Patience Brewster

Artist Biography

Patience Brewster, not to be confused with the daughter of William Brewster, the leader of the Mayflower, is actually his eleventh great-granddaughter. Born in 1952, she grew up with one brother and four sisters in Plymouth, Massachusetts where most of her large extended family still lives. Her pals were the horses, dogs, cats, chickens, pigs and cows that populated the fields surrounding her home, and her inspiration for her art, cards, figurines and ornaments still comes from them as well as the turtles, bullfrogs, fish and dragonflies on Forge's Pond.

As far back as Patience Brewster can remember, she drew pictures when there was nothing else to do. She later attended Philadelphia College of Art, where she had two teachers, Doris Staffel and Lilly Yeh, whose words she still hears today. She worked as a cook, a teddy bear salesperson, and a barmaid, then running an antique store and gallery. All the while, she was a closet painter, heaping up a towering portfolio. In 1977 she married Holland Chauncey Gregg and, a year later, he was the one who convinced her to come out of the woods and take some of that portfolio of art, cards, figurines and ornaments to New York City.

Random House and T.Y. Crowell both asked Patience Brewster to write a picture book. Her first story was so bad that it went to live in a drawer for ten years. Fortunately, in the meantime, T.Y. Crowell gave her a book called "Dame Wiggins of Lee and her Seven Wonderful Cats" to illustrate. Then Clarion published her second book. These days she's working on books, greeting cards, Christmas ornaments, figurines, and paintings for gallery exhibits.

Patience Brewster Art, Prints and Posters Collection