Description
Patrice Aggs was born in Detroit Michigan in 1952. In 1972 she interrupted her education at St. John’s College, Maryland, to travel in Europe, and has lived in England ever since, studying fine art at the City and Guilds of London Art School 1976-1979. While a student she worked part time in the BBC radio newsroom, and sketches made there resulted in a painting bought by the then GLC for their schools education programme and in 1979 Patrice won a travelling scholarship to Italy in her penultimate year at art college, and illustrated her first children’s book, for Methuen. Since then she has illustrated over forty picture books for various publishers both in Britain and the US. In the early 1980s she was co-opted into the team producing the animated film “The Snowman” by TVC Animation. At the same time Patrice began producing limited edition hand coloured etchings on nursery themes.
Married to the landscape painter Chris Aggs in 1983, Patrice began exhibiting etchings and watercolours at two-man shows with her husband. Original paintings and prints are now in collections in Europe, the United States and Japan. Acceptance at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition has been a regular feature, with seven etchings making it into the show, all of which sold. Away from her drawing board, Patrice has run childrens’ workshops for a number of primary and secondary schools in Sussex , Hampshire and London. She spent three years as a volunteer for the Ford Prison Board of Visitors and has completed comissions for Worthing Hospital’s Children’s Ward and Art in Hospitals.
Patrice is currently illustrator of The Boss in The DFC – the new children’s weekly illustrated magazine featuring stories by Philip Pullman. She continues work as a printmaker, writer of childrens’ fiction, and illustrator for magazines and educational publishing. She lives on a farm in West Sussex with her husband and two teenagers. Her first author/illustrator picture book, The Visitor, was published by Orchard Books in 1999 and retitled The Giraffe Who Came to Dinner was published by O’Brien Press in 2001
