. A Rapunzel coloring book was one of her favorites. “I remember laying on the heavy emerald greens and deep blues in Rapunzel’s dress. That gave me the feeling I wanted to achieve, though I certainly couldn’t have explained that in so many words when I was 5 or 6 years old.

I turned to art when I was happy and I turned to art when I was troubled. Nothing’s changed. My art has always been about the ‘feeling’.” “How does it make me feel?” “What do I feel when I’m painting?” “Where do I feel that in my body?” “Can I put it into words?” “Do I need to put it into words?” And then, “What do you feel when you see it?” DeLorenzo wants to know how well she’s communicating with you. 

An introvert by nature and temperament, with a blend of necessary and desired socializing with friends and family, DeLorenzo is quiet, steady, and quick to laugh, with an open, soft heart and sincere smile. Her curiosity about your creative nature comes readily and easily in conversation. She also enjoys hearing your take on a particular painting of hers that you’re drawn to. How does it make you feel? What does it remind you of, a place, a person, or a memory? DeLorenzo’s collectors are quick to share their responses to her paintings without her ever asking the questions. The descriptors most used are calming, peaceful, meditative, soft, dreamy, joyful, whimsical, tranquil, and illuminating. 

DeLorenzo has been entering art shows since grade school and on a professional level since receiving her BFA from UMass Dartmouth in 1981. With numerous solo and group exhibits and awards in her repertoire, she continues to challenge herself and grow, allowing her work to evolve and express her deep inner creative spirit, the “divine language” as she describes it.
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​“As humans, we learn, grow, love, and play until death. Our creativity is not separate from us. It exists in us, as a part of us, and needs nourishing along the way. There’s a specialness to our creative selves. It comes from a place of truth, desire, and of a power greater than ourselves. It’s truly a Divine Language to trust and to allow, to be breathed and expressed.”
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Some of the artists that have most inspired DeLorenzo, are John Singer Sargent, (the romantic feeling and bold brushwork); Edgar Degas, (captured movement and gracefulness); Frank Weston Benson, (clear clean color and light); Richard Diebenkorn’s Ocean Park Series, (complex layers like music that emanates a feeling in which to lose oneself). Always inspired to paint from life and nature, DeLorenzo began her career painting oil portraits, figures, and still-life paintings. Eventually, as a graduate student, the affordability of hiring a model was difficult, so she began painting the landscape as a deliberate choice rather than an incidental one. Always a lover of nature, DeLorenzo found beauty in what might be seen as unusual places and views. Although awed by the magnificent, such as sunrises, sunsets, dramatic light, and shadow, DeLorenzo was drawn to notice the most delicate of color transitions in the ​shoulder seasons, finding beauty in the less dramatic and more intimate spaces between the leaves and bushes, the dried flowers and grays of winter and any misty view in morning or evening. The fragrances of the seasons and depicting the essence of a flower or place of quiet beauty has always been of great interest and inspiration to her.

​After receiving her MFA from SIU Carbondale in 1987, DeLorenzo was awarded her first university teaching job in Edmond, OK in 1989. A far cry from Boston and a terrific opportunity, she enjoyed teaching a variety of courses in the Fine Art Program. As exciting as that was, having two of her pastel paintings accepted into a national juried exhibit entitled, Predominately Pastel, by juror Wolf Kahn was equally exciting which happened that same year. “That was a huge thrill for me. I loved those pieces when I painted them and was grateful beyond measure for the acknowledgment by Mr. Kahn. Wolf Kahn’s paintings were often examples shown to us as undergraduate students.” Today, DeLorenzo’s paintings can be found in more than 125 private collections in the U.S.

​“So many life experiences and lessons have evolved since then”, says DeLorenzo. Having moved to the Four Corners in 1998 for business. She fell in love with the varied landscape of the ​Southwest. She’s resided in Durango, CO since 2013 and is very pleased to have numerous private collectors, students, and followers of her art. Her paintings have been represented in a number of galleries over the years from Boston to Durango. Her commissions include numerous paintings from landscapes to florals, a series of 6 large pieces for a new home, a painting on a magazine cover, a portrait for a book cover, and memorial paintings of flowers and puppy dogs. Her waiting list for commissioned paintings continues to grow for which she is thankful. 

​DeLorenzo teaches private painting lessons in person and online. She also teaches in-person and online workshops and an 8-week painting course each semester in the Encore program through San Juan College in Farmington, NM.

Durango is DeLorenzo’s home with her dear heart life partner, Michael, and their sweeter-than-pie Shepherd Zen mix, Forest. 

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