Patrick Angus was born on December 3, 1953, in North Hollywood, but grew up in Santa Barbara, California. He wanted to paint from the age of ten and was encouraged to do so by his parents and teachers. He won a scholarship to the Santa Barbara Art Institute, but the art and gay social scene of Los Angeles attracted him, and he made several attempts to establish himself there before coming to New York in 1980. By then, familiar with all the practices of classical and twentieth-century art, Angus, a technical virtuoso, created his own unique style. In the American tradition of social-realism, he painted epic pictures which illuminated the "bad" gay life of New York City in the 1980's. Depicting an underclass never won an artist patronage or critical acclaim, and it was not until the final year of his life that this work was exhibited, in three one-person shows: at the University of California at Santa Barbara, in New York at the Ganymede Gallery, and the Leslie-Lohman Gay Art Foundation. Patrick Angus died in St. Vincent's Hospital in Manhattan on May 13, 1992.