Figurative painter, born in Grimsby, Lincolnshire. He did a fine art foundation course at the School of Art there, 1988–9, graduating with an honours degree in fine art from Norwich School of Art in 1991–4, gaining his postgraduate diploma from Royal Academy Schools, 1994–7. At Norwich School he won The Noël Spencer Award for Painting, 1994; at the Academy Schools The George Isted Prize for Portrait Painting, 1996, and The Armitage Prize for Painting, 1997; and he was shortlisted for the Villiers David Prize, 2003. Thompson was included in New Year New Works at Albemarle Gallery, 2003, one of many mixed-show appearances, shortly after his portrait of the actor Pete Postlethwaite was acquired by the National Portrait Gallery. He was also in Albemarle’s New Contemporaries in 2002 and in its Summer 2003 show.