“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.
“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.”