→Background: Documented two important museum collections including work by Chimes, to establish notability at the outset. Start of article should establish notability quickly.
Thomas Chimes is an influential painter and artist from Philadelphia. His work is in some important public collections, including those of the [[Philadelphia Museum of Art]] <ref>http://www.corcoranphilamuseum.org/collectioncollections/chimesresults.phphtml?searchTxt=&bSuggest=1&searchNameID=19753&searchClassID=&searchOrigin=&accessionID=&page=1</ref> and the [[Corcoran Gallery]] in Washington, D.C.<ref>http://www.corcoran.org/collection/chimes.php</ref>. He was born in Philadelphia in 1921. In 1939 he became enrolled in the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. His studies were interrupted by the US involvement in World War 2, in which he joined the US Air Force. After World War 2, Thomas began studying again in New York at Columbia University for philosophy and at Art Students League for painting and sculpture. While there he painted several portraits that fell in line with the New York Trends of the time. However, he decided to move back to Philadelphia in 1953, where he would develop his own, more personal style. Throughout the decades Chimes would continue to reinvent his style.<ref>http://www.philamuseum.org/exhibitions/2007/107.html</ref>