 Patience Brewster was 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 us. Her inspiration still comes from them as well as the turtles, bullfrogs, fish and dragonflies on Forge's Pond. In those days she shared Plymouth beach with fewer inhabitants; mostly seagulls, terns and a small herd of swollen overturned fishing boats ripe with starfish, barnacles and tiny crabs.
Her name is real. It once belonged to the daughter of Elder William Brewster, the spiritual leader of the Mayflower and my eleventh great-grandfather. As children she was humbled by the story of outcast pilgrims making a treacherous journey toward freedom worthy of sacrifice, landing on an icy Plymouth beach in stark December, with no shelter, no provisions, nor promises to greet them. Her family is descended from Love Brewster.
Her first real job was as a guide in the Harlow House in Plymouth. Dressed as a pilgrim. She showed tourists how to take a handful of wool or flax clean it, spin it and weave it into cloth.
As far back as she can remember, she drew pictures. When her sister Marlee went to Rhode Island School of Design, she thought it was amazing that there were colleges just for art. She later attended Philadelphia College of Art. I had two exceptional teachers there, Doris Staffel and Lilly Yeh whose words she still hears today.
Her degree in printmaking and bookmaking qualified her for immediate employment as a cook, a teddy bear salesperson, and a barmaid. Next sheran 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 to New York City.
Knees knocking, she met with rejection and delight. Random House and T.Y. Crowell both asked her to write a picture book. She did just that. Her first story was so bad that it went to live in a drawer for ten years (when she finally edited it down to "Rabbit Inn").
Fortunately, in the meantime, T.Y. Crowell gave her her first book called "Dame Wiggins of Lee and her Seven Wonderful Cats" to illustrate.
Clarion published her second book, which she wrote, called "Ellsworth and the Cats from Mars."
Her children, Holland and Marietta, were born in 1979 and 1981 and became her constant companions and artistic assistants.
These days she is working on her card line, Christmas ornaments, and paintings for gallery exhibits.
You can visit her website at PatienceBrewster.com
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