Phyllis Thomas was born and raised in Indiana.  She received her Secondary Art Education degree from Manchester College, North Manchester, IN and taught art in the same college town.  After marriage, she and her husband Carl pursued a missionary career that has taken her as far away as Nairobi, Kenya where she served and lived with her family for nearly two decades. 

In 1997 they returned to the U.S., specifically to Orlando, FL where she has pursued creating and exhibiting her artwork in local, church and national exhibitions. She is a member of Central Florida Watercolor Society, Florida Watercolor Society, Christians in Visual Arts and the International Arts Movement. She has been featured as Artist of the Month at the Orlando Museum of Art (OMA) gift shop gallery and has exhibited numerous times at OMA 1^st Thursdays, City Arts Factory and Avalon Gallery Third Thursdays and several church galleries in Orlando.  In addition to exhibiting, Phyllis intentionally networks with and encourages other artists to practice and present their work to the community by holding quarterly gatherings and teaching workshops about watercolor techniques and spiritual content.  She has been on the faculty of Grunewald Guild in Leavenworth, WA, teaching summer Watercolor Exploration classes.  Along with being on Campus Crusade for Christ staff with her husband, she works with the Arts Initiative which is a group committed to embracing artists and their gifting and encouraging a dialogue of art, faith and humanity in order to engage the culture we live in.

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