Thalia Lincoln began botanical drawing in 1961 after training in fine art and commercial art at the University of Cape Town. She practised initially as a commercial artist, and in 1975 began painting Mimetes, a project which culminated in the publication of the definitive botanical book in 1982, with text of Dr John Rourke of the National Botanical Institute (NBI), a large-format, leather-bound limited edition.

She has exhibited extensively in South Africa and in London, and was nominated for the Star Woman of the Year Award in 1982. She has executed innumerable botanical art commissions, and from 1991 to '95, produced thirteen indigenous botanical paintings for The Sappi Collection, a limited edition portfolio, book and calendar sold in aid of the Worldwide Fund for nature. Her works have been published in South African Botanical Literature 1600 - 1988, Vision (1994 & 1996), Contemporary Botanical Artists by Shirley Shirwood, and Women and Art in South Africa by Marion Arnold.

(Inaugural Kirstenbosch Exhibition fo Botanical Art, Exhibition Catalogue, National Botanical Institute, Cape Town, South Africa, February - April 2000, p. 13)