In 1924, she became the first graduate of Howard University’s newly formed art department. “Thomas earned a Master of Arts degree in education from Columbia University after leaving Howard and she was also a student at American University in Washington, D.C. where her Interests gravitated toward color and abstraction. Thomas enjoyed a thirty-eight-year teaching career before retiring in 1969 and then dedicated herself to her work as a studio artist.

Characterized as a Washington Color Field School painter, Thomas employed the use of colorful, shapes and forms that occurred in nature. She “took as her inspiration naturally occurring elements and shapes found in plants, flowers and other foliage. Many of Thomas’ works featuring her vibrantly colored palette and abstracted forms show the influences Color Field techniques.” Also considered an Expressionist painter, Thomas is remembered for her large-scale images where she created mosaic-like patterns with vibrant colored geometric shapes.

As an octogenarian Thomas was near the end of her career and the end of her life before she garnered critical recognition as “major” artist.