Biography

 
A Moore County native, (Cameron, North Carolina), Patricia Fay Thomas now divides her time between Quebec City, Canada, (where she has resided since 1983), Chapel Hill, N.C. and international destinations dictated by her work as a consultant in gender equality and social inclusion. Art has been an integral part of her life since childhood, when she received private instruction under N.C. artist, Anita Jones Stanton, and a few years later attended the NC Governor’s School in art. She received a BA in studio art from UNC-Chapel Hill, where she studied a variety of fine arts mediums, with a concentration in painting. Just before graduation, a chance encounter with a US Peace Corps recruiter on campus resulted in her signing up and shipping off to Burkina Faso, West Africa, where she lived and worked for five years. Afterwards she settled in Quebec City, completing an MA in Sociology from Université Laval. She has worked for over 25 years in international development, both as a private consultant and as staff at UN headquarters in New York City.

Throughout her career in international development, Patricia maintained her interest in and practice of art. Through painting, sketching and photography, and in journals kept, she recorded moments, impressions and experiences from the many countries in which she lived, worked, and traveled. Her focus is now on using these experiences as inspiration for her art.

Self-sponsored “winter residencies” in Chapel Hill (2016 and 2017) during which she devoted herself fulltime to her art, resulted in two showings of her production and the acquisition of works by private collectors, in the US and in Canada. Her solo exhibit, entitled “Cartographie de l’instant (“Mapping the Moment”) was presented by the Galerie de l'Articho in Quebec in June of 2018. In February 2019, she was one of the artists featured in the Arts Council of Moore County’s “Reflections of Africa” exhibit, and also presented a showing of her work at the Caffé Driade, in Chapel Hill.