Painter, draughtsman, printmaker, art historian and teacher, born in London, son of the sculptor Robert Thomas and the artist Meg/Mary Gardiner. Thomas aimed to produce works that combined tradition and innovation, “a metaphysical realism, notably in figure and still life pieces”. He gained a degree at University College in art history and Italian, 1978–82, at the same time attending life classes at Slade School of Fine Art under Lawrence Gowing. This was followed by a master’s degree in visual art at University College Wales, Aberystwyth, 1983–7. Significant periods were spent in Italy. For his academic year abroad in 1980–1 Thomas chose Florence where he attended the arts faculty of the University, also frequenting the Accademia and the studios of Pietro Annigoni and his former pupils.
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In the summer of 1985, having been awarded a scholarship by the Italian Institute, he again went to Florence to collect first-hand material for his postgraduate thesis on Annigoni and post-war Britain. Awarded a Council of Europe Higher Education (Painting) Scholarship for 1989–90, he based himself in Florence, dividing his time between the Accademia and the studio of Luigi Falai. Thomas also taught history of art, art and Italian, including University of Wales, Swansea. He exhibited from 1983, group shows including Euro-Wales ’92 Group, of which he was a founder-member, at Third Wave Gallery, Cardiff, 1993; among later ones were Swansea Open at Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, Swansea, from 2000, and Responses to Ceri Richards, Dylan Thomas Centre, Swansea, 2003–4. He was elected a member of The Welsh Group, 2002, and RCamA in 2005. He shared a show, Thomas Twice, with his father at Rhondda Heritage Park, Trehafod, which holds his work, in 1991. Later solo shows included Compositions at St David’s Hall, Cardiff, 1991, Golden Prospects, Cardiff Bay Norwegian Church, 1992, Patria, Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, 1998, and Time + Place, Oriel Y Bont, University of Glamorgan, Pontypridd, 2004. National Assembly for Wales holds Thomas’s portrait of the athlete Colin Jackson and the National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth, that of the composer Grace Williams. From 2002, as a part-time PhD by Portfolio research fellow at University of Glamorgan, Thomas researched the art and life of Ernest Zobole within the context of the visual culture of south Wales since 1945. He wrote appreciations of Zobole and his father for Branching Out, the publication accompanying an exhibition of the two artists’ work, at the University in 2002. Thomas curated Ernest Zobole: a retrospective, which toured Wales, 2004–5. He wrote widely on artists for many publications, including Planet The Welsh Internationalist, which in its June/July 2002 issue carried an appreciation of his work by Caroline Juler. Thomas was a member of the steering/editorial group of The Dictionary of Artists in Wales since 1945. Lived in Barry, Glamorgan.
Text source: 'Artists in Britain Since 1945' by David Buckman (Art Dictionaries Ltd, part of Sansom & Company)
