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Rachel: Hi, everyone! This is Rachel Frentsos with the Annapolis Fine Homes office of Long & Foster. This is Moving Forward with Rachel. Today I am so excited because we have Patrice Drago here with Patrice Drago Fine Art. Behind us is one of her originals! Isn’t it beautiful!
You can come to our office and take a look at them, but I want to hear more from Patrice right now. Can you tell us a little bit about how you got started in the art world?
Patrice: I started when I was a child. I loved painting and I loved everything to do with art. I had many careers throughout my life and I was still painting and drawing. That little voice in the back of my head that kept saying, “You really need to be doing this full time,” finally became too loud to ignore. So, I left my career and I became an artist full time.
Rachel: That’s very exciting! I’ve always been very jealous of people who are creative like that because I can’t draw at all! Where do you get your inspiration for your art? There are beautiful colors in here. Where do you find that?
Patrice: There are a lot of different places to get the inspiration, but the thing that drives me the most is color and composition. I love color! Color is in nature. Obviously, color is in water. I love the water. Striking colors and drama, when I see something, everything looks abstract to me. I can see a vignette and then it becomes an inspiration for a painting. Whether it’s a total abstract, or a city abstract, or an abstract of trees or animals.
I love doing animals, but they’re on abstract backgrounds because I think it’s exciting to add that visual that maybe we don’t always see.
Rachel: Exactly! What is your typical medium? What is this one here?
Patrice: This one is mixed media, so I have paper in here. There’s a lot of paper behind, handmade papers. It’s acrylic and I love working in acrylic. It’s come so far and there’s so much you can do with it. And, it dries! So, that allows you to be more prolific.
Rachel: It’s beautiful! Where can we find more of your art? Now, if you come to our office at 145 Main Street, you can see a lot of her work here, but I know you have another location.
Patrice: I do! I’m an artist in residence at Maryland Hall. So, we are open when the hall is open. I am there a lot. Even when I’m not there, we have a window in our studio. I work there, and I show there, and I sell there. We have work outside in the hallways. That is year-round. Plus, we have open studios and all kinds of exciting things!
Rachel: I’m going to stop by there and take a look! I know you mentioned that there are some exciting events going on at Maryland Hall in December around the holidays. Can you tell us a little bit about that?
Patrice: Sure! First we have an open studio coming up this week (November). Hopefully in December we will have a holiday open studio just for the artists in residence (Sunday, December 15, 2019). It’s on the third floor where we decorate and have food and beverages. That’s when the artists put out the work that people might want to buy for gifts. It’s affordable art for gifts! Things that are really kind of fun! It’s a great event!
Rachel: Once you know the date, send it to me and I’ll share it with everyone so that we can come check out more of your artwork and see more of the artists there. (Date is Sunday, December 15 from 12-4 pm)
One last question! What are some of your favorite things to do around Annapolis?
Patrice: Well, it’s really hard to narrow it down. People ask me that a lot. I would say this. There’s so much to do in Annapolis, it’s hard to say, “I favor this over that.” A lot of places have their one festival a year that they’re proud of, and they gear up for, and that’s wonderful. But Annapolis doesn’t have that. Annapolis has something every single week, to the point of, you have to look at your calendar and decide, “what do I have to take off the list,” because there’s so many things to do.
I love all the restaurants. I’ve been to them all. There’s just too many things to do to say, “that’s my favorite.”
Rachel: That is true. You definitely cannot grow bored in Annapolis! Patrice, thank you so much! It was such a pleasure having you on the show.
We’ll see you next month on Moving Forward with Rachel!
Thanks!
Bye!
If you would like to stop by the office at 145 Main Street to see some of Patrice Drago’s work, please contact me. I’d be happy to show you around!
