Lionel Thomas was born in Toronto in 1915 and studied at a number of schools including Ontario College of Art, Hans Hofmann School of Fine Arts, Provincetown, Mass; California School of Fine Arts, SF. He was an instructor at the School of Architecture, UBC, from 1950-59, and Assoc. Professor in Fine Arts until 1981. He exhibited extensively in Canada and internationally during the 1950s-70s including the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Hart House, Toronto, Grand Central Galleries, NY, the National Gallery of Canada, the Sao Paulo Biennial (1954), Seoul, Korea, and many more. In later life he explored a fervent interest in astronomy and outer space.