sketcher and teacher, was born in Geelong, Port Phillip, on 24 August 1850, second daughter of William J. and Sarah Thomas. She grew up at Wenvoe, on the corner of Skene and George Streets, Geelong, and by 1878 was a teacher at the Chilwell Ragged School and applying for her teaching certificate. Sadly, she died of pneumonia soon afterwards, just four days before her 27th birthday. Mary Thomas’s surviving watercolours and ink and wash sketches include youthful copies of European scenery typical of teenage sketchbook work and local landscapes drawn from nature such as her watercolours of the You-Yangs (n.d., La Trobe Library [LT]), Indented Heads (1869, LT) and Lighthouse at Queenscliff (1869, LT), the last a precise and competent topographical rendering. Unidentified sea, land and village scenes date from 1868 to 1874 (LT, private collections). Filmer states that Thomas’s landscapes, although technically and stylistically undeveloped, show an 'enthusiastic approach’ and attempt a range of atmospheric effects.
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- Writers:
- Staff Writer
- Date written:
- 1999
- Last updated:
- 2011
