The painter Ivor Thomas was self-taught, and reportedly began painting after seeing a Van Gogh exhibition in London. In 1957 he had his first exhibition of paintings at the Leicester Gallery in London. Afterwards, in the 1960s, the artist also devoted himself to making sculptures, many of them in steel and for which he trained in welding. He had his first one-man exhibition as a sculptor in 1961 at the Lincoln School of Art Library.