Abijah 'Tommy' Thompson started his career as an illustrator in Chicago in the early 1900's. He was established as the art director for Montgomery Ward, enabling his son Richard access to the arts and introduction to artists at a very young age. Jim Sessions who painted watercolors from the Italian Court Building on Michigan Avenue in Chicago was one of the first free-lance artists his son Richard had the pleasure of meeting. Striving to become an artist himself, and admiring the work of the impressionists, he wrote to American Impressionist Edward Redfield asking what advice he could give a young aspiring artist. Richard also wrote to Gardner Symons asking where the best place of study would be. Even though Symons was very ill, he replied to young Thompson with 'the Art Institute has very capable people on their staff. To succeed in art depends much on your school and your teachers.' Abijah loved the Geneva Lakes area of Wisconsin and first brought Richard to the area for fishing and swimming as a toddler. They owned a cottage along the shores of Geneva Lake and therein lies his passion for nature from where many paintings bloomed.