Representational painter, draughtsman and printmaker, born in east London, whose father, Llewellyn, ran a draper’s shop, Peck’s of Islington, where the artist Walter Sickert bought his shirts. Her mother, Eileen, was a painter, taught by R O Dunlop, who exhibited at the RA Summer Exhibition. Martina’s schooling included St Aloysius’ Convent as a boarder; it was evacuated to Kettering during World War II, where she enrolled at the also-evacuated St Martin’s School of Art, in Northampton. In 1942, her picture Miss Pullen was shown at Artists Aid Russia, organised by Mrs Winston Churchill, and Martina was elected a member of Islington Art Circle. In 1951, the year she gained her diploma from St Martin’s, Thomas met the artist Eric Mellon, and holidayed with him in Cornwall, an inspiration for her pictures, marrying him in 1956.