Born in San Diego, Barbara A. Thomason received her Master’s degree in printmaking at California State University, Long Beach. After graduation she worked as a master printer in Lithography at Gemini G.E.L. for contemporary artists Frank Stella, Claus Oldenberg, Ellsworth Kelly, Ed Ruscha and Robert Rauschenberg.

Over the past thirty years Barbara Thomason has had numerous exhibitions in California. Selected galleries, museums and university facilities include Space Gallery, representing Thomason (70’s-80’s); Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, Ruth Bachofner Gallery, Laguna Art Museum, Transamerica Building, Ellie Blankfort Gallery, Oceanside Museum of Art; Armory Center for the Arts.

"My artwork is not easy to pigeon-hole…it has evolved in a large spiral. I began as a realist, creating small watercolors, moved through abstraction and have once again returned to image-based art. I work in watercolor and oil. My subject matter …comes out of what I’m interested in at the time. When my [entire body of] work is looked at as a whole it is very connected, but covering a wide spectrum of realistic images and abstractions." -B. Thomason

Thomason has completed site-specific public art pieces such as the "Gates of Los Angeles," four etched stainless steel elevator doors” and the "History of Art" mural, Peppers Art Center, University of Redlands.

"The first casual reading of Thomason’s work still elicits a ‘realist' interpretation, and only careful study reveals the tension between unthinking acceptance of one’s visual surroundings and artistic reinterpretation of them." -American Artist Magazine

Barbara A. Thomason artwork is found in national and international art collections. Private collections include: Jasper Johns, New York; Sojiro Inoue, Tokyo, Japan; Robert Rauschenberg, Captiva Island; Sharon Sussman, Hawaii; Stanley & Elise Grinstein, Brentwood; Cindy Kolodziejski, Santa Monica; Anita May Rosenstein, Beverly Hills; Sidney Felson, Los Angeles: Michelle Isenberg, Los Angeles, Diana Ross, Los Angeles. Selected corporate collections: Paramount Pictures; Princess Cruises, London, England; Peabody Hotel, Orlando, Florida.