David Thomas was born in the Garden City of Ballarat and grew up surrounded by flowers. In later years, as the inaugural director of Carrick Hill in Adelaide, he combined his love of art and flowers in the development of this magnificent bequest to the people of South Australia. In writing on the art of Criss Canning, he has once again indulged in this joint love, exploring the beauty to be found in the creativity of one of Australia's most gifted painters of still life. In addition to books on Rupert Bunny and Andrew Sibley, David Thomas writes widely on Australian art, contributing articles to numerous publications, essays for art auction and exhibition catalogues, as well as entries on Australian artists, colonial to contemporary, for the German international art dictionary, 'Allgemeines Künstlerlexikon'.