Heartening to see the auction record for Roma Thompson (1919-2020) well and truly broken, on the back of spirited in-house bidding, with two works offered on behalf of a client at Leonard Joel’s recent Spring ‘Women Artists’ exhibition.
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Born in 1919, Roma Thompson is an overlooked Australian modernist artist and designer who grew up in the Melbourne bayside suburb of Mentone. She left school at fifteen to pursue her passion for art and become a fulltime student at Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology. In 1945 she became an art teacher at RMIT and taught tapestry design and weaving at Caulfield Technical College. Thompson exhibited with the George Bell Group and Melbourne Contemporary Art Society in the 1940s and 50s before almost disappearing from public view, taking up painting again in the 1980s and exhibiting with Russell Davis Gallery.

RJA are fortunate to be handling a small group of select works from this period, including the two works successfully sold at Leonard Joel. Watch out for future releases or contact us directly if you know the location of Thompson works, would like to learn more about the artist, or are interested in acquiring one for yourself!

​Rod and Trish James recently spent time in Queensland’s beautiful Fraser Coast leading the development of a new Collection Acquisition and Management Policy for Council’s Art and Heritage Collection and developing a Preventative Conservation Plan for Hervey Bay Regional Gallery. The Gallery is currently closed for essential building remediation and renewal works with plans to reopen in 2022 with the new and exciting Fraser Coast National Art Prize. 
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