[2] The daughter of a Maine sea captain, Patterson was born on board her father's ship near Surabaya, Java.

[4][5] She also studied with Claudio Castellucho in Florence and Hermenegildo Anglada Camarasa in Paris.

[3] She also developed friendships with the artists Arthur Wesley Dow and Charles Woodbury.

[3] She later became head of the art department at Dana Hall School in Wellesley, Massachusetts, and held that job until she retired in 1940.

[5] Some of her awards are honorable mention at the Panama–Pacific International Exposition in 1915, and a medal from the Philadelphia Watercolor Club in 1939.