Brigitte Thonhauser-Merk was born on February 18th, 1943 in Vienna/Austria. She now lives in Perchtoldsdorf, a village in the vinyards close to the city of Vienna. During her first stay in France she was inspired to create paintings with oil-chalk. With her painting "Still life" she won the first price Award in a competition organized at the Academy of Fine Arts (Schillerplatz/Vienna). Mrs.Matejka-Felden invited her spontaneously to participate in a collective exhibition at the "Vienna Sezession".

After her Highschool graduation in 1961 she takes advantage of a one year's stay in Paris, where she worked as a translator for an international group: there she made further autodidactic studies. In the following years her style of painting was influenced by the cubists and expressionists.

Between 1965 and 1996 she stopped her artistic activities to fulfill her role as a mother to raise four children. She also decorated her house in Perchtoldsdorf and worked with her housband to found Thonhauser Ltd.

Then in 1996 she enthousiastically restarted her painting career, creating her paintings now in a very different style. She became a student of Prof. Colnago who showed her how to do water colouring, she also attended lessons with Mrs.Mühlwisch-Krambichler at the School of Fine Arts in Vienna and for oil painting with Mag.Schnetzinger, and for composition with Mrs.Hübler, and for sculpture with Prof.Sukopp.

In 1998 Brigitte Thonhauser-Merk finally presented her first exhibiton: flowers in water colour. This exhibition was very well received and encouraged her to organize further ones in Salzburg, Maria Enzersdorf, Bad Aussee, Gols, Langenlois and even in Austria's capital Vienna.

In 2002 she presented her oil paintings of garden compositions in the the recently renovated famous big glasshouse at Schönbrunn Castle, Vienna.

Some of her water colour paintings are shown as reproductions on greeting cards.