Fred Thomas was born in Fort-Liberté, Haiti, and grew up in Cap-Haitien. He started to draw at an early age, reproducing sketches created by his father. Pretty soon, Fred started to polish these drawings and to create his own, denoting in this way his precocious creativity and draftsmanship.
In sixth grade, he was already a freelance commercial artist, designing seasonal greeting cards, promotional posters, and banners. For many years thereafter, throughout middle school and high school (at College Notre-Dame), he was elected the director of the school periodical publication “Regard and Dialogue,” which Fred tremendously impacted with his editorials and original illustrations.
Upon moving to Port-au-Prince, after high school, Fred started to take private lessons in drawing, painting, and ceramics at Le Centre d’Art (the Art Center) and Le Centre the Ceramic (The Ceramic Center). Fred was mainly interested in using papier mâché, to make masks, betraying an obvious African influence. He continued to pursue his strong interest in the visual arts when he moved abroad, first to Canada, then to the United States, and later to Germany while serving in the American army. His peregrination gave him plenty of opportunities to visit numerous prestigious art galleries and museums.
After moving to Miami, Fred enrolled at Miami Dade College in the Art Education Program. Since then, Fred’s artistic career has begun. He had participated in countless art exhibitions throughout the United States, and his works belong to numerous prestigious collections the world over. In an interview with the Miami Herald, Fred admitted that he wanted his artwork to reflect not only his Haitian background, but also his experiences abroad. Subsequently, Fred’s subjects, style, and technique vary from abstraction, surrealism, and color field works, where collage and heavy impasto-type texture have become his trademark.
Fred Thomas wants his artwork to reflect not only his Haitian background, but also his experiences abroad. The subject matter in his art ranges from abstraction, surrealism, and color field works. He uses a varied array of mediums, including: pencil, charcoal, conte crayon, pastel, watercolor, and mixed media; however, acrylic remains his medium of choice. He strives to create stunning art pieces that are attractive and, at the same time, meaningful through his compelling and daring use of colors, tones, lines, planes, and textures.