Dolores “Dee” Petachenko leaves behind a prolific legacy of porcelain painting. She has captured its beauty on vases and ornaments that live in homes stateside and in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Dee held classes in Michigan and for children and adults here on St. Croix. Her awards, memberships, and recognitions are many.
Dee was born in Detroit, Michigan in 1933. She and her husband Phil were “snowbirds” as early as the 1980s; they moved to St. Croix in 2002 from Farmington Hills, Michigan and made the big island their permanent home. Dee made her earthly transition on June 13. She was 91.
Dee’s love for painted porcelain art began when she was 12 years old. She saved her babysitting money to buy painted china cups and saucers. She had quite a collection, her granddaughter Nicole Pena shared.
Years later, she and her husband were at a home craft show and a group of ladies were exhibiting their porcelain art and demonstrating porcelain painting. Dee was fascinated and stood and watched and admired for a long time until she finally asked if she could learn to paint like that. The following week, she took her first lesson, as told by Pena.
“Grandma has been in my life since I was born. We spent time together when I was a little girl traveling to Venice, Florida, where her parents lived. She held classes in the basement of their home in Farmington Hills, Michigan. Once I started school, I began doing some of the porcelain artwork with her. She would walk me through just like she did with her students,” Pena said.
“We were very close. Grandma would call me every morning at 6 a.m., and she would call at midnight and leave a voicemail to say hello. She was my best friend.”
“Our Christmas tree is filled with the ornaments she gifted us with every year. I have some from when I was born up until last year, so they’re really, really meaningful to me. Grandma gifted my husband and me with a beautiful painted porcelain vase for our wedding.”
Pena’s love for St. Croix developed because of her grandma, she said. She and her husband moved to Florida to be in close proximity to her grandma and to be near the beach. Their sons have painted with their great-grandma since they were very young and have art pieces like Pena had when she was growing up, she said.
Dee was a porcelain painter and instructor for all the years she lived on St. Croix. As a member of Unity of St. Croix, she taught classes at the church location until it became cumbersome to carry the supplies back and forth, especially with the weight of the porcelain pieces. She moved her classes to her home on Little Princess Hill in Christiansted, where she continued to teach until early this year.
Dee held memberships in local, national, and international porcelain painting associations and societies. Her numerous awards dated from 1976 to 1988 from local and international shows and state fairs and ranged in several categories. She exhibited in private solo shows on St. Croix.
Longtime Unity member and former board member Alice Wise remembers Dee with admiration and love.
“Dee was our Unity board secretary/treasurer for many years. She was an exceptional record keeper and took her position as a serious commitment. She always made a dish every Sunday for our fellowship after the service and did so up until the end.”
As an educator at Ricardo Richards Elementary School, Wise was privy to Dee’s after-school porcelain painting classes with the young students.
She also taught her craft at the School of the Good Shepherd Parochial School in Williams Delight.
Lenore Finch was looking for something to do when she retired. She read a notice in the St. Croix Avis newspaper advertising a porcelain painting class taught by Dee Petachenko. She answered the ad, remembering how she used to draw as a young child and stopped.
“I started with Dee at the Unity Church around 2005. I’ve been with her the longest. There was always a group class of adults with one or two young people … a total of six or seven of us. Everyone enjoyed the class, whether they could paint well or not.”
Students began their porcelain paintings on small squares of porcelain. Their first image was a hibiscus flower painted with oil. “I liked doing faces, so I would find something I liked in a magazine and that would be my subject. That’s what we all did,” Finch said.
Once a painting was completed, Dee would fire it in the kiln. If the paint ran, she would wipe off the excess with an acid solution.
Finch became very prolific. The porcelain painting was a lengthy process and Finch would spend hours at home completing her project rather than working on it at Dee’s studio; it worked well for her, she said.
“As an instructor, Dee was very, very patient. If something was hard for someone to grasp, she would take her time with that person. You couldn’t ask for a better teacher. She was incredible,” Finch reminisced.
Dee joined the Orchid Society on the island. She grew beautiful orchids in her garden and inside her home. She also painted orchids on canvas. Finch and the other students asked Dee to teach them to paint on canvas. She said, “No.” It would have been an easier process, they all thought, but Dee was a porcelain painting instructor, Finch said.
Dee applied for the Virgin Islands Council on the Arts grants and used the funds to teach several classes free of charge.
Dee’s students shared their porcelain artworks annually at the Student Art Show, where they invited family and friends for almost eight years at the Unity Church location.
Tammy Shinabarger and Phil Petachenko are Dee’s children. Neither of them opted to do porcelain painting. According to Phil, his mom was painting five years before he was born in 1955.
“My mama was most proud of being a mom. In all honesty, she always had time for me and listened to me. As a loving and attentive mother, she was the best that could be. She was always there for us,” Phil said.
Phil and Tammy were latchkey kids, he said. “Both our parents worked and we had a couple of hours before my mom came home from work. We would take the key from the garage, open the door to our house, and put the key back, whether it was snowing or raining or whatever,” Phil recalled.
“My mom was an excellent teacher. Every student was an individual. She had patience and care for each person. She would compliment and encourage them with soft critiques.”
Phil tried to get his mom to move to acrylics and paint on canvas. “She painted several beauties. I was gifted with a bird on a twig and a cheetah.”
“There was so much joy in that bird. She wanted the bird to go with someone who would appreciate it. It went with me,” Phil shared.
They talked a lot about her art, Phil said. She had so much creative passion, but between that and her parenting, there was so much joy he saw in her. He said, “I was definitely my mama’s baby.”
Phil was with his mother when she passed at her home. “It was a tough night, but she woke up early the next day. Her breathing was soft. The transition was beautiful. There was incredible peace and serenity in the room. She was at peace at her transition and her acceptance of death was very beautiful.” Phil thought about the Bible and said, “It was the peace that surpasses all understanding.”
“That’s a testament to her. It was the most profound and important day of my life. It was the joy of my life … a beautiful time together. She deserved to have that … to have that beautiful transition.”
Dolores “Dee” Petachenko is survived by her two children, one granddaughter, two great-grandsons, one son-in-law, one grandson-in-law, and numerous relatives and friends.
A Celebration of Life for Dolores “Dee” Petachenko:
Sunday, Nov. 24, 2024, 3 p.m.
Unity of St. Croix, 109 Estate Castle Coakley (Hess Road)
Seating is limited.
The Celebration of Life will be livestreamed.
Join Hangouts Meet: meet.google.com/xzv-gkbg-xtt
OR
Join by phone: 405-695-6205 (PIN: 848495103)
