Painter, illustrator, designer and art teacher born in Fremantle, Western Australia. His father was a teacher in the Education Department and the family moved about. He studied at Northam High School, graduating in 1926 and then at Fremantle Technical School under Muriel Southern, obtaining credit passes in both Light & Shade I & II in 1927. A 1927 cutting in the Art Gallery of Western Australia files confirms his skill stating that, “Mr. R. Thompson showed remarkable ability for the delineation of character in four pencil sketches.” He had exhibited the four studies with the West Australian Society of Arts.
Thompson went on to study at Swinburne Art School in Melbourne in 1928 and later at Julian Ashton’s in Sydney each weekend from 1936 to 1938. He worked as a poster designer and lino-cut reproducer for Renwick, Pride and Nuttall in Melbourne, then the Woodward Advertising Agency from 1929-1930 until the Depression forced him to return to work on the family property at Serpentine. He then became a poster designer for the Imperial Printing Company, before working freelance in Sydney in 1935.
He designed covers for the Women’s Weekly and later for the Western Mail. In 1933 he exhibited a number of entries with the West Australian Society of Arts, six watercolours in the landscape competition, five oils in the portrait section as well as pencil drawings and other watercolours. “Renee”, the critic, wrote of his 1935 exhibits, “The most successful exhibitor was R. M. Thompson, who carried off the prize for the best watercolour, with his On the Hillside, and also the portrait prize for an unfinished self-portrait in oils. Also commendable were his River Scene, Fremantle and Sand Dunes, Cottesloe.”
Thompson returned to Perth in 1941 where he worked for Art Photo Engravers as an advertising illustrator before enrolling in the Royal Australian Engineers in 1942. He was sent to a course in camouflage design in Sydney and served on the front in New Guinea before lecturing in camouflage at Kapooka. He married Beatrice (Biddy) Cullingworth during the war.
After the war he became an advertising artist with West Australian Newspapers where he met Ivor Hunt and in 1948 began teaching at Perth Technical College where he became a Senior Lecturer and on occasion Acting Head of Department.
He also exhibited with the Perth Society of Artists. His 1950 exhibtion piece was a watercolour, Canning River, Kelmscott and 1953 his entries were oil paintings Man Reading and The Little Gardener.
Thompson illustrated many books and also designed The Sower a sculpture for Bible House in Perth. Thompson, who had a very sensitive skill with the pencil, went on to lecture at Western Australian Institute of Technology until he retired with ill health about 1969 and died soon after. He was a very gentle man remembered with affection by past students.
