Patrick Hickey studied at Ampleforth College, Yorkshire, and moved to Dublin in 1948 to study architecture
at University College Dublin.

After graduating he worked for the architect Michael Scott. In 1957 he won an Italian state scholarship and studied etching and lithography at the Scuola del Libro, Urbino. In 1961 he helped found the Graphic Studio in Upper Mount Street, Dublin.

Hickey produced watercolours, etchings and lithographs, and showed a grasp for natural forms. His interest in Japanese painting is reflected in works like Illustration to WB Yeats, with its use of gold and silver.

In 1965 the Italian government held a competition to illustrate Dante´s Divine Comedy, and Hickey´s eighteen Inferno etchings won second prize.

In 1967, while living in Dublin, he designed the 5d and 1s 5d stamps issued by the Department of Posts and Telegraphs. He also taught part-time in the architecture department at UCD, and later became head of painting at the National College of
Art & Design.

Throughout the 1980s he exhibited
at the Taylor Galleries, Dublin.

A retrospective of his work was held at the Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland in 1994, and later at the Graphic Studio Gallery. He was elected a member of Aosdána in 1981, and served on the board for the Kilkenny Design Workshops. He died at his home in Monkstown, Co Dublin, in 1998.

— JOB